Will Rogers: QB · Mississippi State · #2.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Will Rogers
Picks you apart underneath and protects the ball. Two seasons in the Mississippi State quarterback room to date. On tape: 419 passing yards and 3 passing TD against Memphis, Week 3, 2021.
Play style
High-percentage passer who protects the ball. Loses the matchup on improvisation.
Checkdown vs gunslinger · 3rd-and-long
Where the completions actually land
58.6% completion on 3rd-and-8+, but only 24.6% conversion-per-dropback — 55.9% 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
No outlet on our list has written about this player by name this season.
The Clarion-Ledger Oct 17Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Season | Team | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Mississippi State | 505 | 683 | 73.9% | 4,739 | 6.9 | 36 | 9 | 147.0 | 64 |
| 2020 | Mississippi State | 239 | 346 | 69.1% | 1,976 | 5.7 | 11 | 7 | 123.5 | 23 |
| Career | 744 | 1,029 | 72.3% | 6,715 | 6.5 | 47 | 16 | 139.1 | 50 |
| Season | Team | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Mississippi State | 62 | −97 | −1.6 | 0 | 14 |
| 2020 | Mississippi State | 30 | −41 | −1.4 | 1 | 18 |
| Career | 92 | −138 | −1.5 | 1 | 18 |
Game log · Week-by-week
2021 season · 12 games
Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Wk | Opp | CMP/ATT | YDS | TD | INT | YPA | QBR | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 35-34vs Louisiana Tech | 39/47 | 370 | 3 | 1 | 7.9 | 40.8 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 2 | W 24-10vs NC State | 33/49 | 294 | 2 | 0 | 6.0 | 77.7 | Clean 2-TD game |
| Wk 3 | L 29-31@ Memphis | 50/67 | 419 | 3 | 0 | 6.3 | 64.7 | Season-high 419 yds |
| Wk 4 | L 25-28vs LSU | 47/62 | 371 | 3 | 1 | 6.0 | 75.2 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 5 | W 26-22@ No. 15 Texas A&M | 46/59 | 408 | 3 | 0 | 6.9 | 93.1 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 7 | L 9-49vs No. 5 Alabama | 35/55 | 300 | 0 | 3 | 5.5 | 44.4 | 3 INTs — rough day |
| Wk 8 | W 45-6@ Vanderbilt | 41/57 | 384 | 4 | 2 | 6.7 | 69.4 | 4 TD passes |
| Wk 9 | W 31-17vs No. 12 Kentucky | 36/39 | 344 | 1 | 0 | 8.8 | 87.8 | |
| Wk 10 | L 28-31@ Arkansas | 36/48 | 417 | 4 | 1 | 8.7 | 87.3 | 4 TD passes |
| Wk 11 | W 43-34@ No. 16 Auburn | 44/55 | 415 | 6 | 0 | 7.5 | 90.7 | 6 TD passes |
| Wk 12 | W 55-10vs Tennessee State | 28/34 | 391 | 5 | 0 | 11.5 | 94.2 | 5 TD passes |
| Wk 13 | L 21-31vs No. 8 Ole Miss | 38/58 | 336 | 1 | 0 | 5.8 | 54.3 | |
| Total | 473/630 | 4449 | 35 | 8 | 7.1 | — |
Week 11 · 2021
W 43-34
at Auburn
415 yds · 6 TD · 0 INT · QBR 90.7
Edged out Auburn on the road in a shootout.
With D. Johnson — 62 rush yds (8 car) · 4 rec · 40 yds · 1 TD · J. Marks — 7 rec · 30 yds · 17 rush yds (6 car)
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 663 passing plays (489 completions) against the box score's 683 attempts (505 completions), and the depth buckets use play-by-play.
Adjusted ANY/A
6.8687 of 204 QBsSack rate
4.5%49 of 204 QBsRarely sacked (49 of 204 QBs) and still 87 of 204 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 73.9% completion on 683 attempts · 49 deep completions averaging 28.1 yds.
2 seasons under Mike Leach, all pass-heavy, fast tempo offenses — 11-13 over that span.
Splits · Per-game
2021 season · 12 games
Home vs Road
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home7g | 344 | 2.1 | 7.4 | 0.7 |
| Road5g | 409 | 4.0 | 7.2 | 0.6 |
First half vs Second half
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-76g | 360 | 2.3 | 6.4 | 0.8 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 381 | 3.5 | 8.2 | 0.5 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Mike Leach
Pass share
72.5%
702 pass / 266 run
Plays / game
80.7
12 games
Scheme: Pass-heavy, fast tempo.
Player standing · 2021
683 pass attempts, 62 carries and 1 catch in 12 games, more passes and runs a game than nearly every FBS quarterback who plays every week.
Surprisingly productive for a quarterback with no award recognition yet — top-1% completion rate, top-2% overall passing production.2021 profile
Recognition
Production · CFB Zeitgeist Score
How it ended
Two seasons at Mississippi State, 6,715 passing yards — the college career is complete.
