Michigan State football: Backup QB is Big Ten’s returning completion percentage leader

Michigan State football backup quarterback Tommy Schuster is actually the Big Ten’s returning leader in completion percentage.

You know the old saying, “When you have two quarterbacks, you have none”? Well, Michigan State football may have that problem.

OK, all jokes aside, the Spartans have a more-than-capable backup in the form of North Dakota transfer Tommy Schuster who played five years at the FCS level and passed for over 9,000 yards and 63 touchdowns.

While some were surprised that he decided to transfer to Michigan State to play the role of backup behind No. 1 transfer quarterback in the country Aidan Chiles, he still wanted to get a taste of the Power Four level and he’s doing so as the QB2. It’s not a bad gig to have, especially for a veteran quarterback who feels like he could step in and deliver in case of an injury or emergency situation.

We’ve heard Chiles speak highly of “Touchdown Tommy” and he has a good reason to praise him.

In fact, Schuster happens to be the returning completion percentage leader in the Big Ten for the 2024 season. That’s right, out of all the quarterbacks in the Big Ten who had at least 200 attempts last season, Schuster had the highest completion rate at 70.5%.

Big Ten Completion % Returning Leaders for 2024 🎯 pic.twitter.com/qWgXSWXaUS

— Cody Nagel (@CodyNagel247) August 6, 2024

Is this surprising? Yeah, it shocked me, too. It’s even more surprising to see someone like Schuster ahead of Dillon Gabriel or Drew Allar and Will Howard so low at No. 8 and No. 9 in the Big Ten, respectively.

Now this doesn’t mean that Schuster is going to push Chiles for the starting job because we all know who the starter will be this season, but this just goes to show that the quarterback room improved drastically in one year. So much so, in fact, that Michigan State’s backup quarterback is the returning Big Ten completion percentage leader.

That’s actually wild to say.