CFB Zeitgeist Score
75
Solid starter in the position cohort. Carried by sacks at the 85th percentile.
Jordan Pollard
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
108 TACKLES · 2.5 SACKS
2026 Outlook
Returning to San José State for 2026
2026 Depth chart
Returning starter
Linebacker · San José State
Returning around him
2026 Award watch
No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)
San José State · Last season: 3-9 · Talent rank #109 · 2026 recruiting class #117
LB · SAN JOSÉ STATE · MOUNTAIN WEST
CFB Zeitgeist Score
75
Solid starter in the position cohort. Carried by sacks at the 85th percentile.
Heisman Heat
#11387
<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 · StarterImpact starter. Producing measurable value above replacement.
Career arc · Season-by-season Standing
3 seasons on the ladder
2022
San José State · LB
—
2023
San José State · LB
—
2025
San José State · LB
R09 · All-Conference HM / 2nd team
Recognized
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2-star | 0.7933 | No. 2149 recruit | HighSchool | San José 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
NIL · Recruiting · NFL Draft
Market value, pedigree & pro outcome
Recruit stars
★★☆☆☆
to San José State
Composite
0.7933
#2149 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
✓ Hit 80-tackle season · finished with 108.
✓ Hit 100-tackle season · finished with 108.
To hit 6-sack season (currently 2.5): needs 3.5/game over remaining 1.
To hit 10-sack season (currently 2.5): needs 7.5/game over remaining 1.
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Jordan Pollard is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on San José State's defense, with 2.5 sacks, 4.5 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 | Coverage splash | 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 14-16vs Central Michigan | 15 | 6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 2 | L 7-38@ Texas | 5 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 4 | W 31-28vs Idaho | 7 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 5 | L 29-30@ Stanford | 5 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 6 | W 35-28vs New Mexico | 6 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | L 28-35@ Wyoming | 11 | 6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 8 | L 25-30@ Utah State | 7 | 3 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 10 | W 45-38vs Hawai'i | 8 | 8 | 2.0 | 1.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 11 | L 16-26vs Air Force | 7 | 5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 12 | L 10-55@ Nevada | 6 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 13 | L 3-25@ San Diego State | 12 | 6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 14 | L 14-41vs Fresno State | 19 | 12 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0 | Season-high 19 tackles |
| Total | 108 | 58 | 4.5 | 2.5 | 1 | 4 |
Traditional history
Season rows up top, career context at the bottom.
Season context · Team result + system
| Season | Team | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | San José State | 108 | 58 | 4.5 | 2.5 | 4 | 1 | -- |
| 2023 | San José State | 79 | 52 | 4.0 | 0.0 | -- | 2 | -- |
| 2022 | San José State | 40 | 20 | 3.0 | 0.0 | -- | 1 | -- |
| Career | 3 loaded seasons | 227 | 130 | 11.5 | 2.5 | 4 | 4 | -- |
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 | 108 | #29/4942 | 99th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | TFL | 4.5 | #648/4972 | 87th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Sacks | 2.5 | #393/4972 | 92nd pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Interceptions | 1 | #308/869 | 65th pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Pass breakups | 4 | #340/2184 | 84th pct | Coveragevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | QB hurries | 4 | #291/1878 | 85th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | INT return avg | 58.0 | #20/578 | 97th pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | INT return yards | 58 | #85/578 | 85th pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Solo tackles | 58 | #29/4584 | 99th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Defensive TD | 1 | #23/200 | 89th pct | Scoringvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Fumbles recovered | 1 | #103/736 | 86th pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Pick-six TD | 1 | #13/119 | 90th pct | Scoringvs FBS DEF |
| Ball Security | Fumbles lost | 0 | #1/773 | 100th pct | Turnoversvs FBS DEF |
Universal 17-step ladder. Tier pills below; accolade streams nested.
ALL-CONF HM
ALL-CONF HM · Rung 9 of 16
Why he’s here
All-Conference honorable mention / 2nd team — the recognition has started.
What moves him up
A best-at-position run lifts to 1st team.
What moves him down
A back-end conference finish drops out of the honor list.
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 | 10.3 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| Road6g | 7.7 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
Win vs Loss
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins3g | 7.0 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Losses9g | 9.7 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-76g | 8.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 9.8 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
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 (99th). Strength: solo tackles (98th).
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 Trey Fields’s 2025 season.
Trey Fields
Blake Leake
Traveion Webster
Tyren Dupree
Charlie Thomas
Matches Trey on
Differs from Trey on
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a senior, his production profile tracks closest to Treylin Payne's senior season at Texas State (2025).
Treylin Payne
Trey Rucker
Trey Fields
Isaiah Nwokobia
Tyren Dupree
Matches Treylin on
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Ken Niumatalolo
Pass share
61.1%
486 pass / 310 run
Plays / game
66.3
12 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
2.1%
420 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Pass-leaning.
Coaching Lineage · 2022–2025
2 coachesCoaching transition mid-career: Brent Brennan → Ken Niumatalolo. 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 (2025)
All-Mountain West
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | All-Mountain West | all_conference | Mountain West | LB |
| 2024 | All-Mountain West | all_conference | Mountain West | LB |
Modeled rank and official finish by season.
| Season | Team | Role | Latest Model | Forecast | Win | Finalist | Official Finish | Points | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | San José State | LB4 | #11387 | #11290 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W16 snapshot | Mountain West |
| 2023 | San José State | LB4 | #10380 | #10412 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W19 snapshot | Mountain West |
| 2022 | San José State | LB4 | #10323 | #10434 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W20 snapshot | Mountain West |
Team, conference, and class by season.
| Season | Team | Conference | Pos | Class | Bio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | San José State | Mountain West | LB | 4 | No. 1 | 6-1 | 202 lb | Los Angeles, CA |
| 2024 | San José State | Mountain West | LB | 4 | No. 1 | 6-1 | 202 lb | Los Angeles, CA |
| 2023 | San José State | Mountain West | LB | 4 | No. 1 | 6-1 | 202 lb | Los Angeles, CA |
| 2022 | San José State | Mountain West | LB | 4 | No. 1 | 6-1 | 202 lb | Los Angeles, CA |