6′1″ · 200 lb · Caledonia, MI
He has 444 rushing yards, 9th among FBS quarterbacks.
Boston College is 3-3 in his six games. A run-first quarterback.
Weakest: sacked on 9% of dropbacks, 20th worst of 145 starters.
Plays most like Brown, Auburn.
Passing yards
1,262
98 of 167, 59%
TD–INT
7–7
7.6 per throw
NCAA rating
127.6
80th of 103
ZPR
33
87th of 103
Getting better, from shaky early to solid lately.
Best by our grade: Pittsburgh. Worst: Virginia Tech, sacked 3 times.
Tap a game for its plays
at Cincinnati
L 15–34·Unranked
Rough
Passing grade only · 223 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT · Rush 15 for 96 · Sacked 3
Biggest swing: his Q4 sack added 37 points of win chance. Win chance: 0% to 37%.
Rutgers
W 28–21·Unranked
Shaky
Passing grade only · Strong start, faded late · 252 yds, 1 TD, 2 INT · Rush 12 for 95, 1 TD · Sacked 1
Biggest swing: his Q3 interception cost his team 14 points of win chance. Win chance: 76% to 62%.
Maine
W 22–16·FCS
Shaky
Passing grade only · Strong start, faded late · 173 yds, 1 TD, 2 INT · Rush 14 for 63 · Sacked 1
Biggest swing: his Q1 completion added 21 points of win chance. Win chance: 61% to 82%.
Virginia Tech
L 14–21·Unranked
Rough
Passing grade only · 111 yds, 0 TD, 0 INT · Rush 21 for 164, 2 TD · Sacked 3
Biggest swing: his Q3 run added 32 points of win chance. It flipped the game for his team: 40% to 72%.
at SMU
L 16–25·Ranked #21
Solid
Passing grade only · 208 yds, 2 TD, 0 INT · Rush 16 for 107 · Sacked 4
Biggest swing: his Q1 completion added 32 points of win chance. It flipped the game for his team: 40% to 72%.
Pittsburgh
W 27–21·Unranked
Solid
295 yds, 2 TD, 2 INT · Rush 6 for 21 · Sacked 2
Biggest swing: his Q2 completion added 30 points of win chance. It flipped the game for his team: 44% to 74%.
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. 13.7 carries a game. Closest matches: Brown, Mateer, Fox ’25, Hughes.
Where his throws go
Runs 13.7 times a game; 98% 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.
“Our best hope here is McKenzie running backwards for a safety. Otherwise it’s a deep ball touchdown or 3 DPis to the endzone.”
3 stories this week, from 2 outlets.
Mason McKenzie
Mason McKenzie steps into Dylan Lonergan's shoes — the gap is the story.
PERCEPTION ABOVE TAPE · PCTL GAP
-21
perception vs production percentile · 2026
The name carries 50th-percentile weight; the snaps grade out 29th. 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
44.4% completion on 3rd-and-8+, but only 20.0% conversion-per-dropback — 50.0% 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
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Season | Team | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Boston College | 98 | 167 | 58.7% | 1,262 | 7.6 | 7 | 7 | 127.6 | 33 |
| Career | 98 | 167 | 58.7% | 1,262 | 7.6 | 7 | 7 | 127.6 | 33 |
| Season | Team | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Boston College | 103 | 444 | 4.3 | 3 |
| Career | 103 | 444 | 4.3 | 3 |
Last game (Wk 7): 295 passing yards, 2 passing TD, 2 interceptions.
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 15-34@ Cincinnati | 18/35 | 223 | 1 | 1 | 6.4 | — | |
| Wk 2 | W 28-21vs Rutgers | 18/29 | 252 | 1 | 2 | 8.7 | 53.3 | |
| Wk 3 | W 22-16vs Maine | 14/21 | 173 | 1 | 2 | 8.2 | 11.2 | |
| Wk 4 | L 14-21vs Virginia Tech | 11/23 | 111 | 0 | 0 | 4.8 | 23.7 | |
| Wk 5 | L 16-25@ No. 21 SMU | 20/31 | 208 | 2 | 0 | 6.7 | 49.1 | |
| Wk 7 | W 27-21vs Pittsburgh | 17/28 | 295 | 2 | 2 | 10.5 | 79.6 | Season-high 295 yds |
| Total | 98/167 | 1262 | 7 | 7 | 7.6 | — |
Oct. 17 · W 27-21 vs Pittsburgh
17 of 28 for 295 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.
20 of 31 for 208 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Not drawn: the play-by-play doesn’t add up to the box score.
11 of 23 for 111 yards. He was 2 of 13 on third and fourth down.
12-yard run on 3rd and 13. First quarter, tied 0-0.
Incomplete to Javarius Green on 3rd and 9. First quarter, tied 0-0. Broken up by Virginia Tech’s Q. Reddish.
7-yard run on 4th and 9. First quarter, tied 0-0. Turnover on downs.
45-yard run on 3rd and 4. Third quarter, down 6-0. Converted.
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.
14 of 21 for 173 yards, a touchdown and 2 interceptions. He was 3 of 11 on third and fourth down.
6-yard completion to Dawson Pough on 3rd and 7. First quarter, tied 0-0.
