Bryson Barnes

#16 · QB · Utah State6′2″ · 210 lb · Milford, UT

Bryson Barnes is a quarterback at Utah State who has not played in Utah State's 8 games this season; the last season with a stat line was 2025.

Where Barnes comes from

Milford, UTHometown
About 250 miles from Maverik StadiumDistance
On the Utah State roster since 2024Roster

Where Barnes fits

The consensus depth chart of May 27 lists Barnes at QB, No. 1.

Utah State lists 9 quarterbacks this season.

Utah State quarterbacks with a game this season

Grady Brosterhous7 games this season
McCae Hillstead3 games this season

Utah State is 3-5. Next: vs Fresno State, Sat Nov 7.

Similar players

Also from Milford, UT

Blake BarnesUtah State · LB

Barnes extends plays on the move until something opens up. Played for three head coaches across five seasons and two programs. All-Mountain West in 2025 made it two straight seasons on the honors list. On tape: 326 passing yards and 54 rushing yards against San José State, Week 8, 2025.

Career stats

Swipe the table sideways for more columns.

Season	Team
2025	Utah State	211	356	59.3%	2,802	7.9	18	5	139.3	25
2024	Utah State	77	126	61.1%	856	6.8	12	6	140.1	46
2023	Utah	142	242	58.7%	1,572	6.5	12	11	120.5	36
2022	Utah	37	57	64.9%	430	7.5	4	2	144.4	--
2021	Utah	2	2	100.0%	23	11.5	1	0	361.6	--
Career		469	783	59.9%	5,683	7.3	47	24	134.5	32

Season	Team
2025	Utah State	189	740	3.9	10	58
2024	Utah State	68	530	7.8	5	63
2023	Utah	89	277	3.1	3	26
2022	Utah	20	116	5.8	0	32
2021	Utah	1	10	10.0	0	10
Career		367	1,673	4.6	18	63

Game log

Game log · Week-by-week

2025 season · 13 games

Box score · CFBD

Swipe the table sideways for more columns.

Wk	Opp	CMP/ATT	YDS	TD	INT	YPA	QBR	Note
Wk 1	W 28-16vs UTEP	19/28	233	1	0	8.3	45.8
Wk 2	L 22-44@ No. 19 Texas A&M	15/30	169	2	0	5.6	19.0
Wk 3	W 49-30vs Air Force	17/22	287	2	0	13.0	78.0	Clean 2-TD game
Wk 4	W 48-7vs McNeese	19/27	293	3	1	10.9	90.7	3 TD passes
Wk 5	L 35-55@ No. 18 Vanderbilt	15/22	161	3	0	7.3	77.1	3 TD passes
Wk 7	L 26-44@ Hawai'i	14/26	175	1	1	6.7	28.5
Wk 8	W 30-25vs San José State	22/31	326	1	0	10.5	62.0	Season-high 326 yds
Wk 9	L 14-33@ New Mexico	13/23	164	1	1	7.1	24.6
Wk 11	W 51-14vs Nevada	20/27	288	3	0	10.7	88.9	3 TD passes
Wk 12	L 26-29@ UNLV	19/38	256	1	0	6.7	65.7
Wk 13	W 28-17@ Fresno State	16/30	150	0	1	5.0	70.6
Wk 14	L 24-25vs Boise State	13/31	184	0	0	5.9	33.0
Bowl	L 21-34vs Washington State	9/21	116	0	1	5.5	5.7
Total		211/356	2802	18	5	7.9	—

Highs and lows

Only games with 20 or more plays count for best and lowest.
Best by our grade	Nevada	W 51-14 · Graded great · 288 yds, 3 TD, 0 INT · Rush 9 for 40 · Sacked 0
Lowest by our grade	Washington State	L 21-34 · Graded rough · 116 yds, 0 TD, 1 INT · Rush 13 for 7, 1 TD · The interception cost about 14 points of win chance · Sacked 3
Biggest game	at Vanderbilt	No. 18 at kickoff · L 35-55 · Graded solid · Passing grade only · Strong start, faded late · 161 yds, 3 TD, 0 INT · Rush 10 for 48 · Sacked 2
Best play	at UNLV	Run for 58 yards, touchdown, Q4 6:56 · Win chance 23% to 54%

Passing profile

Pass Profile · True throw depth (charted plays)

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

211/356 (59.3%) · 18 TD · 5 INT

354 of 356 attempts matched to play-by-play

149 of 354 attempts charted for true throw depth

Totals here are the box score's. Play-by-play lists 354 passing plays (203 completions) against the box score's 356 attempts (211 completions), and the depth buckets use play-by-play.

Adjusted ANY/A

6.9370 of 206 QBs

Sack rate

9.6%191 of 206 QBs

Sacked on 9.6% of dropbacks (191 of 206) — and still 70 of 206 in Adjusted ANY/A.

