Brian Lewerke: QB · Michigan State · #14.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Brian Lewerke
Operates within the system without forcing anything. Four seasons in the Michigan State quarterback room to date. On tape: 342 passing yards and 26 rushing yards against Maryland, Week 14, 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
55.1% completion on 3rd-and-8+, but only 22.7% conversion-per-dropback — 55.3% 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. checkdown by design
Short-yardage / goal-line · enumeration
Who gets the tough yard
10 of 10 on 3rd/4th-and-2-or-less (100.0%). 3 of the team's 20 inside-the-5 carries (15.0%).
No outlet on our list has written about this player by name this season.
The Detroit News Oct 27
Detroit Free Press Oct 24
Lansing State Journal Oct 23Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Season | Team | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Michigan State | 260 | 435 | 59.8% | 3,079 | 7.1 | 17 | 13 | 126.1 | 61 |
| 2018 | Michigan State | 183 | 332 | 55.1% | 2,042 | 6.2 | 8 | 11 | 108.1 | 42 |
| 2017 | Michigan State | 246 | 417 | 59.0% | 2,793 | 6.7 | 20 | 7 | 127.7 | 62 |
| 2016 | Michigan State | 31 | 57 | 54.4% | 381 | 6.7 | 2 | 1 | 118.6 | 47 |
| Career | 720 | 1,241 | 58.0% | 8,295 | 6.7 | 47 | 32 | 121.5 | 55 |
| Season | Team | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Michigan State | 111 | 363 | 3.3 | 3 | 42 |
| 2018 | Michigan State | 90 | 184 | 2.0 | 2 | 27 |
| 2017 | Michigan State | 123 | 559 | 4.5 | 5 | 61 |
| 2016 | Michigan State | 21 | 149 | 7.1 | 0 | 24 |
| Career | 345 | 1,255 | 3.6 | 10 | 61 |
Game log · Week-by-week
2019 season · 13 games
Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Wk | Opp | CMP/ATT | YDS | TD | INT | YPA | QBR | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 28-7vs Tulsa | 21/37 | 192 | 1 | 0 | 5.2 | 46.6 | |
| Wk 2 | W 51-17vs Western Michigan | 23/32 | 314 | 3 | 1 | 9.8 | 92.6 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 3 | L 7-10vs Arizona State | 24/38 | 291 | 0 | 0 | 7.7 | 55.2 | |
| Wk 4 | W 31-10@ Northwestern | 18/31 | 228 | 3 | 0 | 7.4 | 62.0 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 5 | W 40-31vs Indiana | 18/36 | 300 | 3 | 0 | 8.3 | 85.1 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 6 | L 10-34@ No. 4 Ohio State | 20/38 | 218 | 1 | 1 | 5.7 | 49.4 | |
| Wk 7 | L 0-38@ No. 8 Wisconsin | 7/16 | 53 | 0 | 1 | 3.3 | 8.3 | |
| Wk 9 | L 7-28vs No. 6 Penn State | 16/34 | 165 | 0 | 1 | 4.9 | 31.8 | |
| Wk 11 | L 34-37vs Illinois | 19/36 | 251 | 1 | 3 | 7.0 | — | 3 INTs — rough day |
| Wk 12 | L 10-44@ No. 14 Michigan | 17/30 | 166 | 1 | 2 | 5.5 | — | |
| Wk 13 | W 27-0@ Rutgers | 21/30 | 239 | 3 | 1 | 8.0 | — | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 14 | W 19-16vs Maryland | 30/40 | 342 | 0 | 2 | 8.6 | — | Season-high 342 yds |
 Bowl | W 27-21vs Wake Forest | 26/37 | 320 | 1 | 1 | 8.6 | — | |
| Total | 260/435 | 3079 | 17 | 13 | 7.1 | — |
Week 5 · 2019
W 40-31
vs Indiana
300 yds · 3 TD · 0 INT · QBR 85.1 · 78 rush yds (12 car)
Edged out Indiana at home in a shootout.
With J. Hartbarger — 54.3 yards per punt · 4 punts · 60 long · D. Stewart Jr. — 5 rec · 117 yds · 2 TD
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 434 passing plays (259 completions) against the box score's 435 attempts (260 completions), and the depth buckets use play-by-play.
Adjusted ANY/A
6.01116 of 205 QBsSack rate
4.0%38 of 205 QBsRarely sacked (38 of 205), but Adjusted ANY/A hasn't followed (116 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 59.8% completion on 435 attempts · 41 deep completions averaging 27.8 yds.
Is he a different quarterback when it matters
Each situation vs his own 2019 baseline
No situation moves him more than 31 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.
4 seasons under Mark Dantonio — 27-24 over that span.
Splits · Per-game
2019 season · 13 games
Home vs Road
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home7g | 265 | 1.1 | 7.4 | 1.0 |
| Road5g | 181 | 1.6 | 6.0 | 1.0 |
First half vs Second half
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-78g | 240 | 1.5 | 7.0 | 0.5 |
| Weeks 8+5g | 233 | 1.0 | 6.8 | 1.8 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Mark Dantonio
Pass share
50.4%
463 pass / 456 run
Plays / game
70.7
13 games
Scheme: Balanced.
Player standing · 2019
435 pass attempts, 111 carries and 1 catch in 13 games, more passes and runs a game than nearly every FBS quarterback who plays every week.
How it ended
Four seasons at Michigan State, 8,295 passing yards — the college career is complete.
Four or fewer games in the first season, then ten or more.
Coaching lineage · 2016–2019
1 coachPlayed every college season under Mark Dantonio.
