CFB Zeitgeist Score
11
Below cohort in the position cohort. Carried by yards / catch at the 39th percentile.
Malik Elzy
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
84 REC YDS · 7 REC · 0 REC TD
Where He Ended Up · Transfer
Transferred to LSU
2025Illinois
2026LSU
WR · ILLINOIS · BIG TEN
Malik Elzy
- 3
- #8
- 6-2 | 215 lb
- Chicago, IL
Heisman Heat
#881
<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 WR AWARD
Biletnikoff
—
CONSENSUS
All-American
—
Player Standing · 17 rungs
Tier 2 · StarterR05 · Part-time starter
Part-time starter. Splitting first-team reps.
Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex
Development Trajectory · receiving yards
2023–2025+62%
Up 62% from first season to most-recent.
Career Arc
HS
Recruit
★★★★
CFB
College
Illinois
NFL
NFL Draft
—
Identity & Role
The durable bio layer: position, size, hometown, and roster role.
Recruiting Pedigree
How big the prospect was before college, and whether the later career arc beat that expectation.
| Class | Profile | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 4-star | 0.9167 | No. 229 recruit | HighSchool | Illinois |
Transfer Arc
Portal movement changes role, context, and perception. This keeps that path in one place.
| Season | Move | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Illinois -> LSU | 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 16Heisman 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.
NIL · Recruiting · NFL Draft
Market value, pedigree & pro outcome
Recruit stars
★★★★☆
to Illinois
Composite
0.9167
#229 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.
The Room on Malik Elzy
Fan sentiment ·
Belief Meter
56
Mixed Sentiment
Top Take
“”
Trajectory
Per-cohort trajectory lands when historical bucket data is aggregated.
Cohort divergence map
- Own fans · n=9
Rival Radar
How rival fanbases talk about Malik Elzy
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.
Season Pace · Projection
Where the receiving totals stand
Through 4g
84Rec yards
7Receptions
0Rec TDs
Per game
21Rec yards
2Receptions
0Rec TDs
Projected (13g)
273Rec yards
23Receptions
0Rec TDs
To hit 700-yard receiver (currently 84): needs 68.4/game over remaining 9.
To hit 1,000-yard receiver (currently 84): needs 101.8/game over remaining 9.
To hit 60-catch season (currently 7): needs 5.9/game over remaining 9.
To hit 80-catch season (currently 7): needs 8.1/game over remaining 9.
To hit 8 receiving TDs (currently 0): needs 0.9/game over remaining 9.
To hit 10 receiving TDs (currently 0): needs 1.1/game over remaining 9.
What made this player interesting
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Malik Elzy's story is about how role and output meet each other. For Illinois, the card already shows enough current-season production to explain why he is on the serious-player board, and the next layer is determining whether the profile is just very good or actually distinctive.
2025 Season · Final
Traditional stats first. Advanced context underneath.
Last season
WR season snapshot
2025 season snapshot | final
2025 season snapshot | finalData: CFBD player stats + local Heisman modelPeer context: same position + same level
Player identity What kind of player is this?
30-second read
What kind of player is this?
Receiving weapon against FBS receiving peers.
2025 Season · Final
2025 season snapshot | final
Receiving
REC
7 40th
YDS
84 39th
YPR
12.0 51st
TD
0 45th
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 4 games
| Wk | Opp | REC | YDS | AVG | TD | LONG | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 52-3vs Western Illinois | 2 | 25 | 12.5 | 0 | 15 | Season-high 25 yds |
| Wk 2 | W 45-19@ Duke | 2 | 21 | 10.5 | 0 | 11 | |
| Wk 3 | W 38-0vs Western Michigan | 1 | 25 | 25.0 | 0 | 25 | |
| Wk 4 | L 10-63@ Indiana | 2 | 13 | 6.5 | 0 | 7 | |
| Total | 7 | 84 | 13.6 | 0 | 25 |
Season-by-season tables Career rows + per-season box score
Traditional history
Traditional Stats
Season rows up top, career context at the bottom.
