cfb zeitgeistZeitgeist
OFFSEASON · SUMMER 2026 · COMMITMENT SEASON
Heisman / Players / Upton Stout /Western Kentucky

Upton Stout

DB · Western Kentucky · Jr · #21

Limited signal — not enough coverage for a story yet.

NOW IN NFLSan Francisco — drafted 2025, Rd 3, Pick 36, #100 overall

Where He Ended Up · NFL

San FranciscoEntering 2nd NFL season

#100Rd 3 · Pick 36
San FranciscoEntering 2nd NFL season

DB · WESTERN KENTUCKY · CONFERENCE USA

Upton Stout

  • 3
  • #21
  • 5-9 | 182 lb
  • Houston, TX

CFB Zeitgeist DB Score

Awaiting

Heisman Heat

#13343

<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 DB AWARD

Jim Thorpe

CONSENSUS

All-American

Player Standing · 17 rungs

Tier 1 · 2-deep

R02 · Deep reserve

Deep reserve. In the program, working up the two-deep.

Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex

Career Arc

HS
Recruit
★★★
#1912 national
CFB
College
2 teams
2020–2023
NFL
NFL Draft
R3 &middot; #100
San Francisco &middot; 2025

Identity & Role

The durable bio layer: position, size, hometown, and roster role.

PositionDB
Class3
Jersey21
Measurements5-9 | 182 lb
HometownHouston, TX
Primary teamWestern Kentucky

Recruiting Pedigree

How big the prospect was before college, and whether the later career arc beat that expectation.

Top pedigree 3-star No. 1912 recruit
Composite rating 0.8293 HighSchool
Signed with North Texas 2020
Origin North Shore Houston, TX, USA
Class Profile Context
2020 3-star | 0.8293 No. 1912 recruit | HighSchool | North Texas

Transfer Arc

Portal movement changes role, context, and perception. This keeps that path in one place.

Portal moves 0 No portal entry on file
Latest destination -- --
Transfer stars -- CFBD transfer rating context
Eligibility -- Transfer date TBD
Season Move Context
No transfer portal moves on file for this player.

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 16
Current nowcast#13343Latest modeled ballot order
Season forecast#13159Where the full season sim points
Win probability0.0%Chance to actually win the trophy
Finalist probability0.0%Chance to make the finalist tier
Ballot probability0.0%Chance to appear anywhere on a ballot
Best official finish--Best completed Heisman placement on file

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 North Texas

Composite

0.8293

#1912 national

NFL Draft

2025 · Rd 3, Pick 36

#100 overall · San Francisco

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

PENDING

The 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 Upton Stout

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 Upton Stout

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.

A 3-act season arc returns once this player has six or more games on the ledger.

Scenario Explorer

Available for players with a qualifying signature metric (passing yards, rushing yards, receiving yards, sacks, etc.). The slider projects how a season finishes if the current pace holds.

Why this is a rare defensive case

The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.

Upton Stout is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on Western Kentucky's defense, with 0.5 sacks, 1.0 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.

Current place #13343 0.0% win | 0.0% finalist
Role load -- Role share still loading
Profile quirk Transfer path 0 portal moves

2023 Season · Final

Traditional stats first. Advanced context underneath.

Last season

DEF season snapshot

2023 season snapshot | final

2023 season snapshot | finalData: CFBD player stats + local Heisman modelPeer context: same position + same level
Total tackles 24 15 solo | #1737/4942 (65th pct)
TFL 1.0 Backfield disruption | #2051/4972 (59th pct)
Sacks 0.5 Pass-rush finish | #1501/4972 (70th pct)
Player identity What kind of player is this?

30-second read

What kind of player is this?

High-disruption defender | Coverage splash against FBS defenders.

High-disruption defenderCoverage splash

2023 Season · Final

2023 season snapshot | final

Tackling & Disruption

TOT
24 65th
SOLO
15 69th
TFL
1.0 59th
SACK
0.5 70th
QBH
5 90th

Coverage & Takeaways

PD
8 98th
INT
1 65th

Game Log

Week-by-week box

No per-game rows for this season yet — the table fills in as box scores arrive.

Season-by-season tables Career rows + per-season box score

Traditional history

Traditional Stats

Season rows up top, career context at the bottom.

Season rows Career row

Season context · Team result + system

2020North Texas4-5HC: Seth Littrell · Run-leaning, fast tempo
2021North Texas8-5HC: Tyson Helton · Pass-heavy, fast tempo
2022Western Kentucky9-5HC: Tyson Helton · Pass-leaning
2023Western Kentucky8-5HC: Tyson Helton · Pass-leaning
SeasonTeam
2023Western Kentucky24151.00.581--
2022Western Kentucky44290.50.0241
2021Western Kentucky640.00.01----
2020North Texas35240.50.03----
Career4 loaded seasons109722.00.51451
Advanced layer Usage, value, and context

Advanced metrics second

Advanced Metrics

Usage, value, and opponent-adjusted context.

