Connor Cook: QB · Michigan State · #18.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Connor Cook
Operates within the system without forcing anything. Second year in the Michigan State quarterback room. Unitas Golden Arm in 2015 made it two straight seasons on the honors list. One game to point at: 398 passing yards and 18 rushing yards against Indiana — Week 8, 2015.
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
56.8% completion on 3rd-and-8+, but only 42.0% conversion-per-dropback — 19.0% 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
1 of the team's 19 inside-the-5 carries (5.3%).
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 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Michigan State | 229 | 408 | 56.1% | 3,131 | 7.7 | 24 | 7 | 136.6 | 62 |
| 2014 | Michigan State | 212 | 365 | 58.1% | 3,214 | 8.8 | 24 | 8 | 149.4 | 86 |
| Career | 441 | 773 | 57.1% | 6,345 | 8.2 | 48 | 15 | 142.6 | 73 |
| Season | Team | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Michigan State | 52 | 56 | 1.1 | 0 | 22 |
| 2014 | Michigan State | 51 | 80 | 1.6 | 2 | 13 |
| Career | 103 | 136 | 1.3 | 2 | 22 |
Game log · Week-by-week
2015 season · 13 games
Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Wk | Opp | CMP/ATT | YDS | TD | INT | YPA | QBR | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 37-24@ Western Michigan | 15/31 | 256 | 2 | 0 | 8.3 | 92.1 | Clean 2-TD game |
| Wk 2 | W 31-28vs No. 7 Oregon | 20/32 | 192 | 2 | 1 | 6.0 | 76.4 | |
| Wk 3 | W 35-21vs Air Force | 15/23 | 247 | 4 | 0 | 10.7 | 96.8 | 4 TD passes |
| Wk 4 | W 30-10vs Central Michigan | 11/19 | 143 | 1 | 0 | 7.5 | 68.5 | |
| Wk 5 | W 24-21vs Purdue | 13/19 | 139 | 1 | 0 | 7.3 | 75.7 | |
| Wk 6 | W 31-24@ Rutgers | 24/39 | 367 | 2 | 1 | 9.4 | 91.0 | |
| Wk 7 | W 27-23@ No. 12 Michigan | 18/39 | 328 | 1 | 0 | 8.4 | 42.1 | |
| Wk 8 | W 52-26vs Indiana | 30/52 | 398 | 4 | 0 | 7.7 | 81.7 | Season-high 398 yds |
| Wk 10 | L 38-39@ Nebraska | 23/37 | 335 | 4 | 1 | 9.1 | 91.1 | 4 TD passes |
| Wk 11 | W 24-7vs Maryland | 6/20 | 77 | 0 | 1 | 3.8 | 19.5 | |
| Wk 13 | W 55-16vs Penn State | 19/26 | 248 | 3 | 0 | 9.5 | 88.4 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 14 | W 16-13vs No. 4 Iowa | 16/32 | 191 | 0 | 1 | 6.0 | 32.7 | |
 Bowl | L 0-38vs No. 2 Alabama | 19/39 | 210 | 0 | 2 | 5.4 | 19.6 | |
| Total | 229/408 | 3131 | 24 | 7 | 7.7 | — |
Week 8 · 2015
W 52-26
vs Indiana
398 yds · 4 TD · 0 INT · QBR 81.7 · 18 rush yds (10 car)
Dominant 26-point win at home against Indiana.
With R. Shelton — 6 rec · 76 yds · 2 TD · 10 rush yds (2 car) · J. Hartbarger — 42.5 yards per punt · 4 punts · 56 long
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 401 passing plays (222 completions) against the box score's 408 attempts (229 completions), and the depth buckets use play-by-play.
Adjusted ANY/A
7.4637 of 198 QBsSack rate
4.2%57 of 198 QBsRarely sacked (57 of 198 QBs) and still 37 of 198 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 56.1% completion on 408 attempts · 49 deep completions averaging 28.1 yds.
Is he a different quarterback when it matters
Each situation vs his own 2015 baseline
-66
percentile points worse on first down
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.
2 seasons under Mark Dantonio — 23-4 over that span.
Splits · Per-game
2015 season · 13 games
Home vs Road
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home7g | 206 | 2.1 | 7.5 | 0.3 |
| Road4g | 322 | 2.2 | 8.8 | 0.5 |
First half vs Second half
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-78g | 235 | 1.6 | 7.9 | 0.5 |
| Weeks 8+5g | 250 | 2.2 | 7.2 | 0.6 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Mark Dantonio
Pass share
45.1%
439 pass / 535 run
Plays / game
69.6
14 games
Scheme: Run-leaning.
Player standing · 2015
First team in his league at the position.
How it ended
Two seasons at Michigan State, 6,345 passing yards, the Unitas Golden Arm Award (2015) — drafted at #100 overall by the Oakland Raiders.
Honored in a first season.
Trophy case · Confirmed honors
What the selectors said
National awards
Unitas Golden Arm
2015 season
ALL-BIG TEN · 1ST TEAM
All-Big Ten 1st team (2015)
Coaching lineage · 2011–2015
1 coachPlayed every college season under Mark Dantonio.
Next stop · NFL
Oakland RaidersEntering 11th NFL season
Oakland RaidersEntering 11th NFL season
