Player Dossier

2020-2024

Houston

Donovan Smith

QB • 6'5" • 235 lbs • Las Vegas, NV, USA

Balanced quarterback profileVolume operator

Donovan Smith is a balanced quarterback profile with 22.4 usage in the latest tracked season.

Usage / Role

40%

Rotational offensive role

lowfeatured

Impact Production

34

Developing production for a quarterback

lowelite

Reliability

33

Sporadic game-to-game production

lowhigh

Star Power

52

Limited ceiling signals so far

limitedstar

Career Arc

Value trend by season

Best season by Season Value: 2023 Regular Season · Houston

202121222324

Snapshot

Career Teams
2
Unique Seasons
5
Program Path
Texas Tech • Houston
Peak Game
Peak game by takeover score: Iowa State

Player Story

Donovan Smith built his college career from 2020 through 2024 as a quarterback from Las Vegas, NV wearing No. 1, spending time with Houston and Texas Tech. The clearest part of Donovan Smith's career was his passing...

Read the story

Donovan Smith, QB. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2023 Regular Season · Houston. Donovan Smith is a balanced quarterback profile with 22.4 usage in the latest tracked season.

Stat Footprint

Career production snapshot

Total offense
7,210
Passing yards
6,354
Rushing yards
856
Touchdowns
66

Quick Answers

Donovan Smith quick answers

Latest team and position
Houston · QB
Career Total Offense
7,210
Tracked sample
5 unique seasons · 6 entries · 42 games
Best season
2023 Regular Season · Houston
Top game
Iowa State
Latest roster
No. 1 · Senior
2024 Total offense rank
1,026 total offense · QB 143rd (top 37%) · Big 12 24th (top 13%) · National 185th (top 12%)

Season Ledger

Crawlable season-by-season stats

SeasonTeamGamesTotal OffensePass YdsRush YdsTDOverall
2020 Regular SeasonTexas Tech00000-
2021 PostseasonTexas Tech928225230246.4
2021 Regular SeasonTexas Tech91,054929125846.4
2022 Regular SeasonTexas Tech121,6191,5061132039.6
2023 Regular SeasonHouston123,2292,8004292981.3
2024 Regular SeasonHouston91,026867159747.7

Related Context

Transfer Portal History

Matched portal movement

SeasonPathMovementValueDate
2023Texas Tech to HoustonP4 to P486.1Dec 5, 2022

Donovan Smith played QB for Texas Tech and Houston. Across 5 tracked seasons, Donovan Smith recorded 6,354 passing yards, 856 rushing yards, and 43 receiving yards. His top tracked season came in 2023 with Houston.

Player insights

Lead takeaway

Best season by value score: 2023 Regular Season

Houston paired 3,229 primary output with 59.9 efficiency.

Supporting note

2022 Regular Season role shape

pass-led usage with 44.2 efficiency.

Supporting note

Career value cooled off

2024 Regular Season fell back from the prior stop by season value score.

Supporting note

Multi-stop career journey

Production spans 2 team stops, with role shifts visible across Texas Tech, Houston.

Supporting note

Peak game by takeover score: Kansas State

Loss shaped by high passing volume and turnover pressure. It landed in the 100th 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.

2022 Regular Season · Texas Tech

Games

12

Primary Metric / G

134.9

Efficiency

44.2

Usage

20.3

Consistency

18.7

Best Game by takeover score

Kansas State

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.

123456789101112

Chronological game order.

