HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Rakeem Cato joined an exclusive club during Saturday’s 44-14 win over Ohio.
He became just the second Marshall quarterback to throw 100 career touchdown passes, reaching the milestone on a 77-yard pass to Angelo Jean-Louis in the third quarter.
The first to 100 was Thundering Herd legend Chad Pennington, who’s the all-time leader in career touchdown passes, for now, with 115. Barring anything unexpected, Cato could shatter that record by season’s end. Cato also became just the 19th player in college football since 1956 with 100 career touchdowns.
Cato is on pace to own all of Marshall’s career passing records. He’s already cemented his name alongside the likes of Pennington, Leftwich, Payton, Kresser and Petersen.
Cato is third on the all-time completions list with 938, one behind Byron Leftwich. Pennington holds the record with 1,026. Cato is second in passes attempted. His 11,129 passing yards are third, trailing Leftwich (11,903) and Pennington (13,143).
And he still has nine weeks left in the regular season and more than likely two postseason games to catch the Herd quarterback legends.
Cato won’t take all the credit.
“Those guys are great,” Cato said about his wide receivers. “They’re great wide-outs, and they go hard every day. They’re willing to get better and listen to what Coach (Bill) Legg has to say and understand what he wants to do with this offense. To see those guys making plays, that’s a blessing for our offense.”
Cato has now thrown a touchdown pass in 35 consecutive games, which leads FBS quarterbacks and is closing in on Russell Wilson’s record of 38 straight. Oregon’s Marcus Mariota is second among current FBS quarterbacks with scoring tosses in 29 straight games after throwing two Saturday against Wyoming.
Cato’s 425 yards passing on Saturday marked his fifth career 400-yard game and ranks fourth on his single-game list.
Cato has thrown for 203 touchdowns in his high school and college careers and has passed for 20,541 yards.
Only time will determine Cato’s place in Marshall football lore but Herd fans could very well be watching the most prolific passer to don the kelly green.