cfb zeitgeistZeitgeist
OFFSEASON · SUMMER 2026 · COMMITMENT SEASON
Heisman / Players / Darrell Prater /Jacksonville State

Darrell Prater

DL · Jacksonville State · Jr · #96

Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.

21 TACKLES · 3.5 SACKS

2026 TRANSFERTransferred Jacksonville State → Illinois for 2026

Where He Ended Up · Transfer

Transferred to Illinois

2025Jacksonville State
2026Illinois

DL · JACKSONVILLE STATE · CONFERENCE USA

Darrell Prater

  • 3
  • #96
  • 6-3 | 300 lb
  • Fort Payne, AL

CFB Zeitgeist Score

52

Mid-pack in the position cohort. Carried by sacks at the 91st percentile.

Heisman Heat

#12926

<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 2 · Starter

R06 · Starter

Starter. A locked-in starting role.

Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex

Career Arc

HS
Recruit
No recruit profile
CFB
College
Jacksonville State
2023–2025
NFL
NFL Draft
Not drafted (yet)

Identity & Role

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

PositionDL
Class3
Jersey96
Measurements6-3 | 300 lb
HometownFort Payne, AL
Primary teamJacksonville State

Recruiting Pedigree

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

Top pedigree Not on file No matched recruiting profile in the loaded archive
Composite rating -- Composite rating unavailable for this player
Signed with -- Commitment history unavailable
Origin -- Hometown and high school unavailable
Class Profile Context
No recruiting profile is on file for this player.

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 Illinois 2026
Transfer stars 3-star CFBD transfer rating context
Eligibility Immediate Jan 21, 2026
Season Move Context
2026 Jacksonville State -> Illinois 3-star | 0.8600 | 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#12926Latest modeled ballot order
Season forecast#12964Where 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.

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 Darrell Prater

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 Darrell Prater

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.

Season Pace · Projection

Where the defensive totals stand

projecting to 13-game
Through 10g
21Tackles
4Tackles for loss
3.5Sacks
Per game
2Tackles
0.4Tackles for loss
0.3Sacks
Projected (13g)
27Tackles
5.2Tackles for loss
4.5Sacks

To hit 80-tackle season (currently 21): needs 19.7/game over remaining 3.

To hit 100-tackle season (currently 21): needs 26.3/game over remaining 3.

To hit 6-sack season (currently 3.5): needs 0.8/game over remaining 3.

To hit 10-sack season (currently 3.5): needs 2.2/game over remaining 3.

Why this is a rare defensive case

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

Darrell Prater is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on Jacksonville State's defense, with 3.5 sacks, 4.0 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 #12926 0.0% win | 0.0% finalist
Role load -- Role share still loading
Profile quirk Defensive rarity 3.5 sacks | 4.0 TFL

2025 Season · Final

Traditional stats first. Advanced context underneath.

Last season

DEF season snapshot

2025 season snapshot | final

2025 season snapshot | finalData: CFBD player stats + local Heisman modelPeer context: same position + same level
Total tackles 21 13 solo | #1929/4942 (61st pct)
TFL 4.0 Backfield disruption | #738/4972 (85th pct)
Sacks 3.5 Pass-rush finish | #233/4972 (95th pct)
Player identity What kind of player is this?

30-second read

What kind of player is this?

High-disruption defender against FBS defenders.

High-disruption defender

2025 Season · Final

2025 season snapshot | final

Tackling & Disruption

TOT
21 61st
SOLO
13 65th
TFL
4.0 85th
SACK
3.5 95th

Game Log · Week-by-week

2025 season · 10 games

Box score · CFBD
WkOppTKLSOLOTFLSACKINTPDNote
Wk 1L 10-17@ UCF210.00.00
Wk 2W 34-24vs Liberty220.00.00
Wk 4W 45-10vs Murray State100.50.50
Wk 5L 25-42@ Southern Miss110.00.00
Wk 7W 29-27@ Sam Houston110.00.00
Wk 12W 35-26vs Kennesaw State100.00.00
Wk 13L 21-27@ Florida International332.02.002 sacks
Wk 14W 37-34vs Western Kentucky220.00.00
Wk 15L 15-19vs Kennesaw State621.51.00Season-high 6 tackles
BowlW 17-13vs Troy210.00.00
Total21134.03.50
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

2023Jacksonville State9-4HC: Rich Rodriguez · Run-heavy, fast tempo
2025Jacksonville State9-5HC: Charles Kelly · Run-heavy
SeasonTeam
2025Jacksonville State21134.03.5------
2023Jacksonville State1481.51.0------
Career2 loaded seasons35215.54.5------
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 0 Coverage disruption
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 21 #1929/4942 61st pct Volumevs FBS DEF
Defense TFL 4.0 #738/4972 85th pct Disruptionvs FBS DEF
Defense Sacks 3.5 #233/4972 95th pct Disruptionvs FBS DEF
Defense Solo tackles 13 #1622/4584 65th pct Volumevs 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

2025 season · 10 games

Home/Road · Win/Loss · Season halves

Home vs Road

TKL/gTFL/gSACK/gPD/g
Home6g2.30.30.20.0
Road4g1.80.50.50.0

Win vs Loss

TKL/gTFL/gSACK/gPD/g
Wins6g1.50.10.10.0
Losses4g3.00.90.80.0

First half vs Second half

TKL/gTFL/gSACK/gPD/g
Weeks 1-76g1.50.10.10.0
Weeks 8+4g3.00.90.80.0

Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.

