AJ Surace

#10 · QB · Jr. · Rutgers6′2″ · 210 lb · Pennington, NJ · Notre Dame

Passing yards662150th of 159 quarterbacks Last gameL 21–28vs Michigan · Oct 31

Nextat WisconsinSat Nov 7 · 4:15 pm ET

This week

RecordRutgers is 2-6.
Fans after Michigan
Can Surace complete a fifth pass ? Stay tuned!
Rutgers fan
Next gameat Wisconsin · Sat Nov 7

What’s being said

6 stories this week, from 4 outlets.

Stories per day. W and L: the team’s results.

Rutgers QB Situation Settled: AJ Surace To Start Against Michigan, KJ Duff Will Play Through Injury

Yahoo Sports Oct 31

All 24 stories this season

His most important play this season

Q2, 11:31 · Rutgers down 11AJ Surace finds Jourdin Houston for an 80-yard touchdownMichigan at Rutgers, week 9Q2, 11:31 · Rutgers 10, Michigan 148080-yard touchdown pass8080-yard touchdown pass80-yard touchdown passA.Surace pass complete deep middle to J.Houston caught at MICH40, for 80 yards to the MICH00 QB hurried by T.Bowles touchdown, 1ST DOWN, kick goodWatch from this play

All 6 of his plays on video

AJ Surace

QB · Rutgers · #10

Second year in the same quarterback room at Rutgers. On tape: 230 passing yards and 3 passing TD against Boston College, Week 2, 2026.

662 passing yards · 7 passing TD · -2 rushing yards

Style of play

Play style

Pushes it downfield on every look.

Similar players

Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.

Tommy UlatowskiKent State · 2024 · 51% season match
Brandon JonesUTEP · 2018 · 44% season match
Ikaika WoolseyHawai'i · 2016 · 44% season match
Dante MooreUCLA · 2023 · 43% season match
Dylan LonerganRutgers · 2026 · 43% season match

Career stats

Swipe the table sideways for more columns.

Season	Team
2026	Rutgers	43	83	51.8%	662	8.0	7	5	134.6	38
2025	Rutgers	4	9	44.4%	58	6.4	2	0	171.9	--
Career		47	92	51.1%	720	7.8	9	5	138.2	38

Season	Team
2026	Rutgers	26	−51	−2.0	6
2025	Rutgers	2	−5	−2.5	--
Career		28	−56	−2.0	6

Last game (Wk 9): 123 passing yards, 1 passing TD.

Game log

Game log · Week-by-week

2026 season · 6 games

Box score · CFBD

Swipe the table sideways for more columns.

Wk	Opp	Grade	CMP/ATT	YDS	TD	INT	YPA	QBR	SK	RUSH	Note
Wk 1	L 21-37vs Massachusetts	Came on in Q4	6/9	77	1	0	8.6	90.9	—	-2
Wk 2	L 21-28@ Boston College	Solid	18/27	230	3	4	8.5	23.2	3	-16	Season-high 230 yds · 4 INTs — rough day
Wk 4	W 58-7vs Howard	Came on in Q3	3/7	40	1	0	5.7	14.7	—	—
Wk 5	L 15-47vs No. 6 Indiana	Came on in Q2	6/10	128	1	0	12.8	62.6	2	-14
Wk 8	L 14-42@ No. 24 Northwestern	Left in Q3	7/18	64	0	1	3.6	7.2	2	-24
Wk 9	L 21-28vs Michigan	Solid	3/12	123	1	0	10.3	65.1	2	5
Total			43/83	662	7	5	8.0	—	9	-51

The latest game

Oct. 31 · L 21-28 vs Michigan

3 of 12 for 123 yards and a touchdown.

