6′0″ · 192 lb · Loomis, CA · Del Oro HS
Washington State has lost three straight in his games. A run-first quarterback.
Weakest: 3% of throws gain 20 or more yards, 2nd worst of 145 starters.
Plays most like Johnson ’25, Oregon State 2025.
Hasn’t thrown since Utah State, week 6. Washington State has played one game since.
Passing yards
952
110 of 178, 62%
TD–INT
3–5
5.3 per throw
NCAA rating
106.7
101st of 103
ZPR
21
101st of 103
Shaky or worse in 5 of 6.
Best by our grade: Duquesne. Worst: Fresno State, with 1 interception and sacked 3 times.
Tap a game for its plays
at Washington
L 10–24·Ranked #17
Rough
Passing grade only · 142 yds, 0 TD, 2 INT · Rush 9 for 68, 1 TD · Sacked 3
Biggest swing: his Q4 completion added 32 points of win chance. Win chance: 13% to 45%.
at Kansas State
L 7–34·Unranked
Rough
65 yds, 0 TD, 0 INT · Rush 9 for 54 · Sacked 3
Biggest swing: his Q2 run cost his team 8 points of win chance. Win chance: 41% to 33%.
Duquesne
W 48–7·FCS
Solid
Passing grade only · Carried by the third quarter · 196 yds, 2 TD, 1 INT · Rush 12 for 76, 1 TD · Sacked 0
Biggest swing: his Q3 run added 12 points of win chance. Win chance: 84% to 96%.
Arizona
L 24–34·Unranked
Fans talked about him
Shaky
241 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT · Rush 9 for 53, 1 TD · Sacked 3
Biggest swing: his Q3 sack cost his team 12 points of win chance. Win chance: 66% to 54%.
Fresno State
L 6–26·Unranked
Fans talked about him
Rough
152 yds, 0 TD, 1 INT · Rush 6 for 10 · Sacked 3
Biggest swing: his Q4 completion cost his team 11 points of win chance. Win chance: 11% to 0%.
at Utah State
L 16–17·Unranked
Fans talked about him
Rough
156 yds, 0 TD, 0 INT · Rush 7 for 31 · Sacked 3
Biggest swing: his Q4 incompletion cost his team 14 points of win chance. Win chance: 41% to 27%.
Season
Fades after halftime
Each column is a quarter. Blue and up is a good stretch for him, red and down a bad one, hatched means the game was already decided. A red cross is a turnover and a black dot a touchdown. The word on the right grades the whole game; on games where he ran a lot it grades his passing only. A gold line means the r/CFB game thread kept naming him. Tap a game to open its plays: each bar is one of his plays, up helped his team’s chance of winning and down hurt it, and the grey line is that chance.
The word grades the game against every FBS quarterback start, from Rough to Great, using the same throws as his season Zeitgeist Passer Rating and adjusting for the defense he faced. Bars are points added per throw in that quarter. The Season row leaves out quarters after a game was decided.
Run-first
The dot is where he sits among this season’s starters; the tick is the middle.
Throws at a middling depth and runs a lot. 7.5 carries a game. Closest matches: Johnson ’25, Lopez ’25, Alejado, Iamaleava ’25.
Where his throws go
Runs 7.5 times a game; 86% of starters run less.
Who he is like
Nearer to him means more alike.
Compared with the 145 FBS starters this season for his throws and running, and with 207 quarterbacks across 2 seasons for the matches, on how they play and how they have done.
Over the last few games, Washington State fans have been down on Pinnick.
“We better not see Pinnick on the field again”
“If our defense gets a stop, we are 1000% trotting Pinnick back out there to throw 3 horrible incompletions”
“6 games in and I’ve yet to see pinnick throw over the middle”
From r/CFB game thread. Read by AI.
8 stories in the last 30 days, from 6 outlets.
The Spokesman-Review +1 Oct 12
Caden Pinnick
Caden Pinnick steps into Zevi Eckhaus's shoes — the gap is the story.
PERCEPTION ABOVE TAPE · PCTL GAP
-46
perception vs production percentile · 2026
The name carries 47th-percentile weight; the snaps grade out 1st. The gap is the open question.
AI-generated narrative · may contain errors · not journalism · updated 2026-10-24
Play style
Extends plays with his feet until something opens up.
Checkdown vs gunslinger · 3rd-and-long
Where the completions actually land
62.5% completion on 3rd-and-8+, but only 17.9% conversion-per-dropback — 66.7% 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
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Season | Team | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Washington State | 110 | 178 | 61.8% | 952 | 5.3 | 3 | 5 | 106.7 | 21 |
| Career | 110 | 178 | 61.8% | 952 | 5.3 | 3 | 5 | 106.7 | 21 |
| Season | Team | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Washington State | 74 | 194 | 2.6 | 3 |
| Career | 74 | 194 | 2.6 | 3 |
Game log · Week-by-week
2026 season · 6 games
Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Wk | Opp | CMP/ATT | YDS | TD | INT | YPA | QBR | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | L 10-24@ No. 17 Washington | 16/25 | 142 | 0 | 2 | 5.7 | 68.2 | |
| Wk 2 | L 7-34@ Kansas State | 9/20 | 65 | 0 | 0 | 3.3 | 13.2 | |
| Wk 3 | W 48-7vs Duquesne | 17/22 | 196 | 2 | 1 | 8.9 | 49.9 | |
| Wk 4 | L 24-34vs Arizona | 24/41 | 241 | 1 | 1 | 5.9 | 42.1 | Season-high 241 yds |
| Wk 5 | L 6-26vs Fresno State | 21/34 | 152 | 0 | 1 | 4.5 | 9.8 | |
| Wk 6 | L 16-17@ Utah State | 23/36 | 156 | 0 | 0 | 4.3 | 32.6 | |
| Total | 110/178 | 952 | 3 | 5 | 5.3 | — |
Oct. 9 · L 16-17 at Utah State
23 of 36 for 156 yards.
