cfb zeitgeistZeitgeist
OFFSEASON · SUMMER 2026 · COMMITMENT SEASON
Heisman / Players / CJ West /Indiana

CJ West

DL · Indiana · Sr · #8

Limited signal — not enough coverage for a story yet.

NOW IN NFLSan Francisco — drafted 2025, Rd 4, Pick 11, #113 overall

Where He Ended Up · NFL

San FranciscoEntering 2nd NFL season

#113Rd 4 · Pick 11
San FranciscoEntering 2nd NFL season

DL · INDIANA · BIG TEN

CJ West

  • 4
  • #8
  • 6-2 | 315 lb
  • La Grange Park, IL

CFB Zeitgeist DL Score

Awaiting

Heisman Heat

#2456

<1% win probability

Fan Belief

Awaiting

Player-specific FI not yet ingested. Falls back to team mood below.

Respect Gap

Awaiting

Coming online with player-level FI.

Reality Gap

Awaiting

Coming online with player-level FI.

ACCOLADE PROBABILITY

Heisman

<1%

TOP DEFENSE AWARD

Nagurski

CONSENSUS

All-American

Player Standing · 17 rungs

Tier 0 · Not on team

R01 · Scout team / redshirt

Scout team / redshirt. Developing behind the depth chart.

Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex

Career arc · Season-by-season Standing

4 seasons on the ladder

Peak: R09 All-Conference HM / 2nd team · 2023

2021

Kent State · DL

2022

Kent State · DL

2023

Kent State · DL

R09 · All-Conference HM / 2nd team

Recognized

2024

Indiana · DL

NFL Draft 2025 · Rd 4, Pick 11 · #113 overall · San Francisco

Career Arc

HS
Recruit
★★★
#1167 national
CFB
College
2 teams
2021–2024
NFL
NFL Draft
R4 &middot; #113
San Francisco &middot; 2025

Identity & Role

The durable bio layer: position, size, hometown, and roster role.

PositionDL
Class4
Jersey8
Measurements6-2 | 315 lb
HometownLa Grange Park, IL
Primary teamIndiana

Recruiting Pedigree

How big the prospect was before college, and whether the later career arc beat that expectation.

Top pedigree 3-star No. 752 recruit
Composite rating 0.8739 HighSchool
Signed with Indiana 2023
Origin Greensburg Community Greensburg, IN, USA
Class Profile Context
2023 3-star | 0.8739 No. 752 recruit | HighSchool | Indiana
2020 3-star | 0.8511 No. 1167 recruit | HighSchool

Transfer Arc

Portal movement changes role, context, and perception. This keeps that path in one place.

Portal moves 1 Programs changed on file
Latest destination Indiana 2024
Transfer stars 3-star CFBD transfer rating context
Eligibility Immediate Apr 16, 2024
Season Move Context
2024 Kent State -> Indiana 3-star | 0.8900 | Immediate

Heisman Lens · 2024 Season · Final

Where the player landed at the end of the listed season — final nowcast rank, win/finalist/ballot probabilities, and the cleanest official Heisman placement on file.

HIGH CONFIDENCE· through week 16
Current nowcast#2456Latest modeled ballot order
Season forecast#2681Where the full season sim points
Win probability0.0%Chance to actually win the trophy
Finalist probability0.0%Chance to make the finalist tier
Ballot probability0.0%Chance to appear anywhere on a ballot
Best official finish--Best completed Heisman placement on file

Heisman Futures

Not yet listed on major futures markets.

No achievements unlocked yet this season.

Selector Grid · 2025

AP
FWAA
AFCA
WCFF
SN
SI

Selector recognition fills in once the major honors lists (AP, FWAA, AFCA, Walter Camp, Sporting News, SI) are scraped and ingested.

NIL · Recruiting · NFL Draft

Market value, pedigree & pro outcome

Recruit stars

★★★☆☆

to Indiana

Composite

0.8739

#752 national

NFL Draft

2025 · Rd 4, Pick 11

#113 overall · San Francisco

Today’s Hot-Take

The Hot-Take engine fires when this player’s percentile profile crosses a defensible threshold (top 10% in a cohort, 100+ snap sample). When it’s quiet, the model is honoring its “must be defensible” rule.

