Texas Football: Top 15 all-time Longhorns quarterbacks

Top All-Time Texas Football Quarterbacks – Number 11: Peter Gardere (1988-91)

Career stats: 7,396 passing yards, 37 TDs, 46 INTs, 54.7 completion %, 118.3 passer rating, 13 rushing yards, 12 rushing TDs

At No. 11 we find one of the most productive quarterbacks in Texas history. Unfortunately in the case of Peter Gardere, he wasn’t always productive in the right ways. Still, we can’t knock the four-year starter for all of the contributions he made during his days as the starter.

Gardere’s main claim to fame is the fact that he’s the only quarterback on either side of the Red River Shootout to win all four of his matchups. Considering how many star quarterbacks have played for both Texas and Oklahoma, I’d say that’s quite the commendable accomplishment. Fun fact: he did lose to the Sooners during his senior season on the Longhorn’s baseball team.

As a four-year starter, Gardere also did his fair share of stat padding. As of today, he’s fourth in school history in career passing yards and sixth in career touchdowns. The obvious blemish on his record is the other career passing record with his name next to it — Texas’ all-time leader in interceptions thrown (tied with Colt McCoy).

His career record of 25-16 obviously wasn’t all that impressive either. Gardere did, however, secure a conference title for the Longhorns in 1990 and earned the applause of fans everywhere for his efforts against Oklahoma — all four wins were against ranked Sooner teams while Texas was unranked.

Productivity and unprecedented success against rivals earned Gardere this spot. For those same reasons, we can forgive him for his proneness to throwing interceptions.