CFB Zeitgeist Score
62
Solid starter in the position cohort. Carried by tackles for loss at the 93rd percentile.
Jayden Wilson
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
92 TACKLES · 0.5 SACKS
2026 Outlook
Returning to UTEP for 2026
2026 Depth chart
Projected starter
Linebacker · UTEP
Returning around him
2026 Award watch
No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)
UTEP · Last season: 2-10 · Talent rank #101 · 2026 recruiting class #70
LB · UTEP · CONFERENCE USA
CFB Zeitgeist Score
62
Solid starter in the position cohort. Carried by tackles for loss at the 93rd percentile.
Heisman Heat
#15497
<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 · StarterStarter. A locked-in starting role.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | New Mexico -> UTEP | 2-star | 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
✓ Hit 80-tackle season · finished with 92.
To hit 100-tackle season (currently 92): needs 8/game over remaining 1.
To hit 6-sack season (currently 0.5): needs 5.5/game over remaining 1.
To hit 10-sack season (currently 0.5): needs 9.5/game over remaining 1.
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Jayden Wilson is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on UTEP's defense, with 0.5 sacks, 8.0 tackles for loss, and 1 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 | High-volume tackler against FBS defenders.
2025 season snapshot | final
Tackling & Disruption
Coverage & Takeaways
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 12 games
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | L 16-28@ Utah State | 5 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 2 | W 42-17vs UT Martin | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 3 | L 10-27@ Texas | 8 | 4 | 1.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 4 | L 25-31vs UL Monroe | 8 | 2 | 2.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 5 | L 11-30vs Louisiana Tech | 9 | 2 | 1.0 | 0.5 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | L 8-19vs Liberty | 16 | 5 | 2.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 16 tackles |
| Wk 8 | W 35-17@ Sam Houston | 5 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 10 | L 20-33@ Kennesaw State | 9 | 5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Wk 11 | L 27-30vs Jacksonville State | 5 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 12 | L 24-38@ Missouri State | 5 | 3 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 13 | L 31-34vs New Mexico State | 10 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 14 | L 31-61@ Delaware | 10 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 92 | 35 | 8.0 | 0.5 | 1 | 0 |
Traditional history
Season rows up top, career context at the bottom.
Season context · Team result + system
| Season | Team | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | UTEP | 92 | 35 | 8.0 | 0.5 | -- | 1 | -- |
| 2023 | New Mexico | 9 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | -- | -- | -- |
| Career | 2 loaded seasons | 101 | 38 | 8.0 | 0.5 | -- | 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 | 92 | #77/4942 | 98th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | TFL | 8.0 | #198/4972 | 96th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Sacks | 0.5 | #1501/4972 | 70th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Interceptions | 1 | #308/869 | 65th pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | QB hurries | 6 | #117/1878 | 94th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Solo tackles | 35 | #353/4584 | 92nd 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 |
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 · 12 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home6g | 8.3 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| Road6g | 7.0 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Win vs Loss
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins2g | 3.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Losses10g | 8.5 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-76g | 8.0 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 7.3 | 0.2 | 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 LB cohort
Elite: tackles (97th). Strength: qb hurries (94th). 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
Leads the team in tackles and rarely leaves the field.
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Michael Batton’s 2024 season.
Michael Batton
Charles Willekes
Marvin Pierre
Mark Robinson
Dequan Jackson
Matches Michael on
Differs from Michael on
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a junior, his production profile tracks closest to Taye Brown's junior season at Arizona (2025).
Taye Brown
Bronson Olevao
Leon Hart Jr.
Maverick Baranowski
Mikel Jones
Matches Taye on
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Scotty Walden
Pass share
52.4%
410 pass / 372 run
Plays / game
65.2
12 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
8.2%
342 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Balanced.
Coaching Lineage · 2023–2025
2 coachesCoaching transition mid-career: Dana Dimel → Scotty Walden. 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.
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 | New Mexico | LB3 | #15497 | #15626 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W16 snapshot | Mountain West |
| 2023 | New Mexico | LB3 | #15379 | #15490 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W19 snapshot | Mountain West |
Team, conference, and class by season.
| Season | Team | Conference | Pos | Class | Bio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | UTEP | Conference USA | LB | 3 | No. 10 | 6-1 | 218 lb | El Paso, TX |
| 2024 | New Mexico | Mountain West | LB | 3 | No. 10 | 6-1 | 218 lb | El Paso, TX |
| 2023 | New Mexico | Mountain West | LB | 3 | No. 10 | 6-1 | 218 lb | El Paso, TX |