CFB Zeitgeist Score
7
Below cohort in the position cohort. Carried by yards / catch at the 15th percentile.
Zach Ortwerth
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
76 REC YDS · 9 REC · 0 REC TD
2026 Outlook
Returning to Iowa for 2026
2026 Depth chart
Projected starter
Tight end · Iowa
Returning around him
- 49% of 2024 offensive production back (Moderate turnover)
- 7 Iowa players drafted to NFL
- Transfer portal: +7 net (15 in / 8 out)
2026 Award watch
No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)
Iowa · Last season: 9-4 · Talent rank #42 · 2026 recruiting class #38
TE · IOWA · BIG TEN
Zach Ortwerth
- 3
- #48
- 6-4 | 245 lb
- Saint Louis, MO
Heisman Heat
#1067
<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 TE AWARD
Mackey
—
CONSENSUS
All-American
—
Player Standing · 17 rungs
Tier 2 · StarterR07 · Impact starter
Impact starter. Producing measurable value above replacement.
Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex
Development Trajectory · receiving yards
2023–2025+41%
Up 41% from first season to most-recent.
Career Arc
HS
Recruit
★★★
CFB
College
Iowa
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 | 3-star | 0.8722 | No. 792 recruit | HighSchool | Iowa |
Transfer Arc
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. | ||
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 Iowa
Composite
0.8722
#792 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 Zach Ortwerth
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 Zach Ortwerth
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 8g
76Rec yards
9Receptions
0Rec TDs
Per game
9.5Rec yards
1Receptions
0Rec TDs
Projected (13g)
123.5Rec yards
15Receptions
0Rec TDs
To hit 700-yard receiver (currently 76): needs 124.8/game over remaining 5.
To hit 1,000-yard receiver (currently 76): needs 184.8/game over remaining 5.
To hit 60-catch season (currently 9): needs 10.2/game over remaining 5.
To hit 80-catch season (currently 9): needs 14.2/game over remaining 5.
To hit 8 receiving TDs (currently 0): needs 1.6/game over remaining 5.
To hit 10 receiving TDs (currently 0): needs 2/game over remaining 5.
What made this player interesting
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Zach Ortwerth's story is about how role and output meet each other. For Iowa, 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
TE 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
9 58th
YDS
76 54th
YPR
8.4 34th
TD
0 46th
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 8 games
| Wk | Opp | REC | YDS | AVG | TD | LONG | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 34-7vs UAlbany | 1 | 5 | 5.0 | 0 | 5 | |
| Wk 3 | W 47-7vs Massachusetts | 1 | 13 | 13.0 | 0 | 13 | |
| Wk 4 | W 38-28@ Rutgers | 2 | 30 | 15.0 | 0 | 24 | Season-high 30 yds |
| Wk 7 | W 37-0@ Wisconsin | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Wk 9 | W 41-3vs Minnesota | 2 | 17 | 8.5 | 0 | 19 | |
| Wk 12 | L 21-26@ USC | 1 | 3 | 3.0 | 0 | 3 | |
| Wk 14 | W 40-16@ Nebraska | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Bowl | W 34-27@ Vanderbilt | 1 | 7 | 7.0 | 0 | 7 | |
| Total | 9 | 76 | 7.5 | 0 | 24 |
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
2023Iowa10-4HC: Kirk Ferentz · Run-leaning, slow tempo
2024Iowa8-5HC: Kirk Ferentz · Run-heavy
2025Iowa9-4HC: Kirk Ferentz · Run-heavy, slow tempo
Advanced layer Usage, value, and context
Advanced metrics second
Advanced Metrics
Usage, value, and opponent-adjusted context.
The tight end's share of the passing offense, which helps distinguish a featured receiving tight end from a secondary option.
A blended usage view that shows how often the offense flows through the tight end compared with other same-level peers.
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 | 9 | #199/475 | 58th pct | Volumevs FBS TE |
| Receiving | Receiving yards | 76 | #220/475 | 54th pct | Volumevs FBS TE |
| Receiving | Receiving TD | 0 | #257/475 | 46th pct | Scoringvs FBS TE |
| Receiving | Yards / catch | 8.4 | #314/475 | 34th pct | Efficiencyvs FBS TE |
| Usage | Pass share | 7.0% | #178/468 | 62nd pct | Air-game usagevs FBS TE |
| Receiving | Receiving LONG | 24 | #203/475 | 57th pct | Metricvs FBS TE |
| Usage | 3rd-down usage | 3.9% | #191/468 | 59th pct | Money-down loadvs FBS TE |
| Usage | Passing-down usage | 3.6% | #220/468 | 53rd pct | Known-passing sharevs FBS TE |
| Usage | 2nd-down usage | 2.4% | #309/468 | 34th pct | Middle-down loadvs FBS TE |
| Usage | Role share | 2.4% | #292/468 | 38th pct | Share of team offensevs FBS TE |
| Usage | Standard-down usage | 2.0% | #338/468 | 28th pct | Base-situation sharevs FBS TE |
| Usage | 1st-down usage | 1.8% | #323/468 | 31st pct | Early-down loadvs FBS TE |
| Usage | Rush share | 0.0% | #58/468 | 88th pct | Ground-game usagevs FBS TE |
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 Mackey 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 · 8 games
Home vs Road
| REC/g | YDS/g | YPR | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home3g | 1.3 | 11.7 | 8.8 | 0.0 |
| Road5g | 1.0 | 8.2 | 6.5 | 0.0 |
Win vs Loss
| REC/g | YDS/g | YPR | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins7g | 1.1 | 10.4 | 8.2 | 0.0 |
| Losses1g | 1.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| REC/g | YDS/g | YPR | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-75g | 1.0 | 11.0 | 10.0 | 0.0 |
| Weeks 8+3g | 1.3 | 7.0 | 4.2 | 0.0 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the TE cohort
7Below cohort
Concern: receptions (0th).
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.
Advanced Savant · TE · 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
Zach OrtwerthIowaBryce CaufieldOregon State· 63% simHayden HansenFlorida· 58% simTyler FortenberryArkansas State· 54% sim
Long catch
Yards / catch
Rec TDs
Rec yards
Receptions
Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.
Player DNA
The Complete TE
Dual-threat: blocks when needed, catches when needed. Coveted on both sides.
TE
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Shelton Zeon III’s 2022 season.
Shelton Zeon III
85%match
#2
Ben Bresnahan
81%
#3
Drew Biber
81%
#4
Drew Biber
81%
#5
Billy Riviere III
79%
Matches Shelton on
Weight
EPA / play (adj)
Yards / reception
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a junior, his production profile tracks closest to Olsen Patt-Henry's junior season at Clemson (2025).
Olsen Patt-Henry
82%match
#2
Drew Biber
82%
#3
Benji Gosnell
81%
#4
Jake Taylor
80%
#5
Shelton Zeon III
78%
Matches Olsen on
Weight
Height
Recruiting rating
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Kirk Ferentz
Pass share
36.6%
286 pass / 495 run
Plays / game
60.1
13 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
7.9%
228 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Run-heavy, slow tempo.
Coaching Lineage · 2023–2025
1 coach2023
Kirk Ferentz
Iowa
2024
Kirk Ferentz
Iowa
2025
Kirk Ferentz
Iowa
Played his entire career under Kirk Ferentz.
Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
HometownSaint Louis, MO
Height6'4"
Weight245 lb
Class3
PositionTE
Jersey48
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Current teamIowa
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.