Senior quarterback for Stanford. 2025: 1,813 passing yards, 9 TD, 10 INT.
6′3″ · 220 lb · Newbury Park, CA
CFB Index
A single number blending on-field production (an EPA-based value lane) with box-score output for this player's position.
0-100, scaled within each position's own cohort — not directly comparable across positions.
The numbers
passing yards · 2025
9 TD · 10 INT · 7 per attempt
Backed by 444 yds · 2 TD -- top 1% passing yards game. -- Best game: 286 pass yds, 2 TD, -45 rush yds, at Virginia
The play that turned itSwung Oregon State from 18% to 51% to win.San José State at Oregon State · 24-13
His career numbers, season by seasonThe story
4 quarterback for Stanford. 2025: 1,813 passing yards, 9 TD, 10 INT.
How he plays
Operates within the system without forcing anything.
Explosive rate: 69th percentile.
The full scouting readAura™ · Him Watch
-25aura tax
60th pctl our passing-value metric (wEPA) QBs · 160 qualified, n=33
— the tape outruns the hype.Buzz vs Tape
The rival fanbase is unexpectedly warm on him relative to his own.
Also worth knowing:
“Why is Stanford coaching staff obsessed with the bum Gulbranson????”
Fan claims · every quote verified verbatim
I don’t even know how good the offense/scheme actually is because Ben Gulbranson plays like both his arms are clubs and Reich refuses to pull him
Based on 1 comment from 1 poster across 1 thread · Sep 21, 2025 · via CFB
Ben Gulbranson
Operates within the system without forcing anything. Three head coaches in five seasons, at two different programs. The receipt on tape: 444 pass yds, 2 pass TD against San José State, Week 5, 2025.
Low coverage — composed from the verified record.
His career
He was on the field for 5 seasons. That is rarer than it sounds.
The role got bigger.
Career arc
Coaching lineage · 2020–2025
3 coachesPlayed under 3 different head coaches: David Shaw, Troy Taylor, and Frank Reich. Multi-era developmental context.
Season context · Team result + system
Where this profile ranks vs the QB cohort
Box-score + play-by-play EPA percentiles
Concern: sack rate (9th percentile).
Real play-by-play efficiency
Season trend
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).
Pass Profile · True throw depth (charted plays)
Adjusted ANY/A, sack rate, and where the yards came from
Adjusted ANY/A
4.67169 of 206 QBsSack rate
8.8%183 of 206 QBsSacked on 8.8% of dropbacks (183 of 206) and Adjusted ANY/A trails the field (169 of 206).
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
Short · 0–9 air yds
Middle · 10–19 air yds
Deep · 20+ air yds
Overall 58.9% completion on 246 attempts · 71% of attempts thrown 0–9 air yds.
Is he a different quarterback when it matters
Each situation vs his own 2025 baseline
No situation moves him more than 28 percentile points from his baseline.
Deltas are vs. this player’s own season baseline, never a league average. League sack rate by down is shown as context because sack attribution isn’t incompletion-denominated.
Splits · Per-game
2025 season · 9 games
Home vs Road
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home4g | 237 | 1.2 | 8.3 | 1.0 |
| Road5g | 173 | 0.8 | 5.5 | 1.2 |
First half vs Second half
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-76g | 241 | 1.0 | 7.3 | 0.7 |
| Weeks 8+3g | 123 | 1.0 | 5.6 | 2.0 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Tavita Pritchard
Scheme reads (pass share, tempo, sack rate) need at least 3 team games — 2 games in so far.
Player standing · 2025
Splitting first-team reps — starts some weeks, rotates others.
Recognition
Production · CFB Index Score
Three-star recruit. Now #116 at the position.
