CFB Zeitgeist Score
47
Mid-pack in the position cohort. Carried by tackles for loss at the 73rd percentile.
Hosea Wheeler
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
31 TACKLES · 0 SACKS
Where He Ended Up · Transfer
Transferred to Baylor
DL · INDIANA · BIG TEN
CFB Zeitgeist Score
47
Mid-pack in the position cohort. Carried by tackles for loss at the 73rd percentile.
Heisman Heat
#13377
<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 1 · 2-deepRotational. Earning real snaps in the rotation.
Career arc · Season-by-season Standing
2 seasons on the ladder
2023
Western Kentucky · DL
R09 · All-Conference HM / 2nd team
Recognized
2025
Indiana · DL
—
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 |
|---|---|---|
| No recruiting profile is on file for this player. | ||
Portal movement changes role, context, and perception. This keeps that path in one place.
| Season | Move | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Indiana -> Baylor | 4-star | 0.9200 | Immediate |
| 2025 | Western Kentucky -> Indiana | 3-star | 0.8500 | Immediate |
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.
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
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Hosea Wheeler 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 0.0 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 · 13 games
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 27-14vs Old Dominion | 5 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 5 tackles |
| Wk 3 | W 73-0vs Indiana State | 3 | 0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 4 | W 63-10vs Illinois | 2 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 5 | W 20-15@ Iowa | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | W 30-20@ Oregon | 3 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 8 | W 38-13vs Michigan State | 3 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 9 | W 56-6vs UCLA | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 10 | W 55-10@ Maryland | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 11 | W 27-24@ Penn State | 5 | 3 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 12 | W 31-7vs Wisconsin | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 14 | W 56-3@ Purdue | 3 | 1 | 1.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Bowl | W 38-3vs Alabama | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Bowl | W 27-21vs Miami | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 31 | 13 | 4.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 |
Traditional history
Season rows up top, career context at the bottom.
Season context · Team result + system
| Season | Team | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Indiana | 31 | 13 | 4.0 | 0.0 | -- | -- | -- |
| 2023 | Western Kentucky | 40 | 20 | 4.0 | 2.0 | -- | 1 | -- |
| Career | 2 loaded seasons | 71 | 33 | 8.0 | 2.0 | -- | 1 | -- |
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 | 31 | #1302/4942 | 74th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | TFL | 4.0 | #738/4972 | 85th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Sacks | 0.0 | #1762/4972 | 65th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | QB hurries | 2 | #647/1878 | 66th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Solo tackles | 13 | #1622/4584 | 65th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Fumbles recovered | 2 | #13/736 | 98th pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
| Ball Security | Fumbles lost | 0 | #1/773 | 100th pct | Turnoversvs 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 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 · 13 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home8g | 2.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Road5g | 2.6 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Win vs Loss
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins13g | 2.4 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-77g | 2.4 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 2.3 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the DL cohort
Concern: passes defended (17th).
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.
Advanced Savant · DL · 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
Stout at the point of attack; controls his gap and stacks blocks.
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Immanuel Hickman Sr.’s 2023 season.
Immanuel Hickman Sr.
Phillip Paea
Douglas Blue-Eli
Keshon Griffin
Tawfiq Thomas
Matches Immanuel on
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a junior, his production profile tracks closest to Seth Mason's junior season at UL Monroe (2022).
Seth Mason
Simon Sandberg
Isaiah Mullens
Elijah Jeudy
Rolan Wooden II
Matches Seth on
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
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 · 2023–2025
2 coachesCoaching transition mid-career: Tom Allen → Curt Cignetti. Worth noting in scheme + development context.
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Trophy Case · Confirmed honors
What the selectors said
ALL-CONFERENCE
All-Conf mention (2024)
All-Conference USA
Every honor on the ledger, broken out by stream and selector.
Conference-level recognition helps anchor whether a player is merely statistically loud or actually viewed as elite within his competitive lane.
Season-end distinction and week-by-week recognition on one timeline.
| Season | Honor | Scope | Team / Selector | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | All-Conference USA | all_conference | Western Kentucky | Conference USA | DT |
| 2023 | All-Conference USA | all_conference | Western Kentucky | Conference USA | DT |
Modeled rank and official finish by season.
| Season | Team | Role | Latest Model | Forecast | Win | Finalist | Official Finish | Points | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Western Kentucky | DL4 | #13377 | #13166 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W16 snapshot | Conference USA |
| 2023 | Western Kentucky | DL4 | #11221 | #11411 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W19 snapshot | Conference USA |
| 2022 | Western Kentucky | DL4 | #12072 | #11747 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W20 snapshot | Conference USA |
Team, conference, and class by season.
| Season | Team | Conference | Pos | Class | Bio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Indiana | Big Ten | DL | 4 | 6-3 | 300 lb | Sacramento, CA |
| 2024 | Western Kentucky | Conference USA | DL | 4 | 6-3 | 300 lb | Sacramento, CA |
| 2023 | Western Kentucky | Conference USA | DL | 4 | 6-3 | 300 lb | Sacramento, CA |
| 2022 | Western Kentucky | Conference USA | DL | 4 | 6-3 | 300 lb | Sacramento, CA |