CFB Zeitgeist Score
32
Below cohort in the position cohort. Carried by tackles at the 80th percentile.
Nakian Jackson
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
51 TACKLES · 0 SACKS
Where He Ended Up · Transfer
Transferred to James Madison
2025Nevada
2026James Madison
LB · NEVADA · MOUNTAIN WEST
Nakian Jackson
- 3
- 6-1 | 237 lb
- Stockton, CA
Heisman Heat
Awaiting
Not on the live Heisman board this week.
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
—
TOP LB AWARD
Butkus
—
CONSENSUS
All-American
—
Player Standing · 17 rungs
Tier 2 · StarterR06 · Starter
Starter. A locked-in starting role.
Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex
Career Arc
HS
Recruit
★★
CFB
College
Nevada
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2-star | 0.7883 | No. 2552 recruit | HighSchool | Sacramento State |
Transfer Arc
Portal movement changes role, context, and perception. This keeps that path in one place.
| Season | Move | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Nevada -> James Madison | 3-star | 0.8400 | Immediate |
| 2025 | Sacramento State -> Nevada | 3-star | 0.8400 | Immediate |
Heisman Lens
Where the model places this player relative to the rest of the Heisman field.
Heisman 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 Sacramento State
Composite
0.7883
#2552 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 Nakian Jackson
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 map
Cohort divergence reads how different fanbases talk about this player. Returns once weekly mentions clear the publish floor.
Rival Radar
How rival fanbases talk about Nakian Jackson
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 defensive totals stand
Through 10g
51Tackles
0Tackles for loss
0Sacks
Per game
5Tackles
0Tackles for loss
0Sacks
Projected (13g)
66Tackles
0Tackles for loss
0Sacks
To hit 80-tackle season (currently 51): needs 9.7/game over remaining 3.
To hit 100-tackle season (currently 51): needs 16.3/game over remaining 3.
To hit 6-sack season (currently 0): needs 2/game over remaining 3.
To hit 10-sack season (currently 0): needs 3.3/game over remaining 3.
Why this is a rare defensive case
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Nakian Jackson is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on Nevada's defense, with 0.0 sacks, 0.0 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.
2025 Season · Final
Traditional stats first. Advanced context underneath.
Last season
DEF 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?
High-volume tackler against FBS defenders.
2025 Season · Final
2025 season snapshot | final
Tackling & Disruption
TOT
51 88th
SOLO
22 80th
TFL
0.0 39th
SACK
0.0 65th
Coverage & Takeaways
INT
1 65th
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 10 games
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 2 | W 20-17vs Sacramento State | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 4 | L 16-31@ Western Kentucky | 4 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 6 | L 17-20@ Fresno State | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | L 10-44vs San Diego State | 3 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 8 | L 22-24@ New Mexico | 4 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 9 | L 3-24vs Boise State | 13 | 5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 13 tackles |
| Wk 11 | L 14-51@ Utah State | 12 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 12 | W 55-10vs San José State | 6 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Wk 13 | W 13-7@ Wyoming | 5 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 14 | L 17-42vs UNLV | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 51 | 22 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0 |
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
2025Nevada3-9HC: Jeff Choate · Run-leaning, slow tempo
| Season | Team | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Nevada | 51 | 22 | 0.0 | 0.0 | -- | 1 | -- |
| Career | 1 loaded season | 51 | 22 | 0.0 | 0.0 | -- | 1 | -- |
Advanced layer Usage, value, and context
Advanced metrics second
Advanced Metrics
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.
Open full stat explorer
| Group | Metric | Value | Rank | Pct | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Defense | Total tackles | 51 | #579/4942 | 88th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | TFL | 0.0 | #3020/4972 | 39th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Sacks | 0.0 | #1762/4972 | 65th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Interceptions | 1 | #308/869 | 65th pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | INT return avg | 66.0 | #16/578 | 97th pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | INT return yards | 66 | #68/578 | 88th pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Solo tackles | 22 | #902/4584 | 80th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Defensive TD | 1 | #23/200 | 89th pct | Scoringvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Pick-six TD | 1 | #13/119 | 90th pct | Scoringvs FBS DEF |
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
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 · 10 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home5g | 5.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Road5g | 5.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Win vs Loss
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins3g | 4.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Losses7g | 5.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-74g | 2.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 6.8 | 0.0 | 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
32Below cohort
Elite: tackles (80th). Concern: tackles for loss (7th).
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.
Advanced Savant · LB · 2025
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
Nakian JacksonNevadaTyler MartinMassachusetts· 70% simBlake FletcherAir Force· 62% simTahj Ra-ElPurdue· 61% sim
Tackles
Solo tackles
Interceptions
Sacks
QB hurries
Passes defended
Tackles for loss
Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.
Player DNA
The Balanced Linebacker
Solid in every phase without a signature dimension.
LB
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Wesley Steiner’s 2022 season.
Wesley Steiner
90%match
#2
Chance Bates
84%
#3
Kyle Beaudry
81%
#4
Devon Jackson
81%
#5
Andrew Mims
81%
Matches Wesley on
PD rate
Height
Tackle volume
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a sophomore, his production profile tracks closest to Antwan Peek Jr.'s sophomore season at Cincinnati (2024).
Antwan Peek Jr.
82%match
#2
Chance Bates
80%
#3
Austin Harnetiaux
79%
#4
Zion Puckett
77%
#5
Stone Blanton
77%
Matches Antwan on
Class year
Tackle volume
TFL rate
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Jeff Choate
Pass share
42.6%
306 pass / 413 run
Plays / game
59.9
12 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
6.8%
251 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Run-leaning, slow tempo.
Coaching Lineage · 2025
1 coach2025
Jeff Choate
Nevada
Played his entire career under Jeff Choate.
Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
HometownStockton, CA
Height6'1"
Weight237 lb
Class3
PositionLB
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Current teamNevada
ConferenceMountain West
Joined2025
Career arc1 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.
| Season | Team | Role | Latest Model | Forecast | Win | Finalist | Official Finish | Points | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This player hasn’t appeared on a Heisman ballot tracked by the model. | |||||||||
Roster Timeline
Team, conference, and class by season.
| Season | Team | Conference | Pos | Class | Bio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Nevada | Mountain West | LB | 3 | 6-1 | 237 lb | Stockton, CA |