His season, game by game

The season, game by game

Signature game

Week 5 · 2026

L 15-47

vs Indiana

128 yds · 1 TD · 0 INT · QBR 62.6

With J. Anderson — 45.7 yards per punt · 6 punts · 3 inside the 20 · B. Black — 1 rec · 53 yds · 1 TD

Signature plays

The plays that mattered most

Week 2 · Boston College · 1st and 10 · Q4 · EPA −7.77A.Surace pass intercepted by A.Palano at BC 35, End Of Play
Week 9 · Michigan · 3rd and 15 · Q2 · EPA +7.29Surace to Houston: an 80-yard touchdown pass.
Week 5 · Indiana · 2nd and 14 · Q3 · EPA +5.75Surace to Black III: a 53-yard touchdown pass.
Week 2 · Boston College · 1st and 10 · Q4 · EPA +4.76A.Surace pass complete deep left to K.Duff caught at BC 16, for 60 yards to the BC 00 TOUCHDOWN
Week 2 · Boston College · 2nd and 8 · Q1 · EPA −4.45A.Surace pass intercepted by C.Comella at BC 23, End Of Play PENALTY BC Sideline Inteference. The previous play is under automatic review - "Interception". CALL UPHELD
Week 2 · Boston College · 4th and 1 · Q3 · EPA −4.29A.Surace rush middle for 2 yards loss to the BC 11 (A.Palano), TURNOVER ON DOWNS

4 more plays

Week 2 · Boston College · 4th and 1 · Q1 · EPA −4.26A.Surace rush middle for 0 yards to the RU 34 (A.Palano; M.Upton), TURNOVER ON DOWNS
Week 2 · Boston College · 3rd and 10 · Q3 · EPA −4.15A.Surace pass intercepted by C.Davis at BC 15 QB hurried by M.Upton C.Davis return 4 yards to the BC 19 (J.Houston)
Week 5 · Indiana · 4th and 2 · Q4 · EPA +3.68Surace to Carter: a 35-yard pass.
Week 2 · Boston College · 4th and 3 · Q4 · EPA −3.40A.Surace pass intercepted by A.Palano at BC 10 QB hurried by K.Price A.Palano return 6 yards to the BC 16 (A.Raymond), out of bounds PENALTY BC Illegal Block in Back (M.Amedee) 8 yards from BC 16 to BC 08

Where he ranks

Stat	His	Nation	Big Ten
Passing yards	662	145th of 370	22nd of 50
Yards an attempt	8.0	T-49th of 152	T-8th of 22
Touchdown passes	7	T-103rd of 370	T-17th of 50
Passer rating	134.6	88th of 152	15th of 22
Completion percentage	51.8	150th of 152	22nd of 22
Rushing yards	-51	364th of 370	49th of 50
Rushing touchdowns	0	—	—

Counting stats rank all FBS quarterbacks with a pass attempt; the rates rank those with at least 10 attempts a game.

All Big Ten quarterbacks

Rk	Quarterback	Yards	TD	INT	Att	Y/A
1	Jayden Maiava	2,525	20	5	296	8.5
2	Julian Sayin	2,007	19	4	192	10.5
3	Ryan Browne	1,964	11	5	250	7.9
4	Aidan Chiles	1,898	13	1	202	9.4
5	Josh Hoover	1,860	19	2	206	9.0
6	Rocco Becht	1,839	13	5	234	7.9
7	Anthony Colandrea	1,824	15	7	263	6.9
8	Malik Washington	1,805	9	7	289	6.2
9	Katin Houser	1,663	13	5	216	7.7
10	Drake Lindsey	1,592	10	6	259	6.1
11	Demond Williams Jr.	1,495	9	3	187	8.0
12	Colton Joseph	1,346	11	5	187	7.2
13	Alessio Milivojevic	1,263	7	3	185	6.8
14	Hank Brown	1,190	8	3	169	7.0
15	Dylan Raiola	1,097	9	2	145	7.6
16	Dylan Lonergan	1,066	10	6	127	8.4
17	Nico Iamaleava	982	4	4	116	8.5
18	Dante Moore	926	9	0	99	9.4
19	Bryce Underwood	924	5	6	124	7.5
20	Elijah Brown	714	7	3	99	7.2
21	Ty Dieffenbach	683	3	1	100	6.8
22	AJ Surace	662	7	5	83	8.0
23	Tommy Carr	503	2	1	68	7.4
24	Jeremy Hecklinski	472	4	2	67	7.0
25	Luke Fahey	463	3	2	51	9.1
26	Grant Wilson	230	3	0	22	10.5
27	Brock Thomas	228	1	1	40	5.7
28	Michael Clayton II	172	4	0	26	6.6
29	Jonas Williams	126	0	1	14	9.0
30	Alex Manske	102	0	0	14	7.3
31	Evans Chuba	96	1	0	14	6.9
32	Ryan Hopkins	93	0	1	13	7.2
33	TJ Lateef	82	1	0	11	7.5
34	Leo Hannan	67	0	1	15	4.5
35	Cardell Williams	63	1	0	7	9.0
36	Cam Fancher	59	0	1	11	5.4
37	Tavien St. Clair	52	1	1	7	7.4
38	Max Shikenjanski	50	0	0	3	16.7
39	Sean Ashenfelder	50	0	1	10	5.0
40	Kayd Coffman	42	1	1	10	4.2
41	Jack Capaldi	35	0	0	2	17.5
42	Brady Palmer	34	0	0	6	5.7
43	Akili Smith Jr.	31	0	0	4	7.8
44	Jimmy Sullivan	13	0	0	4	3.2
45	Tyler Cherry	10	0	0	3	3.3
46	Connor Barry	8	0	0	2	4.0
47	Carson Boyd	5	0	0	1	5.0
48	Madden Iamaleava	0	0	0	1	0.0
49	Nicco Marchiol	0	0	0	1	0.0
50	Daniel Kaelin	-1	0	0	2	-0.5