Anti-Take

PENDING

The contrarian read fires when the rules-engine detects a stat that complicates the Hot-Take. Quiet here means the model hasn’t found a defensible counter yet — not that one doesn’t exist.

The Room on CJ West

Fan sentiment · Awaiting signal

The Room reads fan conversation around a player — who’s talking, what they believe, and how that shifts. It publishes once weekly volume rebuilds; for most players that’s in-season, when game-week chatter spikes.

Cohort divergence map

Cohort divergence reads how different fanbases talk about this player. Returns once weekly mentions clear the publish floor.

Rival Radar

How rival fanbases talk about CJ West

No rival-bucket mentions in the current season.

Signature Story

Awaiting candidate metric

He hasn't written his page yet — we'll start filling it in when there are enough snaps to rank against his peers.

Signature Moment

No signature moment on the ledger yet.

Returns once this player puts together a multi-game body of work — single-game flashes alone don't clear the bar.

A 3-act season arc returns once this player has six or more games on the ledger.

Scenario Explorer

Available for players with a qualifying signature metric (passing yards, rushing yards, receiving yards, sacks, etc.). The slider projects how a season finishes if the current pace holds.

Why this is a rare defensive case

The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.

CJ West is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on Indiana's defense, with 2.0 sacks, 7.5 tackles for loss, and -- interceptions through the current loaded season. For a defender, the question is never just production; it is whether elite disruption and team context can become nationally undeniable.

Current place #2456 0.0% win | 0.0% finalist
Role load -- Role share still loading
Profile quirk Transfer path 1 portal move

2024 Season · Final

Traditional stats first. Advanced context underneath.

Last season

DEF season snapshot

2024 season snapshot | final

2024 season snapshot | finalData: CFBD player stats + local Heisman modelPeer context: same position + same level
Total tackles 42 14 solo | #834/4942 (83rd pct)
TFL 7.5 Backfield disruption | #234/4972 (95th pct)
Sacks 2.0 Pass-rush finish | #491/4972 (90th pct)
Player identity What kind of player is this?

30-second read

What kind of player is this?

High-disruption defender | High-volume tackler against FBS defenders.

High-disruption defenderHigh-volume tackler

2024 Season · Final

2024 season snapshot | final

Tackling & Disruption

TOT
42 83rd
SOLO
14 67th
TFL
7.5 95th
SACK
2.0 90th

Coverage & Takeaways

PD
1 43rd

Game Log

Week-by-week box

No per-game rows for this season yet — the table fills in as box scores arrive.

Season-by-season tables Career rows + per-season box score

Traditional history

Traditional Stats

Season rows up top, career context at the bottom.

Season rows Career row

Season context · Team result + system

2021Kent State7-6HC: Sean Lewis · Run-heavy, fast tempo
2022Kent State5-7HC: Sean Lewis · Run-leaning
2023Kent State1-11HC: Kenni Burns · Run-leaning
2024Indiana11-2HC: Curt Cignetti · Run-leaning
SeasonTeam
2024Indiana42147.52.01----
2023Kent State39196.01.0------
2022Kent State26134.51.0------
2021Kent State42229.05.01----
Career4 loaded seasons1496827.09.02----
Advanced layer Usage, value, and context

Advanced metrics second

Advanced Metrics

Usage, value, and opponent-adjusted context.

Usage Value Context
Disruption stats

TFL, sacks, and QB hurries are grouped together because defensive Heisman cases are usually built on visible havoc, not on tackle counts alone.

Coverage splash

Pass breakups, interceptions, and forced fumbles matter because national awards voters respond to plays that change possessions and highlight reels.

Peer percentile

Every percentile is compared against players at the same position and level, so an FBS quarterback is judged against FBS quarterbacks, not the whole sport.

Traditional first

The top tables stick to the stats fans already know from broadcasts and box scores. Advanced context is pushed underneath instead of replacing the basics.

INT -- -- pick-six TD
Pass breakups 1 Coverage disruption | #1241/2184 (43rd pct)
QB pressures 0 Quarterback hurries
Open full stat explorer
0 metrics visible Showing all metrics
Group Metric Value Rank Pct Why it matters
Defense Total tackles 42 #834/4942 83rd pct Volumevs FBS DEF
Defense TFL 7.5 #234/4972 95th pct Disruptionvs FBS DEF
Defense Sacks 2.0 #491/4972 90th pct Disruptionvs FBS DEF
Defense Pass breakups 1 #1241/2184 43rd pct Coveragevs FBS DEF
Defense Solo tackles 14 #1520/4584 67th pct Volumevs FBS DEF
Defense Fumbles recovered 1 #103/736 86th pct Takeawaysvs FBS DEF
Ball Security Fumbles lost 0 #1/773 100th pct Turnoversvs FBS DEF

Player Standing

Universal 17-step ladder. Tier pills below; accolade streams nested.