Intercepted on 3rd and 10. Second quarter, up 18-0. Picked off by Maine’s Jamaree Gibson.
37-yard completion to Zeke Moore. Second quarter, up 18-0.
Intercepted on 3rd and 13. Third quarter, up 19-10. Picked off by Maine’s Sam Oppenheimer.
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.
18 of 29 for 252 yards, a touchdown and 2 interceptions. He was 5 of 12 on third and fourth down.
2-yard completion to Evan Dickens on 3rd and 5. First quarter, tied 0-0.
Intercepted. Third quarter, up 20-14. Picked off by Rutgers’s Moses Walker.
78-yard touchdown pass to Dawson Pough on 3rd and 6. Fourth quarter, made it 28-14.
Intercepted on 3rd and 5. Fourth quarter, up 28-21. Picked off by Rutgers’s Moses Walker.
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.
18 of 35 for 223 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
Not drawn: the play-by-play doesn’t add up to the box score.
Week 7 · 2026
W 27-21
vs Pittsburgh
295 yds · 2 TD · 2 INT · QBR 79.6
A wire-to-wire battle — won by 6 at home.
With L. Wright — 2 rec · 122 yds · 1 TD · B. LaFollette — 50 yards per punt · 1 punts · 50 long
The plays that mattered most
78th in passing yards, among all 434 FBS players with a passing row this season, any position
Ratings of the games shown run from -4 to +13 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
5.32133 of 170 QBsSack rate
8.7%147 of 170 QBsSacked on 8.7% of dropbacks (147 of 170) and Adjusted ANY/A trails the field (133 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 58.7% completion on 167 attempts · 50% completion on 24 deep attempts (20+ air yds).
Splits · Per-game
2026 season · 6 games
Home vs Road
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home4g | 208 | 1.0 | 8.0 | 1.5 |
| Road2g | 216 | 1.5 | 6.6 | 0.5 |
First half vs Second half
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-76g | 210 | 1.2 | 7.5 | 1.2 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Bill O'Brien
Pass share
44.4%
168 pass / 210 run
Plays / game
63.0
6 games
Scheme: Run-leaning.
Player standing · 2026
167 pass attempts and 103 carries in 6 games, more passes and runs a game than nearly every FBS quarterback who plays every week.
Recognition
Production · CFB Zeitgeist Score
from 2 outlets
Midseason Crossroads: Mason McKenzie, Boston College Head to Georgia Tech for High-Stakes ACC Clash
NGSC Sports Oct 22 · 1 outlet
from 11 outlets
Mason McKenzie Will 'Put His Body on the Line,' But Boston College Must Protect Its QB
Sports Illustrated +1 Sep 8 · 2 outlets
Locked OnBoston College’s Evan Dickens explodes at Practice While QB Mason McKenzie Steps UpAug 20Locked OnBoston College 2026 Preview—Can Evan Dickens, Mason McKenzie, and Defense shock the ACC?Aug 27Locked OnBoston College's Road Test vs. Cincinnati begins—Can Mason McKenzie Deliver?Sep 12Locked OnBoston College and Mason McKenzie Must transform Passing Approach vs. MaineSep 15Locked OnBoston College, Mason McKenzie, and the Blown chance vs. SMU AnalyzedOct 3Sports Illustrated +1Boston College Quarterbacks Coach Jonathan DiBiaso Speaks on Mason McKenzie's GrowthAug 26
247SportsFive Takeaways: Press Conferences of Mason McKenzie, Ted Roof and Max TuckerAug 4
YardbarkerWatch: Boston College Stars Mason McKenzie & KP Price Interview | 2026 ACC FootballAug 17247SportsBill O'Brien, Mason McKenzie, Max Tucker Speak Following Saturday's DefeatSep 8247Sports“Everybody Has To Earn It” Coach O’Brien Speaks On Roster Spots, The Play Of Mason McKenzie, Update On KahounSep 15
On3Boston College QB competition: Breaking down Mason McKenzie, Grayson Wilson resumes to play in 2026Aug 6Sports IllustratedBC Has an Entirely New QB Room Highlighted by Mason McKenzie: How Have the Backups Fared?Aug 27
Yahoo SportsBC Football QB Mason McKenzie Details Experience from First FBS StartSep 9Locked OnWant Boston College’s Offense to Improve? Benching Mason McKenzie Isn’t the Answer....YetSep 22Locked OnBoston College, Mason McKenzie Need huge Wins Early or Face Brutal OutlookAug 12
Field Level MediaMason McKenzie-led Boston College tops Rutgers in annual Red Bandanna GameSep 12
CBS SportsBoston College holds off Rutgers 28-21 behind Mason McKenzieSep 12
Boston.comMason McKenzie’s two TDs give BC a fourth-quarter lead, but Va. Tech pulls away late to win ACC openerSep 26CBS Sports247SportsSports Illustrated +1Yahoo SportsCBS SportsOn3Each 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 vs Rutgers.
5NEWSOct 22Sports IllustratedOct 13Aura™ · Him Watch
Aura compares how much fans talk about him with how well he plays, each ranked among QBs.
+21aura tax
29th percentile our passing-value metric (weighted expected points added) ranked among 358 QBs
— more hype than the tape.His career