Season context · Team result + system
2023Illinois5-7HC: Bret Bielema · Balanced
2024Illinois10-3HC: Bret Bielema · Run-leaning
2025Illinois9-4HC: Bret Bielema · Run-leaning
Advanced layer Usage, value, and context
Advanced metrics second
Advanced Metrics
Usage, value, and opponent-adjusted context.
The player's share of a team's passing-game involvement. It is the fastest way to see whether the receiver is a true focal point or more of a complementary piece.
A blended workload view that accounts for catches, designed touches, and any return-game involvement that shapes the overall profile.
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.
Open full stat explorer
| Group | Metric | Value | Rank | Pct | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Receiving | Receptions | 7 | #667/1110 | 40th pct | Volumevs FBS WR |
| Receiving | Receiving yards | 84 | #676/1107 | 39th pct | Volumevs FBS WR |
| Receiving | Receiving TD | 0 | #615/1111 | 45th pct | Scoringvs FBS WR |
| Receiving | Yards / catch | 12.0 | #545/1106 | 51st pct | Efficiencyvs FBS WR |
| Usage | Pass share | 8.3% | #584/1137 | 49th pct | Air-game usagevs FBS WR |
| Receiving | Receiving LONG | 25 | #670/1105 | 39th pct | Metricvs FBS WR |
| Usage | Passing-down usage | 5.2% | #692/1137 | 39th pct | Known-passing sharevs FBS WR |
| Usage | 2nd-down usage | 5.0% | #509/1137 | 55th pct | Middle-down loadvs FBS WR |
| Usage | 1st-down usage | 4.5% | #478/1137 | 58th pct | Early-down loadvs FBS WR |
| Usage | Role share | 4.2% | #582/1137 | 49th pct | Share of team offensevs FBS WR |
| Usage | Standard-down usage | 3.7% | #569/1137 | 50th pct | Base-situation sharevs FBS WR |
| Usage | 3rd-down usage | 2.3% | #871/1137 | 23rd pct | Money-down loadvs FBS WR |
| Usage | Rush share | 0.0% | #391/1137 | 66th pct | Ground-game usagevs FBS WR |
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
Status—Awaiting tracker
Heisman model tracks the top FBS contenders weekly; this player hasn't entered the watch list yet.
Splits · Per-game
2025 season · 4 games
Home vs Road
| REC/g | YDS/g | YPR | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home2g | 1.5 | 25.0 | 18.8 | 0.0 |
| Road2g | 2.0 | 17.0 | 8.5 | 0.0 |
Win vs Loss
| REC/g | YDS/g | YPR | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins3g | 1.7 | 23.7 | 16.0 | 0.0 |
| Losses1g | 2.0 | 13.0 | 6.5 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| REC/g | YDS/g | YPR | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-74g | 1.8 | 21.0 | 13.6 | 0.0 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the WR cohort
11Below cohort
Concern: receptions (0th).
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.
Advanced Savant · WR · 2024
Percentile Card
Advanced opponent-adjusted percentile bars are coming soon for this player.
P4G5All FBS
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
Malik ElzyIllinoisMichael Jackson IIIPurdue· 46% simJacquon GibsonMassachusetts· 42% simKevin Coleman Jr.Missouri· 39% sim
Yards / catch
Long catch
Rec TDs
Rec yards
Receptions
Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Bret Bielema
Pass share
45.6%
372 pass / 444 run
Plays / game
62.8
13 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
11.0%
292 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Run-leaning.
Coaching Lineage · 2023–2025
1 coach2023
Bret Bielema
Illinois
2024
Bret Bielema
Illinois
2025
Bret Bielema
Illinois
Played his entire career under Bret Bielema.
Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
HometownChicago, IL
Height6'2"
Weight215 lb
Class3
PositionWR
Jersey8
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Current teamIllinois
ConferenceBig Ten
Joined2025
Career arc3 season(s)
Trophy Case · Detail
Every honor on the ledger, broken out by stream and selector.
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.
Roster Timeline
Team, conference, and class by season.