Darren Grainger: QB · Georgia State · #3.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Darren Grainger
Extends plays on the move until something opens up. Came to Georgia State by way of Furman. That makes two seasons with an honor, the latest Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Week in 2023. On tape: 466 passing yards and 23 rushing yards against Charlotte, Week 3, 2023.
Play style
Makes plays with feet when the pocket collapses. Efficiency still on the rise.
Checkdown vs gunslinger · 3rd-and-long
Where the completions actually land
68.6% completion on 3rd-and-8+, but only 32.1% conversion-per-dropback — 51.4% 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
3 of the team's 24 inside-the-5 carries (12.5%).
No outlet on our list has written about this player by name this season.
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| Season | Team | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Georgia State | 244 | 358 | 68.2% | 2,625 | 7.3 | 20 | 7 | 144.3 | 46 |
| 2022 | Georgia State | 173 | 296 | 58.4% | 2,431 | 8.2 | 18 | 7 | 142.8 | 38 |
| 2021 | Georgia State | 136 | 228 | 59.6% | 1,715 | 7.5 | 19 | 4 | 146.8 | 42 |
| Career | 553 | 882 | 62.7% | 6,771 | 7.7 | 57 | 18 | 144.4 | 42 |
| Season | Team | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Georgia State | 159 | 736 | 4.6 | 10 | 65 |
| 2022 | Georgia State | 165 | 752 | 4.6 | 7 | 60 |
| 2021 | Georgia State | 134 | 646 | 4.8 | 3 | 48 |
| Career | 458 | 2,134 | 4.7 | 20 | 65 |
Game log · Week-by-week
2023 season · 13 games
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| Wk | Opp | CMP/ATT | YDS | TD | INT | YPA | QBR | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 42-35vs Rhode Island | 16/20 | 193 | 2 | 0 | 9.7 | 40.4 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 2 | W 35-14vs UConn | 15/26 | 144 | 1 | 0 | 5.5 | 74.2 | |
| Wk 3 | W 41-25@ Charlotte | 27/33 | 466 | 3 | 0 | 14.1 | 93.7 | Season-high 466 yds |
| Wk 4 | W 30-17@ Coastal Carolina | 15/26 | 191 | 1 | 0 | 7.3 | 67.3 | |
| Wk 5 | L 7-28vs Troy | 19/29 | 193 | 0 | 2 | 6.7 | 7.4 | |
| Wk 7 | W 41-24vs Marshall | 21/31 | 234 | 1 | 0 | 7.5 | 65.1 | |
| Wk 8 | W 20-17@ Louisiana | 17/22 | 211 | 2 | 0 | 9.6 | 68.5 | |
| Wk 9 | L 27-44@ Georgia Southern | 21/37 | 157 | 2 | 2 | 4.2 | 32.5 | |
| Wk 10 | L 14-42vs No. 23 James Madison | 10/19 | 82 | 0 | 0 | 4.3 | 90.4 | |
| Wk 11 | L 14-42vs App State | 15/28 | 115 | 2 | 1 | 4.1 | 2.1 | |
| Wk 12 | L 14-56@ No. 15 LSU | 23/29 | 179 | 1 | 0 | 6.2 | 82.1 | |
| Wk 13 | L 24-25@ Old Dominion | 26/36 | 203 | 2 | 2 | 5.6 | 53.0 | |
 Bowl | W 45-22vs Utah State | 19/22 | 257 | 3 | 0 | 11.7 | 92.8 | |
| Total | 244/358 | 2625 | 20 | 7 | 7.3 | — |
Bowl · 2023
W 45-22
vs Utah State · neutral site
257 yds · 3 TD · 0 INT · QBR 92.8 · 111 rush yds (24 car) · 2 TD
Dominant 23-point win at a neutral site against Utah State.
With F. Brock — 276 rush yds (24 car) · 1 TD · 2 rec · 15 yds · C. Thompson — 5 rec · 117 yds · 2 TD
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 348 passing plays (238 completions) against the box score's 358 attempts (244 completions), and the depth buckets use play-by-play.
Adjusted ANY/A
7.0075 of 212 QBsSack rate
4.3%65 of 212 QBsRarely sacked (65 of 212 QBs) and still 75 of 212 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 68.2% completion on 358 attempts · 27 deep completions averaging 38.6 yds.
Is he a different quarterback when it matters
Each situation vs his own 2023 baseline
No situation moves him more than 42 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 Shawn Elliott — 19-19 over that span.
Splits · Per-game
2023 season · 13 games
Home vs Road
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home6g | 160 | 1.0 | 6.3 | 0.5 |
| Road6g | 234 | 1.8 | 7.8 | 0.7 |
First half vs Second half
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-77g | 240 | 1.6 | 8.9 | 0.3 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 158 | 1.5 | 5.7 | 0.8 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Shawn Elliott
Pass share
42.0%
366 pass / 506 run
Plays / game
67.1
13 games
Scheme: Run-leaning.
Player standing · 2023
358 pass attempts and 159 carries in 13 games, about as many passes and runs a game as a typical FBS quarterback who plays every week.
Recognition
Production · CFB Zeitgeist Score
How it ended
Three seasons at Georgia State, 6,771 passing yards — the college career is complete.
Four or fewer games in the first season, then ten or more.
Coaching lineage · 2021–2023
1 coachPlayed every college season under Shawn Elliott.
