6′1″ · 235 lb · Warner Robins, GA · Houston County
He is a true freshman with 6 games on the stat sheet.
He has tackles in 6 of Western Kentucky’s 7 games: none against Georgia.
Westen Ard
Fills the run lane and blitzes off the edge. On tape: 10 tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss against Sam Houston, Week 7, 2026.
41 tackles · 2.5 sacks
Play style
Downhill striker who fills the run lane and blitzes off the edge.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
No outlet on our list has written about him by name this season.
College Heights Herald Oct 9Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Season | Team | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Western Kentucky | 41 | 20 | 5.5 | 2.5 | 3 |
| Career | 41 | 20 | 5.5 | 2.5 | 3 |
Last game (Wk 7): 10 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks.
Game log · Week-by-week
2026 season · 6 games
Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | L 14-49@ Nevada | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 3 | L 0-38@ No. 4 Indiana | 9 | 4 | 1.5 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 4 | W 52-7vs Mercyhurst | 3 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 2 | |
| Wk 5 | L 13-34@ New Mexico State | 8 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 6 | W 34-13vs Missouri State | 9 | 7 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | W 16-3@ Sam Houston | 10 | 5 | 2.5 | 1.5 | — | 1 | Season-high 10 tackles |
| Total | 41 | 20 | 5.5 | 2.5 | — | 3 |
Oct. 14 · W 16-3 at Sam Houston, play by play
10 tackles, including 1 more for loss, 1 sack, 1 pass broken up.
Sacked the quarterback for a 10-yard loss on 3rd and 10. First quarter, up 7-0.
Against his own season: his best backfield disruption game of the season so far.
His game this year: disruption in the backfield — 5 tackles for loss, 2 of them sacks, in the 6 games with play by play.
How Western Kentucky’s defense played that day
Sam Houston’s 11 drives: 10 stopped (1 takeaway) · 1 scored. While the game was within a score they held 7 of 7. His sack came with Western Kentucky up 7.
9 tackles, including 1 more for loss. He hurried the quarterback once.
8 tackles.
3 tackles, including 2 passes broken up.
No game thread archived for this game yet.
9 tackles, including 1 sack.
Sacked the quarterback for a 4-yard loss. Fourth quarter, down 38-0.
2 tackles.
Conference ranks count every player in the conference with a row in that stat, any position. Career ranks count current FBS players, from the games in our log.
Ratings of the games shown run from -17 to +24 points against an average team (SP+ rating of each opponent).
Where his impact shows up on the stat sheet
Tackle volume
41tackles this seasonTFL rate
13%6 TFLSack rate
6%2 sacksPD rate
7%3 pass breakups41 tackles · 5.5 for loss · 2.5 sacks.
Splits · Per-game
2026 season · 6 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home2g | 6.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 1.0 |
| Road4g | 7.2 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.2 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-76g | 6.8 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.5 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Tyson Helton
Pass share
51.9%
373 pass / 346 run
Plays / game
102.7
7 games
Team sack rate
5.8%
275 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Balanced, fast tempo.
Player standing · 2026
About as many tackles a game as a typical FBS linebacker who plays every week.
Recognition
Production · CFB Zeitgeist Score
Three-star recruit. Now #55 at the position.
The No. 1,654 recruit in the country is starting at linebacker in the Conference USA as a freshman.
His career
