Player Dossier

2017-2019

Hawai'i

Cole McDonald

QB • 6'4" • 220 lbs • La Mirada, CA, USA

Balanced quarterback profileVolume operator

Cole McDonald is a balanced quarterback profile with 27.7 usage in the latest tracked season.

Usage / Role

100%

Featured offensive role

lowfeatured

Impact Production

100

Top-tier box-score impact for a quarterback

lowelite

Reliability

100

Regular contributor with several takeover games

lowhigh

Star Power

86

Elite ceiling indicators

limitedstar

Career Arc

Value trend by season

Best season by Season Value: 2018 Postseason · Hawai'i

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Snapshot

Career Teams
1
Unique Seasons
3
Program Path
Hawai'i
Peak Game
Peak game by takeover score: Colorado State

Player Story

Cole McDonald built his college career from 2017 through 2019 as a quarterback from La Mirada, CA wearing No. 13, spending time with Hawai'i. The clearest part of Cole McDonald's career was his passing role: 8,035...

Read the story
2★

Recruit Profile

Class 2016 · Rating 0.7926

Sonora · La Habra, CA

Committed To
Hawai'i
Commit Date
Jan 1, 2016

NFL Draft

Draft Year
2020
Selection
Round 7 · Pick 10
Overall
No. 224
NFL Team
Tennessee Titans

Cole McDonald, QB. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2018 Postseason · Hawai'i. Cole McDonald is a balanced quarterback profile with 27.7 usage in the latest tracked season.

Stat Footprint

Career production snapshot

Total offense
8,896
Passing yards
8,035
Rushing yards
861
Touchdowns
82

Quick Answers

Cole McDonald quick answers

Latest team and position
Hawai'i · QB
Career Total Offense
8,896
Tracked sample
3 unique seasons · 5 entries · 33 games
Best season
2018 Postseason · Hawai'i
Top game
Colorado State
Recruit profile
2-star · Sonora · Hawai'i
High school pipeline
Sonora · 2 FBS recruits · 1 drafted player
NFL Draft
2020 · Round 7 · Pick 10 · Tennessee Titans
Latest roster
No. 13 · Junior
2019 Total offense rank
4,515 total offense · QB 4th (top 2%) · Mountain West 1st (top 1%) · National 4th (top 1%)

Season Ledger

Crawlable season-by-season stats

SeasonTeamGamesTotal OffensePass YdsRush YdsTDOverall
2017 Regular SeasonHawai'i616022138226.7
2018 PostseasonHawai'i136885-17179.5
2018 Regular SeasonHawai'i134,1533,7903633979.5
2019 PostseasonHawai'i14483493-10575.7
2019 Regular SeasonHawai'i144,0323,6453873575.7

Related Context

Cole McDonald played QB for Hawai'i. Across 3 tracked seasons, Cole McDonald recorded 8,035 passing yards, 861 rushing yards, and 82 touchdowns. His top tracked season came in 2018 with Hawai'i.

Player insights

Lead takeaway

Best season by value score: 2018 Postseason

Hawai'i paired 4,221 primary output with 60.4 efficiency.

Supporting note

2019 Postseason role shape

pass-led usage with 64.1 efficiency.

Supporting note

Career value stayed steady

2019 Regular Season tracked close to the prior stop by season value score.

Supporting note

Peak game by takeover score: Air Force

Loss with 445 yards of offense and 65.9 efficiency. It landed in the 92.9th percentile of the selected season.

Analysis workspace

Season Workbench

Filter the strongest season sample, inspect game-level shape, and then drop into the full log without losing the story of the year.

Season Explorer

Understand the selected season before dropping into the full game log.

2019 Postseason · Hawai'i

Games

14

Primary Metric / G

322.5

Efficiency

64.1

Usage

27.7

Consistency

77.1

Best Game by takeover score

Air Force

Hover a point or expand a game row to keep the active game context visible here.

Active game

Hover over a point

Hover or select a game to keep its context visible here without the page shifting around.

Game-by-Game Trend

Follow how the selected stat changes from one game to the next. Spikes mark standout outings, while dips show quieter weeks.

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Chronological game order.

Game by game trend chart. BYU: 483. Arizona: 399. Oregon State: 440. Washington: 247. Central Arkansas: 331. Nevada: 313. Boise State: 305. Air Force: 445. New Mexico: 377. Fresno State: 292. UNLV: 254. San Diego State: 139. Army: 257. Boise State: 233

Volume vs Efficiency

Each dot is a game. Farther right means the player carried more of the workload, and higher means they were more efficient with those chances.

Low volumeHigh quality

High volumeHigh quality

Low volumeLower quality

High volumeLower quality

Volume on the x-axis, quality on the y-axis.