Savant · Box-rate percentiles

Where this profile ranks vs the DL cohort

52Mid-pack
6 metrics · season cumulative

Elite: sacks (91st). Concern: passes defended (17th).

Sacks#233 / 2975 · 91st pct
3.5defe
Tackles for loss#736 / 2975 · 73rd pct
4.0defe
Solo tackles#1622 / 2975 · 44th pct
13defe
Tackles#1929 / 2975 · 34th pct
21defe
QB hurries#1662 / 2975 · 22nd pct
0defe
Passes defended#1916 / 2975 · 18th pct
0defe

Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.

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 · Fingerprint match

Three closest profiles by box-rate percentile

3 peers · 6 metrics
Darrell PraterJacksonville StateMichael MontgomerySouthern Miss· 63% simJonJon VaughnsUCLA· 62% simJackson KuwatchMiami (OH)· 61% sim
Sacks
91
Prater
89
Montgomery
63
Vaughns
96
Kuwatch
Tackles for loss
73
Prater
85
Montgomery
85
Vaughns
96
Kuwatch
Solo tackles
44
Prater
82
Montgomery
96
Vaughns
95
Kuwatch
Tackles
34
Prater
99
Montgomery
99
Vaughns
98
Kuwatch
QB hurries
22
Prater
22
Montgomery
22
Vaughns
55
Kuwatch
Passes defended
18
Prater
67
Montgomery
48
Vaughns
48
Kuwatch

Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.

Player DNA

The 3-Tech Penetrator

Disruptive interior rusher who lives in the backfield.

IDL

His 2025 production profile sits closest to C.J. Clark’s 2022 season.

C.J. Clark

91%match

NC State · 2022

#2

Anisi Purcell

BYU · 2025

90%
#3

Cody Sigler

Arkansas State · 2025

All-Sun Belt
89%
#4

DJ Dale

Alabama · 2022

88%
#5

Leonard Payne Jr.

Fresno State · 2021

85%

Matches C.J. on

Sack rate
Weight
Height

Not enough data yet for this comparison.

As a junior, his production profile tracks closest to Mehki Wingo's junior season at LSU (2023).

Mehki Wingo

79%match

LSU · 2023

#2

Jeffson Lafontant

UCF · 2025

76%
#3

Joshua Farmer

Florida State · 2023

All-ACCNFL Rd 4
76%
#4

DJ Dale

Alabama · 2022

74%
#5

Gracen Halton

Oklahoma · 2024

NFL Rd 4
74%

Matches Mehki on

Class year
TFL rate
Weight

Differs from Mehki on

Height (higher)

Supporting Cast · Scheme

Staff and system around the player

2025 season

Head Coach

Charles Kelly

Pass share

33.8%

328 pass / 642 run

Plays / game

69.3

14 games

OL sack rate (allowed)

7.8%

243 dropbacks · PBP

Scheme: Run-heavy.

Coaching Lineage · 2023–2025

2 coaches
2023
Rich Rodriguez
Jacksonville State
2025
Charles Kelly
Jacksonville State
era →

Coaching transition mid-career: Rich Rodriguez → Charles Kelly. 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.

HometownFort Payne, AL
Height6'3"
Weight300 lb
Class3
PositionDL
Jersey96

Trophy Case · Detail

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

Honors

No formal honors on the ledger yet

All-America, all-conference, player-of-the-week, watch-list, and postseason awards land here when they're earned. The absence is the signal: most players never collect formal honors, and that's its own kind of context.

Honors Timeline

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

Season Honor Scope Team / Selector Context
No formal honors on the ledger yet. All-America, all-conference, weekly awards, watch lists, and postseason trophies land here when they’re earned.

Heisman By Year

Modeled rank and official finish by season.

Season Team Role Latest Model Forecast Win Finalist Official Finish Points Context
2024 Jacksonville State DL3 #12926 #12964 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W16 snapshot | Conference USA
2023 Jacksonville State DL3 #10646 #10607 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W19 snapshot | Conference USA

Roster Timeline

Team, conference, and class by season.

Season Team Conference Pos Class Bio
2025 Jacksonville State Conference USA DL 3 No. 96 | 6-3 | 300 lb | Fort Payne, AL
2024 Jacksonville State Conference USA DL 3 No. 96 | 6-3 | 300 lb | Fort Payne, AL
2023 Jacksonville State Conference USA DL 3 No. 96 | 6-3 | 300 lb | Fort Payne, AL