Cole McDonald: QB · Hawai'i · #13.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Cole McDonald
Operates within the system without forcing anything. Three seasons in the Hawai'i quarterback room to date. A game that shows it: 493 passing yards and 4 passing TD against BYU — Bowl, 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
56.2% completion on 3rd-and-8+, but only 19.2% conversion-per-dropback — 63.0% 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
14 of 19 on 3rd/4th-and-2-or-less (73.7%). 8 of the team's 26 inside-the-5 carries (30.8%).
No outlet on our list has written about this player by name this season.
New York Post Oct 29Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
Game log · Week-by-week
2019 season · 14 games
Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Wk | Opp | CMP/ATT | YDS | TD | INT | YPA | QBR | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 45-38vs Arizona | 29/41 | 378 | 4 | 4 | 9.2 | 82.6 | 4 TD passes |
| Wk 2 | W 31-28vs Oregon State | 30/52 | 421 | 4 | 1 | 8.1 | 68.7 | 4 TD passes |
| Wk 3 | L 20-52@ No. 23 Washington | 22/35 | 218 | 1 | 3 | 6.2 | 34.6 | 3 INTs — rough day |
| Wk 4 | W 35-16vs Central Arkansas | 25/32 | 300 | 4 | 1 | 9.4 | 94.7 | 4 TD passes |
| Wk 5 | W 54-3@ Nevada | 25/30 | 312 | 4 | 0 | 10.4 | 87.0 | 4 TD passes |
| Wk 7 | L 37-59@ No. 14 Boise State | 23/41 | 251 | 3 | 0 | 6.1 | 58.0 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 8 | L 26-56vs Air Force | 34/52 | 404 | 3 | 1 | 7.8 | 73.2 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 9 | W 45-31@ New Mexico | 17/30 | 237 | 1 | 1 | 7.9 | 96.2 | |
| Wk 10 | L 38-41vs Fresno State | 21/42 | 275 | 1 | 1 | 6.5 | — | |
| Wk 12 | W 21-7@ UNLV | 20/26 | 211 | 0 | 0 | 8.1 | — | |
| Wk 13 | W 14-11vs San Diego State | 13/19 | 144 | 1 | 1 | 7.6 | — | |
| Wk 14 | W 52-31vs Army | 19/29 | 250 | 3 | 0 | 8.6 | — | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 15 | L 10-31@ No. 19 Boise State | 20/36 | 244 | 0 | 1 | 6.8 | — | |
 Bowl | W 38-34vs BYU | 28/46 | 493 | 4 | 0 | 10.7 | — | |
| Total | 326/511 | 4138 | 33 | 14 | 8.1 | — |
Bowl · 2019
W 38-34
vs BYU · neutral site
493 yds · 4 TD · 0 INT
Edged out BYU at a neutral site in a shootout.
With B. Scruton — 43 yards per punt · 4 punts · 52 long · J. Ward — 7 rec · 159 yds
The plays that mattered most
Pass Profile · Completions by yards gained (PBP)
Adjusted ANY/A, sack rate, and where the yards came from
Adjusted ANY/A
7.6347 of 205 QBsSack rate
3.6%27 of 205 QBsRarely sacked (27 of 205 QBs) and still 47 of 205 in Adjusted ANY/A.
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 63.8% completion on 511 attempts · 49 deep completions averaging 32.4 yds.
Is he a different quarterback when it matters
Each situation vs his own 2019 baseline
No situation moves him more than 50 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.
3 seasons under Nick Rolovich — 21-20 over that span.
Splits · Per-game
2019 season · 14 games
Home vs Road
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home7g | 310 | 2.9 | 8.2 | 1.3 |
| Road6g | 246 | 1.5 | 7.6 | 0.8 |
First half vs Second half
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-77g | 339 | 3.4 | 8.6 | 1.3 |
| Weeks 8+7g | 252 | 1.3 | 7.6 | 0.7 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Nick Rolovich
Pass share
60.7%
634 pass / 410 run
Plays / game
69.6
15 games
Scheme: Pass-leaning.
Player standing · 2019
511 pass attempts and 103 carries in 14 games, more passes and runs a game than nearly every FBS quarterback who plays every week.
How it ended
Three seasons at Hawai'i, 8,035 passing yards — drafted at #224 overall by the Tennessee Titans.
A stat line in 33 games over three seasons.
Coaching lineage · 2017–2019
1 coachPlayed every college season under Nick Rolovich.
Next stop · NFL
Tennessee TitansEntering 7th NFL season
Tennessee TitansEntering 7th NFL season
