Cole Kelley (born October 27, 1997) is an American former professional football quarterback. He played college football for the Arkansas Razorbacks and Southeastern Louisiana Lions. Kelley signed with the Washington Commanders as an undrafted free agent in 2022 but was released prior to the season.
College career Kelley played football and basketball at Teurlings Catholic High School in Lafayette, Louisiana. He joined the University of Arkansas as a four-star recruit in 2016. He started four games as a redshirt freshman in 2017 and two games the following year before transferring to Southeastern Louisiana University in 2019.
2020 season Kelley won the Walter Payton Award for the 2020–21 FCS season, given to the top offensive player in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). He threw for 2,662 yards and 18 touchdowns in 2020. Among these games, he threw for more than 300 yards in every game. He received first-team All-American FCS honors in both 2020 and 2021.
2021 season The 2021 season was the best year for Kelley. He threw for 5,124 yards, 44 touchdowns, and ran for 491 yards and 16 more touchdowns. Among those games was a 647 yard game in a loss at UIW, where he also had 68 attempts. He had a 285.0 passer rating in a game against Northwestern State, which would count as a perfect passer rating for NFL standards. Because of his exceptional performance that year, he was invited to the January 2022 edition of the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl and was named the game MVP.
Statistics
Legend FCS record Bold Career high Season Team Games Passing Rushing 2017 Arkansas 0 0 — Redshirted 2017 Arkansas 9 4 2–2 87 151 57.6 1,038 6.9 8 4 127.5 53 74 1.4 2 2018 Arkansas 9 2 1–1 35 67 52.2 455 6.8 5 5 119.0 28 73 2.6 3 2019 Southeastern 13 0 — 69 93 74.2 810 8.8 10 2 179.1 89 200 2.3 10 2020 Southeastern 7 7 4–3 210 305 68.9 2,662 8.8 18 4 159.0 76 46 0.6 7 2021 Southeastern 13 13 9–4 406 552 73.6 5,124 9.3 44 10 174.2 161 485 3.0 16 FBS career 18 6 3–3 122 218 56.0 1,493 6.8 13 9 124.9 81 147 1.8 5 FCS career 33 20 13–7 685 950 72.1 8,602 9.1 72 16 169.8 326 731 2.2 33
Professional career
Washington Commanders Kelley signed with the Washington Commanders as an undrafted free agent on May 2, 2022, but was released on August 7.
Memphis Showboats On January 28, 2023, Kelley signed with the Memphis Showboats of the United States Football League (USFL). He was released on March 12, 2024.
References
External links
Southeastern Louisiana Lions profile Arkansas Razorbacks profile