CFB Zeitgeist Score
50
Mid-pack in the position cohort. Carried by sacks at the 89th percentile.
Dominic Oliver
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
20 TACKLES · 3 SACKS
2026 Outlook
Returning to Western Kentucky for 2026
2026 Depth chart
Returning starter
Linebacker · Western Kentucky
Returning around him
2026 Award watch
No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)
Western Kentucky · Last season: 9-4 · Talent rank #100 · 2026 recruiting class #96
LB · WESTERN KENTUCKY · CONFERENCE USA
CFB Zeitgeist Score
50
Mid-pack in the position cohort. Carried by sacks at the 89th percentile.
Heisman Heat
#14626
<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 LB AWARD
Butkus
—
CONSENSUS
All-American
—
Player Standing · 17 rungs
Tier 2 · StarterPart-time starter. Splitting first-team reps.
Career Arc
The durable bio layer: position, size, hometown, and roster role.
How big the prospect was before college, and whether the later career arc beat that expectation.
| Class | Profile | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 3-star | 0.8389 | No. 1491 recruit | HighSchool | San Diego State |
Portal movement changes role, context, and perception. This keeps that path in one place.
| Season | Move | Context |
|---|---|---|
| No transfer portal moves on file for this player. | ||
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 16Heisman Futures
Not yet listed on major futures markets.
Selector Grid · 2025
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 San Diego State
Composite
0.8389
#1491 national
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
PENDINGThe 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.
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 reads how different fanbases talk about this player. Returns once weekly mentions clear the publish floor.
Rival Radar
No rival-bucket mentions in the current season.
Signature Story
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.
Season Pace · Projection
Where the defensive totals stand
To hit 80-tackle season (currently 20): needs 15/game over remaining 4.
To hit 100-tackle season (currently 20): needs 20/game over remaining 4.
To hit 6-sack season (currently 3): needs 0.8/game over remaining 4.
To hit 10-sack season (currently 3): needs 1.8/game over remaining 4.
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Dominic Oliver is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on Western Kentucky's defense, with 3.0 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.
Traditional stats first. Advanced context underneath.
Last season
2025 season snapshot | final
30-second read
High-disruption defender against FBS defenders.
2025 season snapshot | final
Tackling & Disruption
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 9 games
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 55-6vs North Alabama | 5 | 4 | 2.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 5 tackles |
| Wk 2 | L 21-45@ Toledo | 5 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 5 | W 27-22@ Missouri State | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 8 | L 6-25vs Florida International | 2 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 9 | W 28-27@ Louisiana Tech | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 10 | W 35-16vs New Mexico State | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 13 | L 10-13@ LSU | 3 | 3 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 14 | L 34-37@ Jacksonville State | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Bowl | W 27-16@ Southern Miss | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 20 | 11 | 4.0 | 3.0 | — | 0 |
Traditional history
Season rows up top, career context at the bottom.
Season context · Team result + system
| Season | Team | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Western Kentucky | 20 | 11 | 4.0 | 3.0 | -- | -- | -- |
| 2023 | San Diego State | 2 | 1 | 1.0 | 1.0 | -- | -- | -- |
| 2022 | San Diego State | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | -- | -- | -- |
| Career | 3 loaded seasons | 23 | 13 | 5.0 | 4.0 | -- | -- | -- |
Advanced metrics second
Usage, value, and opponent-adjusted context.
TFL, sacks, and QB hurries are grouped together because defensive Heisman cases are usually built on visible havoc, not on tackle counts alone.
Pass breakups, interceptions, and forced fumbles matter because national awards voters respond to plays that change possessions and highlight reels.
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.
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.
| Group | Metric | Value | Rank | Pct | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Defense | Total tackles | 20 | #1998/4942 | 60th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | TFL | 4.0 | #738/4972 | 85th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Sacks | 3.0 | #292/4972 | 94th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Solo tackles | 11 | #1855/4584 | 60th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
Universal 17-step ladder. Tier pills below; accolade streams nested.
AWAITING CLASSIFICATION
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
The Butkus 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 · 9 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home3g | 2.7 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.0 |
| Road6g | 2.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
Win vs Loss
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins5g | 1.8 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.0 |
| Losses4g | 2.8 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-74g | 3.0 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
| Weeks 8+5g | 1.6 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.0 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the LB cohort
Elite: sacks (88th). Concern: passes defended (17th).
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.
Advanced Savant · LB · 2024
Advanced opponent-adjusted percentile bars are coming soon for this player.
Opponent-adjusted advanced metrics with a cohort filter.
Peer Comparator · Fingerprint match
Three closest profiles by box-rate percentile
Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.
Player DNA
Downhill striker who fills the run lane and blitzes off the edge.
His 2025 production profile sits closest to David Bailey’s 2023 season.
David Bailey
Chris Victor
John Pius
Nate Givhan
Aakil Washington
Matches David on
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a senior, his production profile tracks closest to Kameron Butler's senior season at Virginia (2023).
Kameron Butler
Michael Fairbanks II
Boone Bonnema
Marlon Bradley
Quashon Fuller
Matches Kameron on
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Tyson Helton
Pass share
54.9%
492 pass / 404 run
Plays / game
68.9
13 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
5.5%
366 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Balanced.
Coaching Lineage · 2022–2025
1 coachPlayed his entire career under Tyson Helton.
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Every honor on the ledger, broken out by stream and selector.
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.
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. | ||||
Modeled rank and official finish by season.
| Season | Team | Role | Latest Model | Forecast | Win | Finalist | Official Finish | Points | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | San Diego State | LB4 | #14626 | #14713 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W16 snapshot | Mountain West |
| 2023 | San Diego State | LB4 | #14080 | #14160 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W19 snapshot | Mountain West |
| 2022 | San Diego State | LB4 | #11576 | #11379 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W20 snapshot | Mountain West |
Team, conference, and class by season.
| Season | Team | Conference | Pos | Class | Bio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Western Kentucky | Conference USA | LB | 4 | No. 9 | 6-3 | 250 lb | San Jose, CA |
| 2024 | San Diego State | Mountain West | LB | 4 | No. 9 | 6-3 | 250 lb | San Jose, CA |
| 2023 | San Diego State | Mountain West | LB | 4 | No. 9 | 6-3 | 250 lb | San Jose, CA |
| 2022 | San Diego State | Mountain West | LB | 4 | No. 9 | 6-3 | 250 lb | San Jose, CA |