J'Mar Smith

#8 · QB · Sr. · Louisiana Tech6′1″ · 218 lb · Meridian, MS

J'Mar Smith: QB · Louisiana Tech · #8.

Similar players

Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.

Anu SolomonArizona · 2014 · 86% season match
Drew HareNorthern Illinois · 2015 · 85% season match
Gus RaglandMiami (OH) · 2018 · 79% season match
Derrius VickOhio · 2015 · 78% season match
Jayden MandalFresno State · 2026 · 77% season match

J'Mar Smith

QB · Louisiana Tech · Sr · #8

Operates within the system without forcing anything. Fourth year in the Louisiana Tech quarterback room. The first career honor came in 2019: All-Conference USA. A game that shows it: 338 passing yards and 3 passing TD against UTEP — Week 9, 2019.

Style of play

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

51.3%Completion %

24.4%Conversion/dropback

45.0%Land short of sticks

2INTs

51.3% completion on 3rd-and-8+, but only 24.4% conversion-per-dropback — 45.0% 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

5/22Inside-5 share

5 of the team's 22 inside-the-5 carries (22.7%).

Fans

No outlet on our list has written about this player by name this season.

Where to follow

Career stats

Swipe the table sideways for more columns.

Season	Team
2019	Louisiana Tech	236	367	64.3%	2,977	8.1	18	5	145.9	54
2018	Louisiana Tech	263	460	57.2%	3,159	6.9	15	10	121.3	40
2017	Louisiana Tech	229	409	56.0%	2,974	7.3	16	5	127.5	47
2016	Louisiana Tech	30	43	69.8%	412	9.6	2	1	160.9	--
Career		758	1,279	59.3%	9,522	7.4	51	21	131.7	46

Season	Team
2019	Louisiana Tech	100	264	2.6	4	34
2018	Louisiana Tech	90	154	1.7	3	58
2017	Louisiana Tech	120	378	3.1	6	22
2016	Louisiana Tech	17	62	3.6	2	26
Career		327	858	2.6	15	58

Game log

Game log · Week-by-week

2019 season · 11 games

Box score · CFBD

Swipe the table sideways for more columns.

Wk	Opp	CMP/ATT	YDS	TD	INT	YPA	QBR	Note
Wk 1	L 14-45@ No. 10 Texas	34/51	331	2	1	6.5	60.9
Wk 2	W 20-14vs Grambling	17/25	220	1	0	8.8	53.1
Wk 3	W 35-7@ Bowling Green	19/26	267	2	0	10.3	53.4	Clean 2-TD game
Wk 4	W 43-31vs Florida International	27/41	290	0	1	7.1	69.7
Wk 5	W 23-20@ Rice	21/39	210	1	0	5.4	51.0
Wk 7	W 69-21vs Massachusetts	16/28	239	3	0	8.5	95.4	3 TD passes
Wk 8	W 45-30vs Southern Miss	14/21	325	1	1	15.5	89.2
Wk 9	W 42-21@ UTEP	29/35	338	3	0	9.7	97.3	Season-high 338 yds
Wk 11	W 52-17vs North Texas	21/38	263	1	1	6.9	—
Wk 14	W 41-27vs UTSA	25/35	331	3	0	9.5	—	3 TD passes
Bowl	W 14-0vs Miami	13/28	163	1	1	5.8	—
Total		236/367	2977	18	5	8.1	—

Signature game

Week 1 · 2019

L 14-45

at Texas

331 yds · 2 TD · 1 INT · QBR 60.9

With S. Harris — 6 rec · 58 yds · B. Farlow — 35.5 yards per punt · 2 punts · 39 long

Signature plays

The plays that mattered most

Week 11 · North Texas · 1st and 10 · Q3 · EPA +6.39J'Mar Smith pass complete to Isaiah Graham for 80 yds for a TD (Bailey Hale KICK)
Week 2 · Grambling · 3rd and 13 · Q2 · EPA +5.42J'Mar Smith pass complete to Griffin Hebert for 40 yds for a TD (Bailey Hale KICK)
Week 11 · North Texas · 3rd and 24 · Q4 · EPA +4.45J'Mar Smith pass complete to Adrian Hardy for 22 yds to the LATECH 30 for a NORTH TEXAS Penalty, personal foul (15 Yards) to the NoTex 15 for a
Week 14 · UTSA · 3rd and 11 · Q4 · EPA +4.27J'Mar Smith pass complete to Griffin Hebert for 46 yds to the TexSA 35 for a
Week 4 · Florida International · 3rd and 6 · Q3 · EPA +4.26J'Mar Smith pass complete to Griffin Hebert for 54 yds to the FlaIn 17 for a
Week 8 · Southern Miss · 2nd and 5 · Q3 · EPA +3.90J'Mar Smith pass complete to Malik Stanley for 56 yds to the SoMis 35 for a

4 more plays

Week 8 · Southern Miss · 1st and 10 · Q4 · EPA +3.87J'Mar Smith pass complete to Griffin Hebert for 70 yds to the SoMis 10 for a
Week 7 · Massachusetts · 2nd and 8 · Q1 · EPA +3.84J'Mar Smith pass complete to Cee Jay Powell for 55 yds to the UMass 4 for a
Week 3 · Bowling Green · 1st and 10 · Q1 · EPA +3.76J'Mar Smith pass complete to Isaiah Graham for 49 yds for a TD, (Bailey Hale KICK)
Week 2 · Grambling · 2nd and 10 · Q3 · EPA +3.64J'Mar Smith pass complete to Malik Stanley for 40 yds to the Gramb 27 for a

Passing profile

Pass Profile · Completions by yards gained (PBP)

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

236/367 (64.3%) · 18 TD · 5 INT

366 of 367 attempts matched to play-by-play

Totals here are the box score's. Play-by-play lists 366 passing plays (235 completions) against the box score's 367 attempts (236 completions), and the depth buckets use play-by-play.