21 of 34 for 152 yards and an interception. Two drives ended on his fourth-down plays: an incompletion and an incompletion.
Incomplete to Branden Ganashamoorthy on 3rd and 8. First quarter, tied 0-0.
23-yard completion to Daniel Blood. Third quarter, down 13-6.
Incomplete to Daniel Blood on 4th and 6. Fourth quarter, down 16-6. Turnover on downs.
Intercepted. Fourth quarter, down 23-6. Picked off by Fresno State’s Justin Johnson.
Each pass sits where it was caught or thrown to, in yards past the line. The play text only says left, middle or right, so inside a lane marks are sorted, not placed.
24 of 41 for 241 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
Not drawn: the play-by-play doesn’t add up to the box score.
17 of 22 for 196 yards, 2 touchdowns and an interception.
Not drawn: the play-by-play doesn’t add up to the box score.
9 of 20 for 65 yards.
Not drawn: the play-by-play doesn’t add up to the box score.
16 of 25 for 142 yards and 2 interceptions.
Not drawn: the play-by-play doesn’t add up to the box score.
Week 3 · 2026
W 48-7
vs Duquesne
196 yds · 2 TD · 1 INT · QBR 49.9 · 76 rush yds (12 car) · 1 TD
Dominant 41-point win at home against Duquesne.
With T. Hawkins — 1 rec · 30 yds · -8 rush yds (2 car) · M. Woods — 116 rush yds (11 car) · 3 rec · 20 yds
The plays that mattered most
109th in passing yards, among all 434 FBS players with a passing row this season, any position
Conference ranks count every player in the conference with a row in that stat, any position. Career ranks count current FBS players, from the games in our log.
Ratings of the games shown run from -9 to +16 points against an average team (SP+ rating of each opponent).
Pass Profile · True throw depth (charted plays)
Adjusted ANY/A, sack rate, and where the yards came from
Adjusted ANY/A
3.42169 of 170 QBsSack rate
9.2%151 of 170 QBsSacked on 9.2% of dropbacks (151 of 170) and Adjusted ANY/A trails the field (169 of 170).
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
Short · 0–9 air yds
Middle · 10–19 air yds
Deep · 20+ air yds
Overall 61.8% completion on 178 attempts · 11% completion on 19 deep attempts (20+ air yds).
Splits · Per-game
2026 season · 6 games
Home vs Road
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home3g | 196 | 1.0 | 6.4 | 1.0 |
| Road3g | 121 | 0.0 | 4.4 | 0.7 |
First half vs Second half
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-76g | 159 | 0.5 | 5.4 | 0.8 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Kirby Moore
Pass share
47.5%
228 pass / 252 run
Plays / game
68.6
7 games
Scheme: Balanced.
Player standing · 2026
More passes and runs a game than nearly every FBS quarterback who plays every week.
Recognition
Production · CFB Zeitgeist Score
from 6 outlets
The Spokesman-Review +1 Oct 12 · 2 outlets
from 20 outlets
The Spokesman-Review +1 Oct 12 · 2 outlets
Sports Illustrated +1Washington State QB Caden Pinnick gets his chance in massive Apple Cup debutAug 24
247Sports +1Caden Pinnick Named WSU Starting QuarterbackAug 24
On3Washington State QB battle: Breaking down Caden Pinnick, Julian Dugger and Owen Eshelman resume to play in 2026Aug 7The Spokesman-ReviewWSU QB Caden Pinnick takes reins and other things we learned from Cougars' first scrimmageAug 15247SportsKirby Moore: Accuracy one of three keys to Caden Pinnick emerging as WSU QB1Aug 25
Seattle Sports2026 Apple Cup Preview with WSU HC Kirby Moore + Caden Pinnick Named Cougars QB1 | Cougs WeeklySep 1
Washington State University AthleticsWSU Football: Kirby Moore | Caden Pinnick | Nylan Brown | Post Practice Press Conference | 8/25/26Aug 26Sports IllustratedWhat WSU players Caden Pinnick, Jaylen Thomas said after Kansas State lossSep 12Sports IllustratedCaden Pinnick explains what changed for WSU in 48-7 win over DuquesneSep 19The Spokesman-Review +1The Spokesman-ReviewSports IllustratedSports Illustrated +1Sports Illustrated +1The Spokesman-ReviewOn3Each week: his team’s game, the stories about him that week, and the week’s biggest news headline.
Stories are headlines grouped by what they are about, counted through Oct 24.
Fans first named him at Washington.
Washington State University AthleticsOct 10Aura™ · Him Watch
Aura compares how much fans talk about him with how well he plays, each ranked among QBs.
+46aura tax
0th percentile our passing-value metric (weighted expected points added) ranked among 358 QBs
— more hype than the tape.2026 is in progress.
CBS Sports College Football