Volume versus efficiency scatter chart. BYU: 57 by 62.5. Arizona: 47 by 60.9. Oregon State: 64 by 58.3. Washington: 41 by 57.2. Central Arkansas: 36 by 80.3. Nevada: 33 by 68.3. Boise State: 49 by 68.7. Air Force: 62 by 65.9. New Mexico: 39 by 77.3. Fresno State: 48 by 55.8. UNLV: 37 by 70.9. San Diego State: 22 by 52.6. Army: 31 by 68.1. Boise State: 48 by 50.2

Split Comparison

Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.

Wins332.6 · Games = 9 · +28.2 vs Losses
Losses304.4 · Games = 5 · -28.2 vs Wins

Game Log

Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.

14 games

Featured metric

Total Offense

Top game by takeover score

Air Force

Best efficiency game

80.3 vs Central Arkansas

Result
Wed 12/25@ BYU300-yard game · 3+ TDW 38-34284649360.94062.511-10-0.9019
Sat 12/7@ Boise StateL 10-31203624455.60150.212-11-0.9009
Sun 12/1vs Army3+ TDW 52-31192925065.53068.1273.50011
Sun 11/24vs San Diego StateW 14-11131914468.41152.63-5-1.7008
Sat 11/16@ UNLVW 21-7202621176.90070.911433.90217
Sun 11/3vs Fresno StateL 38-41214227550.01155.86172.8016
Sat 10/26@ New Mexico3+ TD · Dual-threatW 45-31173023756.71177.3914015.60276
Sun 10/20vs Air Force300-yard game · 3+ TDL 26-56345240465.43165.910414.10015
Sun 10/13@ Boise State3+ TD · Dual-threatL 37-59234125156.13068.78546.80117
Sun 9/29@ Nevada300-yard game · 3+ TDW 54-3253031283.34068.3310.3005
Sun 9/22vs Central Arkansas300-yard game · 3+ TDW 35-16253230078.14180.34317.80021
Sat 9/14@ WashingtonL 20-52223521862.91357.26294.80011
Sun 9/8vs Oregon State300-yard game · 3+ TDW 31-28305242157.74158.312191.60012
Sun 8/25vs Arizona300-yard game · 3+ TDW 45-38294137870.74460.96213.50010

Player Story

Cole McDonald story

Cole McDonald built his college career from 2017 through 2019 as a quarterback from La Mirada, CA wearing No. 13, spending time with Hawai'i. The clearest part of Cole McDonald's career was his passing role: 8,035 passing yards, 70 touchdown passes, 1,004 attempts, and 861 rushing yards across 33 career games in the available record. His largest box-score season came in 2019 with Hawai'i. Those numbers show where he fit, how often the ball or action found him, and how his role developed over time.

Quarterback careers are usually judged first by volume, efficiency, and scoring chances. His career also includes 861 rushing yards, giving the story more than a single-category snapshot. With 33 career games in the available record, his career has enough shape to show both opportunity and production across Hawai'i.

The arc is straightforward: Cole McDonald moved through the depth chart, found a larger role, and turned that opportunity into production that can be understood through standard football numbers.

Career Arc

Track team changes, role shifts, and season-to-season movement.

  1. 1

    Hawai'i

    2017-2019

    Opening stop

Season Value Progression

20172018201820192019
SeasonTeamPrimaryEfficiencyUsageDelta
2017 Regular SeasonHawai'i16059.89.6
2018 PostseasonHawai'i4,22160.436.14,061
2018 Regular SeasonHawai'i4,22160.436.10
2019 PostseasonHawai'i4,51564.127.7294
2019 Regular SeasonHawai'i4,51564.127.70

Signature Performances

Top Games

#1 Featured game

@ Colorado State

Week 1 · W 43-34 · Conference game

Win with balanced pass-rush production and strong creator value.

514

Total Offense

88.3 takeover

514 total offense with 84.6 efficiency.

#2

vs Air Force

Week 8 · L 26-56 · Conference game

445

Total Offense

86 takeover

Loss with 445 yards of offense and 65.9 efficiency.

445 total offense with 65.9 efficiency.

#3

@ BYU

Week 1 · W 38-34 · Postseason

483

Total Offense

85.5 takeover

Win with 483 yards of offense and 62.5 efficiency.

483 total offense with 62.5 efficiency.

#4

vs Oregon State

Week 2 · W 31-28

440

Total Offense

83.1 takeover

Win with 440 yards of offense and 58.3 efficiency.

440 total offense with 58.3 efficiency.

#5

@ Army

Week 3 · L 21-28

340

Total Offense

78.5 takeover

Loss with 340 yards of offense and 69.4 efficiency.

340 total offense with 69.4 efficiency.

Top Seasons

#1 Season by Season Value

2018 Postseason · Hawai'i

4,221 primary output · 60.4 efficiency · 36.1 usage

79.5

#2

2018 Regular Season · Hawai'i

79.5

4,221 primary · 60.4 efficiency · 36.1 usage

#3

2019 Postseason · Hawai'i

75.7

4,515 primary · 64.1 efficiency · 27.7 usage

Milestones

18

250+ passing yards

16

300+ total offense

16

3+ TD games

19

Above avg efficiency