Adjusted ANY/A

7.6148 of 205 QBs

Sack rate

6.4%119 of 205 QBs

Sacked on 6.4% of dropbacks (119 of 205) — and still 48 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 yds

49%of completions

115 comp5.1 yds avg7 TD

Middle

10–19 yds

33%of completions

78 comp13.2 yds avg1 TD

Deep

20+ yds

18%of completions

42 comp31.9 yds avg9 TD

Overall 64.3% completion on 367 attempts · 42 deep completions averaging 31.9 yds.

Situational

Is he a different quarterback when it matters

Each situation vs his own 2019 baseline

No situation moves him more than 10 percentile points from his baseline.

BaselineThis situation

Down 1

-10 pct pts vs baseline · sacks 8/142 (5.6%) · league sack rate 4.8%

Down 2

+5 pct pts vs baseline · sacks 8/121 (6.6%) · league sack rate 5.5%

Down 3+

+10 pct pts vs baseline · sacks 9/85 (10.6%) · league sack rate 9.0%

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

4 seasons under Skip Holtz — 34-19 over that span.

2016Louisiana Tech9-5HC: Skip Holtz · Pass-leaning

2017Louisiana Tech7-6HC: Skip Holtz · Run-leaning

2018Louisiana Tech8-5HC: Skip Holtz · Balanced

2019Louisiana Tech10-3HC: Skip Holtz · Balanced

Our ratings

Show the ratings

Where this profile ranks vs the QB cohort

Box-score + play-by-play EPA percentiles · 2019 season

13 metrics · season cumulative

Elite: success rate (91st percentile). Strength: interception rate (87th percentile).

Real play-by-play efficiency

Success rate#17 / 189 · 91st pct

48.9%

Interception rate#25 / 189 · 87th pct

1.4%

EPA / dropback#38 / 189 · 80th pct

0.34

Explosive rate#65 / 189 · 66th pct

11.5%

Sack rate#104 / 189 · 45th pct

6.4%

Box-score rates (8)

Fumbles lost#1 / 166 · 93rd pct

Pass yards#36 / 177 · 80th pct

2977

Completion %#41 / 177 · 77th pct

64.3%

Yards / att#44 / 177 · 73rd pct

8.1

Rush yards#54 / 177 · 70th pct

264

Rush TDs#48 / 177 · 69th pct

Pass TDs#56 / 177 · 67th pct

Interceptions#60 / 177 · 60th pct

Season trend

Last seasonThis season

EPA / dropback

41st → 80th percentile

Success rate

45th → 91st percentile

Explosive rate

30th → 66th percentile

Sack rate

53rd → 45th percentile

Interception rate

61st → 87th percentile

Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps in 2019. 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

2019 · our own passing-efficiency number, shown next to the 1979 formula it does not replace.

After 348 dropbacks

54Zeitgeist Passer Rating64th of 140 FBS QBs

NCAA passer rating 145.9 43rd of 140 FBS QBs

ZPR ranks this quarterback 21 places lower than passer rating does: the schedule adjustment debits the defenses faced.

Positive-play rate weight 24%

47.8%68th pct of FBS QBs

share of dropbacks that gained expected points · -2.5% schedule adj.

Yards per attempt weight 56%

7.5957th pct of FBS QBs

sacks excluded · -0.6 schedule adj.

Sack rate weight 21% (penalty)

7.6%33rd pct of FBS QBs

the input passer rating cannot see · +0.4% schedule adj.

Opponent-adjusted; garbage time excluded (43 of 391 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

2019 season · 11 games

Home/Road · Season halves

Home vs Road

	YDS/g	TD/g	YPA	INT/g
Home6g	278	1.5	9.4	0.5
Road4g	286	2.0	8.0	0.2

First half vs Second half

	YDS/g	TD/g	YPA	INT/g
Weeks 1-77g	246	1.4	7.5	0.4
Weeks 8+4g	314	2.0	10.4	0.5

Supporting cast · Scheme

Staff and system around the player

2019 season

Head Coach

Skip Holtz

Pass share

49.4%

457 pass / 468 run

Plays / game

71.2

13 games

Scheme: Balanced.

Awards

Player standing · 2019

All-Conference 1st team

First team in his league at the position.

Roster2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex

J'Mar Smith

Similar players

Style of play

Fans

Where to follow

Career stats

Game log

Signature game

Signature plays

Passing profile

Situational

Teams and coaches

Our ratings

Splits

Awards

All-Conference 1st team

Four seasons at Louisiana Tech

2019 11 games