Sorted by passing yards. Gray: under 10 attempts a game, so not ranked on yards an attempt.

Opponents faced, by strength

Ratings of the games shown run from -11 to +24 points against an average team (SP+ rating of each opponent).

Pass targets

Duff and Houston saw 39 of the 84 charted throws.

Receiver	Targets	Catches	Yards	Throw depth	After catch
KJ Duff	22	15	227	13.1	3.4
Jourdin Houston	17	9	144	7.4	6.7
Dyzier Carter	9	2	43	16.4	1.0
Antwan Raymond	7	5	77	4.9	9.4
Ben Black	6	3	83	28.0	6.0
6 others	17	9	88	7.6	6.1
No receiver charted	6	All five interceptions are among these

Play by play: 84 passes, 43 caught, 662 yards; the box score counts 83 attempts. Throw depth: average air yards per target. After catch: average yards after the catch per catch. Bar: targets; the blue part was caught.

Passing profile

Pass Profile · True throw depth (charted plays)

Adjusted ANY/A, sack rate, and where the yards came from

43/83 (51.8%) · 7 TD · 5 INT

All 83 box-score attempts covered (play-by-play lists 84 passing plays)

84 of 84 attempts charted for true throw depth

Totals here are the box score's. Play-by-play lists 84 passing plays (43 completions) against the box score's 83 attempts (43 completions), and the depth buckets use play-by-play.

Adjusted ANY/A

5.40138 of 185 QBs

Sack rate

12.6%180 of 185 QBs

Sacked on 12.6% of dropbacks (180 of 185) and Adjusted ANY/A trails the field (138 of 185).

Adjusted ANY/A uses full-season box-score totals (attempts, yards, TDs, INTs); sack rate is play-by-play-derived.

Behind LOS · Negative air yds

1% of attempts (1)

100%comp

Air -1.0 · YAC 15.0 avg

Short · 0–9 air yds

58% of attempts (49)

61%comp1 INT

Air 4.6 · YAC 4.4 avg

Middle · 10–19 air yds

23% of attempts (19)

32%comp4 INT

Air 12.3 · YAC 1.8 avg

Deep · 20+ air yds

18% of attempts (15)

40%comp

Air 32.7 · YAC 12.5 avg

Overall 51.8% completion on 83 attempts · 40% completion on 15 deep attempts (20+ air yds).

Teams and coaches

2 seasons under Greg Schiano, all run-leaning offenses — 7-13 over that span.

2025Rutgers5-7HC: Greg Schiano · Run-leaning

2026Rutgers2-6HC: Greg Schiano · Run-leaning

Our ratings

CFB Zeitgeist Score 33 (#119 of 145). Show the ratings

Where this profile ranks vs the QB cohort

Box-score + play-by-play EPA percentiles

33Below cohort / limited sample #119 of 145 · through 6 games?

13 metrics · season cumulative

through 6 games score: the 2026 sample is not big enough yet. The rows below are 2026 so far. Concern: interception rate (0th percentile).