2026 outlook
Outside shot for All-ACC
Based on 2025: #16 of 17 ACC QBs
22% estimated, 95% confidence interval 19–25%. Base rate measured from players who finished at a comparable rank in their conference and came back the next season. It is an estimate from a small sample, not a forecast of this player.
| Season | Team | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Stanford | 148 | 260 | 56.9% | 1,813 | 7.0 | 9 | 10 | 119.2 | 44 | -- | -- |
| 2024 | Oregon State | 78 | 128 | 60.9% | 943 | 7.4 | 4 | 4 | 126.9 | 56 | -- | -- |
| 2023 | Oregon State | 17 | 28 | 60.7% | 186 | 6.6 | 1 | 1 | 121.2 | -- | -- | -- |
| 2022 | Oregon State | 121 | 195 | 62.1% | 1,455 | 7.5 | 9 | 5 | 134.8 | 49 | -- | -- |
| 2020 | Oregon State | 6 | 9 | 66.7% | 64 | 7.1 | 1 | 0 | 163.1 | -- | -- | -- |
| Career | 370 | 620 | 59.7% | 4,461 | 7.2 | 24 | 20 | 126.4 | 48 | -- | -- |
| Season | Team | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Stanford | 33 | -201 | -6.1 | 0 | -- |
| 2024 | Oregon State | 14 | -7 | -0.5 | 1 | -- |
| 2023 | Oregon State | 5 | -12 | -2.4 | 0 | -- |
| 2022 | Oregon State | 40 | 52 | 1.3 | 5 | -- |
| 2020 | Oregon State | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Career | 92 | -168 | -1.8 | 6 | -- |
SIGNATURE GAME · Week 8 · 2025
W 20–13
90 yds · 1 TD · 1 INT · QBR 57.2 · -12 rush yds (1 car)
A wire-to-wire battle — won by 7 at home.
With A. Flintoft — 1 SOLO · 1 TOT · 48 AVG · C. Tabb — 118 rush yds (28 car) · 1 TD
Signature plays · top plays by |EPA|
The plays that mattered most
Game log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 9 games
| Wk | Opp | CMP/ATT | YDS | TD | INT | YPA | QBR | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | L 20-23@ Hawai'i | 15/30 | 109 | 0 | 1 | 3.6 | 14.0 | |
| Wk 2 | L 3-27@ BYU | 17/32 | 142 | 0 | 2 | 4.4 | 6.7 | |
| Wk 3 | W 30-20vs Boston College | 13/22 | 186 | 1 | 0 | 8.5 | 55.4 | |
| Wk 4 | L 20-48@ Virginia | 20/29 | 286 | 2 | 0 | 9.9 | 54.4 | Clean 2-TD game |
| Wk 5 | W 30-29vs San José State | 29/43 | 444 | 2 | 0 | 10.3 | 56.4 | Season-high 444 yds |
| Wk 7 | L 10-34@ SMU | 22/40 | 278 | 1 | 1 | 7.0 | 15.4 | |
| Wk 8 | W 20-13vs Florida State | 6/13 | 90 | 1 | 1 | 6.9 | 57.2 | |
| Wk 9 | L 7-42@ Miami | 9/21 | 50 | 1 | 2 | 2.4 | 19.8 | |
| Wk 10 | L 20-35vs Pittsburgh | 17/30 | 228 | 1 | 3 | 7.6 | 29.9 | 3 INTs — rough day |
| Total | 148/260 | 1813 | 9 | 10 | 6.7 | 34.4 |
Play style
Balanced passer who operates within the system, without one standout number carrying the profile.
CFB Index positional classification
Checkdown vs gunslinger · 3rd-and-long
Where the completions actually land
40.0% completion on 3rd-and-8+, but only 12.8% conversion-per-dropback — 58.3% 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. ~ our read: checkdown by design
2026 Outlook
Stanford
2026 Depth chart
Returning starter
Quarterback · Stanford
Returning around him
2026 Award watch
No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)
Stanford · Last season: 4-8 · Talent rank #50 · 2026 recruiting class #37
Player DNA
Balanced passer who operates within the system, without one standout number carrying the profile.
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Kedon Slovis’s 2022 season.
Matches Kedon on
Differs from Kedon on
Through 4 college seasons, his career arc tracks closest to Gerry Bohannon’s path through South Florida.
Matches Gerry on
As a graduate, his production profile tracks closest to Hudson Card's graduate season at Purdue (2024).
Matches Hudson on
Differs from Hudson on
Player DNA