Game by game trend chart. Murray State: 230. Houston: 379. NC State: 205. Texas: 373. Kansas State: 379. Oklahoma State: 0. West Virginia: 33. Baylor: 0. TCU: 6. Kansas: 6. Iowa State: 2. Oklahoma: 6

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. Murray State: 18 by 83.1. Houston: 78 by 51.5. NC State: 47 by 46.4. Texas: 71 by 61.3. Kansas State: 66 by 56.9. Oklahoma State: 1 by 33.3. West Virginia: 5 by 73.1. Baylor: 2 by 0. TCU: 4 by 15. Kansas: 2 by 40. Iowa State: 2 by 10. Oklahoma: 1 by 60

Split Comparison

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

Wins147 · Games = 7 · +29 vs Losses
Losses118 · Games = 5 · -29 vs Wins

Game Log

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

12 games

Featured metric

Total Offense

Top game by takeover score

Kansas State

Best efficiency game

83.1 vs Murray State

Result
Sun 11/27vs OklahomaW 51-486016616
Sun 11/20@ Iowa StateW 14-101022111
Sun 11/13vs KansasW 43-280100.0004016616
Sat 11/5@ TCUL 24-3415461.5005
Sat 10/29vs BaylorL 17-450200.0010
Sat 10/22vs West VirginiaW 48-104430100.01073.113303
Sat 10/8@ Oklahoma StateL 31-410100.00033.3
Sat 10/1@ Kansas State300-yard game · 3+ TDL 28-37344835970.82256.918201.10111
Sat 9/24vs Texas300-yard game · 3+ TDW 37-34385633167.92061.315422.80110
Sat 9/17@ NC StateL 14-27213621458.31246.411-9-0.8015
Sat 9/10vs Houston300-yard game · 3+ TDW 33-30365835162.12351.520281.40127
Sun 9/4vs Murray State3+ TDW 63-10141622187.54083.1294.5005

Player Story

Donovan Smith story

Donovan Smith built his college career from 2020 through 2024 as a quarterback from Las Vegas, NV wearing No. 1, spending time with Houston and Texas Tech. The clearest part of Donovan Smith's career was his passing role: 6,354 passing yards, 45 touchdown passes, 890 attempts, and 856 rushing yards across 42 career games in the available record. His largest box-score season came in 2023 with Houston. 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 856 rushing yards and 43 receiving yards, giving the story more than a single-category snapshot. With 42 career games in the available record, his career has enough shape to show both opportunity and production across Houston and Texas Tech.

The arc is straightforward: Donovan Smith 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

    Texas Tech

    2020-2022

    Opening stop

  2. 2

    Houston

    2023-2024

    Final stop

Season Value Progression

202020212021202220232024
SeasonTeamPrimaryEfficiencyUsageDelta
2020 Regular SeasonTexas Tech0
2021 PostseasonTexas Tech1,33658.719.11,336
2021 Regular SeasonTexas Tech1,33658.719.10
2022 Regular SeasonTexas Tech1,61944.220.3283
2023 Regular SeasonHouston3,22959.9391,610
2024 Regular SeasonHouston1,02645.422.4-2,203

Signature Performances

Top Games

#1 Featured game

vs Iowa State

Week 11 · W 41-38 · Conference game

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

372

Total Offense

87.6 takeover

372 total offense with 71.3 efficiency.

#2

@ Kansas State

Week 5 · L 28-37 · Conference game

379

Total Offense

85.6 takeover

Loss shaped by high passing volume and turnover pressure.

379 total offense with 56.9 efficiency.

#3

vs Houston

Week 2 · W 33-30

379

Total Offense

83.8 takeover

Win shaped by high passing volume and turnover pressure.

379 total offense with 51.5 efficiency.

#4

vs West Virginia

Week 7 · W 41-39 · Conference game

287

Total Offense

81.3 takeover

Win with 287 yards of offense and 71 efficiency.

287 total offense with 71 efficiency.

#5

@ Baylor

Week 10 · W 25-24 · Conference game

302

Total Offense

80 takeover

Win shaped by high passing volume and turnover pressure.

302 total offense with 63.5 efficiency.

Top Seasons

#1 Season by Season Value

2023 Regular Season · Houston

3,229 primary output · 59.9 efficiency · 39 usage

81.3

#2

2024 Regular Season · Houston

47.7

1,026 primary · 45.4 efficiency · 22.4 usage

#3

2021 Postseason · Texas Tech

46.4

1,336 primary · 58.7 efficiency · 19.1 usage

Milestones

12

250+ passing yards

9

300+ total offense

11

3+ TD games

20

Above avg efficiency