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

15% of attempts (23)

91%comp1 INT

Air -2.7 · YAC 7.7 avg

Short · 0–9 air yds

35% of attempts (52)

56%comp

Air 4.2 · YAC 4.3 avg

Middle · 10–19 air yds

33% of attempts (49)

47%comp

Air 14.7 · YAC 4.2 avg

Deep · 20+ air yds

17% of attempts (25)

28%comp1 INT

Air 27.2 · YAC 8.9 avg

Overall 59.3% completion on 356 attempts · 28% completion on 25 deep attempts (20+ air yds).

Situational

Is he a different quarterback when it matters

Each situation vs his own 2025 baseline

No situation moves him more than 8 percentile points from his baseline.

BaselineThis situation

Down 1

-8 pct pts vs baseline · sacks 10/145 (6.9%) · league sack rate 4.2%

Down 2

+8 pct pts vs baseline · sacks 11/111 (9.9%) · league sack rate 4.5%

Down 3+

+2 pct pts vs baseline · sacks 15/104 (14.4%) · league sack rate 7.8%

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.

Teams and coaches

2021Utah10-4HC: Kyle Whittingham · Run-leaning

2022Utah10-4HC: Kyle Whittingham · Run-leaning

2023Utah8-5HC: Kyle Whittingham · Run-heavy

2024Utah State4-8HC: Nate Dreiling · Balanced

2025Utah State6-7HC: Bronco Mendenhall · Balanced

Our ratings

CFB Zeitgeist Score 60 (#43 of 146). Show the ratings

Where this profile ranks vs the QB cohort

Box-score + play-by-play EPA percentiles · 2025 season

60Quality starter #43 of 146 · 2025?

Ascending13 metrics · season cumulative

2025 score: the 2026 sample is not big enough yet. The rows below are 2026 so far. Elite: interception rate (89th percentile). Strength: rush yards (93rd percentile). Concern: sack rate (6th percentile).

Real play-by-play efficiency

Interception rate#20 / 183 · 89th pct

1.1%

Explosive rate#88 / 183 · 52nd pct

9.3%

Success rate#91 / 183 · 51st pct

40.5%

EPA / dropback#117 / 183 · 36th pct

0.14

Sack rate#172 / 183 · 6th pct

9.7%

Box-score rates (8)

Rush yards#14 / 183 · 93rd pct

740

Rush TDs#14 / 183 · 91st pct

Yards / att#44 / 183 · 75th pct

7.9

Pass yards#47 / 183 · 75th pct

2802

Pass TDs#49 / 183 · 72nd pct

Interceptions#53 / 183 · 67th pct

Completion %#125 / 183 · 32nd pct

59.3%

Fumbles lost#132 / 174 · 18th pct

Season trend

Last seasonThis season

EPA / dropback

31st → 36th percentile

Success rate

57th → 51st percentile

Explosive rate

67th → 52nd percentile

Sack rate

58th → 6th percentile

Interception rate

6th → 89th percentile

Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps in 2025. 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

2025 · our own passing-efficiency number, shown next to the 1979 formula it does not replace.

After 358 dropbacks

25Zeitgeist Passer Rating129th of 142 FBS QBs

NCAA passer rating 139.3 60th of 142 FBS QBs

ZPR ranks this quarterback 69 places lower than passer rating does: passer rating cannot see sacks, and a sack comes on 10.1% of dropbacks.

Positive-play rate weight 24%

41.3%18th pct of FBS QBs

share of dropbacks that gained expected points · -0.3% schedule adj.

Yards per attempt weight 56%

6.5531st pct of FBS QBs

sacks excluded · -0.1 schedule adj.

Sack rate weight 21% (penalty)

10.1%2nd pct of FBS QBs

the input passer rating cannot see · +0.1% schedule adj.

Opponent-adjusted; garbage time excluded (34 of 392 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

2025 season · 13 games

Home/Road · Season halves

Home vs Road

	YDS/g	TD/g	YPA	INT/g
Home6g	268	1.7	9.9	0.2
Road6g	179	1.3	6.4	0.5

First half vs Second half

	YDS/g	TD/g	YPA	INT/g
Weeks 1-77g	205	1.7	8.2	0.4
Weeks 8+6g	228	1.0	7.6	0.3

Supporting cast · Scheme

Staff and system around the player

2025 season

Head Coach

Bronco Mendenhall

Pass share

47.9%

403 pass / 439 run

Plays / game

64.8

13 games

Scheme: Balanced.

Awards

Player standing · 2025

All-Conference

Picked for an all-conference team by at least one selector.

Recognition

Roster2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex

Production · CFB Zeitgeist Score

60 · #43 of 146 QBs · 2025

Unranked recruit. Now #43 at the position.

2026 outlook

In the mix for All-Pac-12

Based on 2025: #3 of 14 Mountain West QBs — his program moves to the Pac-12 for 2026

How the All-Pac-12 base rate is computed

A base rate for the rank, not a forecast of this player: 49% of returning players who ranked #1–3 at their position in their conference made an all-conference team the next season (95% confidence interval 43–54%). It was measured on players who stayed in the same conference and is not adjusted for the move to the Pac-12.

Starter

Returning starter at quarterback for a 6-7 Utah State team that went +10 in the portal.