Real play-by-play efficiency

Explosive rate#65 / 157 · 59th pct

10.7%

EPA / dropback#90 / 157 · 43rd pct

0.13

Success rate#123 / 157 · 21st pct

37.5%

Sack rate#152 / 157 · 4th pct

12.5%

Interception rate#157 / 157 · 0th pct

6.0%

Box-score rates (8)

Yards / att#52 / 159 · 66th pct

8.0

Fumbles lost#23 / 142 · 64th pct

Interceptions#87 / 159 · 37th pct

Pass TDs#108 / 159 · 28th pct

Rush TDs#127 / 159 · 10th pct

Pass yards#150 / 159 · 6th pct

662

Rush yards#153 / 159 · 4th pct

-51

Completion %#156 / 159 · 2nd pct

51.8%

Season trend

EPA / dropback— first qualifying season

Success rate— first qualifying season

Explosive rate— first qualifying season

Sack rate— first qualifying season

Interception rate— first qualifying season

Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season. Most bars are box-score rates; EPA / success-rate bars are computed from real play-by-play (offense only — no defensive EPA model exists yet).

Zeitgeist Passer Rating

2026 · our own passing-efficiency number, shown next to the 1979 formula it does not replace.

Thin sample: 70 dropbacks

38Zeitgeist Passer Ratingnot ranked until 125 dropbacks

Positive-play rate weight 24%

39.1%6th pct of FBS QBs

share of dropbacks that gained expected points · +1.9% schedule adj.

Yards per attempt weight 56%

7.6953rd pct of FBS QBs

sacks excluded · +0.6 schedule adj.

Sack rate weight 21% (penalty)

12.5%0th pct of FBS QBs

the input passer rating cannot see · -0.4% schedule adj.

Opponent-adjusted; garbage time excluded (26 of 96 dropbacks dropped). 50 = FBS average; the number is pulled toward 50 when the sample is thin. How ZPR is built.

Splits

Home and road splits, scheme and staff

Splits · Per-game

2026 season · 6 games

Home/Road · Season halves

Home vs Road

	YDS/g	TD/g	YPA	INT/g
Home4g	92.0	1.0	9.3	0.0
Road2g	147	1.5	6.0	2.5

First half vs Second half

	YDS/g	TD/g	YPA	INT/g
Weeks 1-74g	119	1.5	8.9	1.0
Weeks 8+2g	93.5	0.5	7.0	0.5

Supporting cast · Scheme

Staff and system around the player

2026 season

Head Coach

Greg Schiano

Pass share

44.0%

221 pass / 281 run

Plays / game

62.8

8 games

Scheme: Run-leaning.

Rutgers’s quarterbacks

AJ Surace	Threw in 6 of 8 games · 43 of 83, 662 yds, 7 TD, 5 INT · 8.0 yards an attempt on 83 attempts · ran for -51 yds, 0 TD
Dylan Lonergan	Threw in 5 of 8 games · 74 of 127, 1,066 yds, 10 TD, 6 INT · 8.4 yards an attempt on 127 attempts · ran for 49 yds, 0 TD
Sean Ashenfelder	Threw in 2 of 8 games · 3 of 10, 50 yds, 0 TD, 1 INT · 5.0 yards an attempt on 10 attempts · ran for -6 yds, 0 TD

Box score. Every quarterback on the team who has thrown a pass this season.

Who threw, quarter by quarter

Who threw in each quarter. Blue: AJ Surace. Gray: Dylan Lonergan, Sean Ashenfelder. From the play by play.

Q1Q2Q3Q4Massachusetts@ Boston CollegeUSCHowardIndiana@ Maryland@ NorthwesternMichigan

Awards

Player standing · 2026

83 pass attempts and 26 carries in 6 games

Fewer passes and runs a game than most FBS quarterbacks who play every week.

Recognition

Roster2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex

Production · CFB Zeitgeist Score

33 · #119 of 145 QBs · through 6 games

Former four-star. Now #119 at the position.

Starter

Returning starter at quarterback for a 5-7 Rutgers team that went +1 in the portal.

AJ Surace

This week

What’s being said

His most important play this season

Style of play

Similar players

In the news this week

What they’re talking about

In the news this season

What they’re talking about

Week by week

What fans said

Where to follow

Career stats

Game log

The latest game

The season, game by game

Signature game

Signature plays

Where he ranks

Pass targets

Passing profile

Teams and coaches

Our ratings

Splits

Rutgers’s quarterbacks

Who threw, quarter by quarter

Awards

83 pass attempts and 26 carries in 6 games

Starter

Three seasons at Rutgers

2024