Usage Value Context
Disruption stats

TFL, sacks, and QB hurries are grouped together because defensive Heisman cases are usually built on visible havoc, not on tackle counts alone.

Coverage splash

Pass breakups, interceptions, and forced fumbles matter because national awards voters respond to plays that change possessions and highlight reels.

Peer percentile

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.

Traditional first

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.

INT 1 1 pick-six TD | #308/869 (65th pct)
Pass breakups 8 Coverage disruption | #45/2184 (98th pct)
QB pressures 5 Quarterback hurries | #188/1878 (90th pct)
Open full stat explorer
0 metrics visible Showing all metrics
Group Metric Value Rank Pct Why it matters
Defense Total tackles 24 #1737/4942 65th pct Volumevs FBS DEF
Defense TFL 1.0 #2051/4972 59th 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 Pass breakups 8 #45/2184 98th pct Coveragevs FBS DEF
Defense QB hurries 5 #188/1878 90th pct Disruptionvs FBS DEF
Defense INT return avg 53.0 #26/578 96th pct Takeawaysvs FBS DEF
Defense INT return yards 53 #99/578 83rd pct Takeawaysvs FBS DEF
Defense Solo tackles 15 #1434/4584 69th 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

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

StatusAwaiting tracker

The Thorpe 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 splits

Splits fill in once box scores from at least three games land for this season.

Box-score Savant card waits for a season-stat snapshot above the cohort floor. Returns once enough box-score volume lands.

Advanced Savant · DB · 2024

Percentile Card

Advanced opponent-adjusted percentile bars are coming soon for this player.

P4G5All FBS
EPA / dropback
awaiting
CPOE
awaiting
Success rate
awaiting
Explosive rate (20+)
awaiting
aDOT
awaiting
Deep-ball accuracy
awaiting
Pressure-to-sack
awaiting
3rd-down EPA
awaiting
Red-zone TD rate
awaiting
Play-action EPA
awaiting
Scramble EPA
awaiting
Turnover-worthy play rate
awaiting

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 returns once this player clears the Savant metric floor (4+ scored bars).
DNA Match awaiting data — similarity scores compute once season stats clear the volume gate for this position cohort.

Supporting Cast · Scheme

Staff and system around the player

2025 season

Head Coach

Tyson Helton

Pass share

54.9%

492 pass / 404 run

Plays / game

68.9

13 games

OL sack rate (allowed)

5.5%

366 dropbacks · PBP

Scheme: Balanced.

Coaching Lineage · 2020–2023

1 coach
2020
Tyson Helton
Western Kentucky
2021
Tyson Helton
Western Kentucky
2022
Tyson Helton
Western Kentucky
2023
Tyson Helton
Western Kentucky

Played his entire career under Tyson Helton.

Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster

Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.

HometownHouston, TX
Height5'9"
Weight182 lb
Class3
PositionDB
Jersey21

Trophy Case · Confirmed honors

What the selectors said

1 entries
🎖

ALL-CONFERENCE

All-Conf mention (2024)

All-Conference USA

Trophy Case · Detail

Every honor on the ledger, broken out by stream and selector.

All-Conference

1 all-conference honor

Conference-level recognition helps anchor whether a player is merely statistically loud or actually viewed as elite within his competitive lane.

Honors Timeline

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 DB

Heisman By Year

Modeled rank and official finish by season.

Season Team Role Latest Model Forecast Win Finalist Official Finish Points Context
2024 Western Kentucky DB3 #13343 #13159 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W16 snapshot | Conference USA
2023 Western Kentucky DB3 #11493 #11703 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W19 snapshot | Conference USA
2022 Western Kentucky DB3 #9252 #9601 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W20 snapshot | Conference USA
2021 Western Kentucky DB3 #12699 #12651 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W20 snapshot | Conference USA
2020 North Texas DB3 #1421 #1436 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W16 snapshot | Conference USA

Roster Timeline

Team, conference, and class by season.

Season Team Conference Pos Class Bio
2024 Western Kentucky Conference USA DB 3 No. 21 | 5-9 | 182 lb | Houston, TX
2023 Western Kentucky Conference USA DB 3 No. 21 | 5-9 | 182 lb | Houston, TX
2022 Western Kentucky Conference USA DB 3 No. 21 | 5-9 | 182 lb | Houston, TX
2021 Western Kentucky Conference USA DB 3 No. 21 | 5-9 | 182 lb | Houston, TX
2021 North Texas Conference USA DB 3 No. 21 | 5-9 | 182 lb | Houston, TX
2020 North Texas Conference USA DB 3 No. 21 | 5-9 | 182 lb | Houston, TX