AWAITING CLASSIFICATION

On-team2-deepStartingRecognizedEliteApex

AWAITING CLASSIFICATION · Rung None of 16

Why he’s here

Standing classification populates when honors, Heisman, and roster signals all align.

What moves him up

What moves him down

Accolade streams

StatusAwaiting tracker

The Lombardi award tracker integrates per-week probability once a dedicated scraper for this award lands. Confirmed past winners and finalists for this player will surface here.

Splits

Per-game splits

Splits fill in once box scores from at least three games land for this season.

Box-score Savant card waits for a season-stat snapshot above the cohort floor. Returns once enough box-score volume lands.

Advanced Savant · DL · 2024

Percentile Card

Advanced opponent-adjusted percentile bars are coming soon for this player.

P4G5All FBS
EPA / dropback
awaiting
CPOE
awaiting
Success rate
awaiting
Explosive rate (20+)
awaiting
aDOT
awaiting
Deep-ball accuracy
awaiting
Pressure-to-sack
awaiting
3rd-down EPA
awaiting
Red-zone TD rate
awaiting
Play-action EPA
awaiting
Scramble EPA
awaiting
Turnover-worthy play rate
awaiting

Advanced Savant

Opponent-adjusted advanced metrics with a cohort filter.

Advanced opponent-adjusted metrics are coming soon for this player. Selected cohort: P4.
Peer Comparator returns once this player clears the Savant metric floor (4+ scored bars).
DNA Match awaiting data — similarity scores compute once season stats clear the volume gate for this position cohort.

Supporting Cast · Scheme

Staff and system around the player

2025 season

Head Coach

Curt Cignetti

Pass share

38.7%

404 pass / 641 run

Plays / game

65.3

16 games

OL sack rate (allowed)

7.3%

275 dropbacks · PBP

Scheme: Run-heavy.

Coaching Lineage · 2021–2024

2 coaches
2021
Tom Allen
Indiana
2022
Tom Allen
Indiana
2023
Tom Allen
Indiana
2024
Curt Cignetti
Indiana
era →

Coaching transition mid-career: Tom Allen → Curt Cignetti. Worth noting in scheme + development context.

Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster

Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.

HometownLa Grange Park, IL
Height6'2"
Weight315 lb
Class4
PositionDL
Jersey8

Trophy Case · Confirmed honors

What the selectors said

1 entries
🎖

ALL-CONFERENCE

All-Conf mention (2023)

All-MAC

Trophy Case · Detail

Every honor on the ledger, broken out by stream and selector.

All-Conference

1 all-conference honor

Conference-level recognition helps anchor whether a player is merely statistically loud or actually viewed as elite within his competitive lane.

Honors Timeline

Season-end distinction and week-by-week recognition on one timeline.

Season Honor Scope Team / Selector Context
2023 All-MAC all_conference Kent State | MAC DL

Heisman By Year

Modeled rank and official finish by season.

Season Team Role Latest Model Forecast Win Finalist Official Finish Points Context
2024 Indiana DL4 #2456 #2681 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W16 snapshot | Big Ten
2023 Kent State DL4 #13795 #14554 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W19 snapshot | Mid-American
2022 Kent State DL4 #12342 #12721 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W20 snapshot | Mid-American
2021 Kent State DL4 #10718 #11343 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W20 snapshot | Mid-American

Roster Timeline

Team, conference, and class by season.

Season Team Conference Pos Class Bio
2024 Indiana Big Ten DL 4 No. 8 | 6-2 | 315 lb | La Grange Park, IL
2023 Kent State Mid-American DL 4 No. 8 | 6-2 | 315 lb | La Grange Park, IL
2022 Kent State Mid-American DL 4 No. 8 | 6-2 | 315 lb | La Grange Park, IL
2021 Kent State Mid-American DL 4 No. 8 | 6-2 | 315 lb | La Grange Park, IL