Aidan Smith: QB · Northwestern · #11.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Aidan Smith
Operates within the system without forcing anything. On tape: 194 passing yards and 30 rushing yards against Purdue, Week 11, 2019.
Play style
Balanced passer who operates within the system, without one standout number carrying the profile.
Checkdown vs gunslinger · 3rd-and-long
Where the completions actually land
43.5% completion on 3rd-and-8+, but only 11.1% conversion-per-dropback — 70.0% of completions land short of the sticks.
Where completions land is fact — whether incompletions were aimed deep is intent, not recorded here, so this card counts completions only. checkdown by design
Short-yardage / goal-line · enumeration
Who gets the tough yard
1 of the team's 17 inside-the-5 carries (5.9%).
No outlet on our list has written about this player by name this season.
OregonLive Oct 29Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Season | Team | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Northwestern | 85 | 170 | 50.0% | 770 | 4.5 | 3 | 9 | 83.3 | 30 |
| Career | 85 | 170 | 50.0% | 770 | 4.5 | 3 | 9 | 83.3 | 30 |
| Season | Team | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Northwestern | 72 | 211 | 2.9 | 1 | 22 |
| Career | 72 | 211 | 2.9 | 1 | 22 |
Game log · Week-by-week
2019 season · 9 games
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| Wk | Opp | CMP/ATT | YDS | TD | INT | YPA | QBR | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | L 7-17@ No. 25 Stanford | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Wk 4 | L 10-31vs Michigan State | 4/11 | 38 | 0 | 2 | 3.5 | 1.9 | |
| Wk 5 | L 15-24@ No. 8 Wisconsin | 8/20 | 99 | 1 | 1 | 5.0 | 18.6 | |
| Wk 6 | L 10-13@ Nebraska | 19/32 | 136 | 0 | 1 | 4.3 | 39.4 | |
| Wk 8 | L 3-52vs No. 4 Ohio State | 6/20 | 42 | 0 | 1 | 2.1 | 8.6 | |
| Wk 9 | L 0-20vs No. 20 Iowa | 18/32 | 138 | 0 | 1 | 4.3 | 12.1 | |
| Wk 10 | L 3-34@ Indiana | 5/12 | 47 | 0 | 0 | 3.9 | — | |
| Wk 11 | L 22-24vs Purdue | 18/30 | 194 | 2 | 1 | 6.5 | — | Season-high 194 yds |
| Wk 12 | W 45-6vs Massachusetts | 7/13 | 76 | 0 | 2 | 5.8 | — | |
| Total | 85/170 | 770 | 3 | 9 | 4.5 | — |
Week 11 · 2019
L 22-24
vs Purdue
194 yds · 2 TD · 1 INT · 30 rush yds (8 car)
With A. David — 17 rush yds (1 car) · K. McGowan — 146 rush yds (17 car) · 1 TD · 3 rec · 19 yds
The plays that mattered most
Pass Profile · Completions by yards gained (PBP)
Adjusted ANY/A, sack rate, and where the yards came from
Totals here are the box score's. Play-by-play lists 169 passing plays (84 completions) against the box score's 170 attempts (85 completions), and the depth buckets use play-by-play.
Adjusted ANY/A
2.14201 of 205 QBsSack rate
5.6%88 of 205 QBsRarely sacked (88 of 205), but Adjusted ANY/A hasn't followed (201 of 205).
Adjusted ANY/A uses full-season box-score totals (attempts, yards, TDs, INTs); sack rate is play-by-play-derived.
Short
0–9 ydsMiddle
10–19 ydsDeep
20+ ydsOverall 50.0% completion on 170 attempts · 8 deep completions averaging 23.1 yds.
Splits · Per-game
2019 season · 9 games
Home vs Road
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home5g | 97.6 | 0.4 | 4.4 | 1.4 |
| Road4g | 70.5 | 0.2 | 4.4 | 0.5 |
First half vs Second half
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-74g | 68.2 | 0.2 | 4.3 | 1.0 |
| Weeks 8+5g | 99.4 | 0.4 | 4.5 | 1.0 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Pat Fitzgerald
Pass share
37.1%
310 pass / 525 run
Plays / game
69.6
12 games
Scheme: Run-heavy.
Player standing · 2019
Fewer passes and runs a game than most FBS quarterbacks who play every week.
How it ended
One season at Northwestern, 770 passing yards — the college career is complete.
Coaching lineage · 2017–2020
1 coachPlayed every college season under Pat Fitzgerald.
