Gardner-Webb's Beatty Moves Into NCAA Active Career Top Five In Three Categories
October 06, 2014 | Football
BOILING SPRINGS – Gardner-Webb quarterback Lucas Beatty moved into the top-5 among NCAA Division I FCS active career leaders in three different categories with his performance against Charlotte Saturday.
Beatty (Charlotte, N.C. / Olympic HS) had his best overall game of the season throwing the football against the 49ers, posting season-highs in completions, attempts and yardage. He went 32-of-47 for 362 yards and a touchdown – while also rushing for a season-high 35 yards on 10 carries. His league-high 397 yards of total offense came on a weekend that saw the steadily improving Big South go 4-1 against FCS competition – and improve to 19-5 on the season against FCS foes.
The 6-foot-2, 210-pound graduate student engineered a pair of key scoring drives and tossed the game-winning score to Deonte' Swinton in the fourth quarter – a 71-yard bomb that was the first touchdown catch of Swinton's career. It was also the longest touchdown pass of Beatty's career.
Beatty finished with 81.2 percent of Gardner-Webb's season-best 446 yards of team total offense. His lone turnover came on a ball batted at the line of scrimmage, and broke a string of 111 consecutive attempts without an interception – dating back to the first quarter of the game at Wake Forest on September 6.
For his career, Beatty has completed 617-of-993 passes for 6,794 yards and 33 touchdowns in 33 starts. He ranks fifth nationally among FCS active career leaders in completions, attempts and yardage heading into Gardner-Webb's open date.
He moved into fourth place on Gardner-Webb's career passing yardage list with last week's effort, passing former All-Big South signal caller Nick Roberts. He now sits just 661 yards behind Hall of Fame quarterback Chip Stuart on that same list. Beatty is just seven attempts shy of becoming only the fifth quarterback in school history with 1,000 attempts – and is currently boasts the top completion percentage for a career in Gardner-Webb history (62.1 percent).
In Big South annals, Beatty is now third in career yardage, second in completions and fourth in attempts. He needs only 242 yards to catch former Liberty southpaw Brock Smith for second place. Charleston Southern's Collin Drafts ranks first in league history with 9,768 yards.
Over the past four games, Beatty has directed Gardner-Webb to a 3-1 record while averaging 253.2 yards through the air per game. He has accounted for nine touchdowns (seven passing, two rushing) and has thrown just one interception in his last 140 pass attempts.
Beatty, an Academic All-America candidate, is currently pursuing his MBA at Gardner-Webb University.
The Runnin' Bulldogs will enjoy an open date before traveling to face former Big South mate VMI on Saturday, October 18 at 1:00 pm in Lexington, Va. (wgwg.org).
