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OFFSEASON · SUMMER 2026 · COMMITMENT SEASON
Heisman / Players / Caden Blum /Air Force

Caden Blum

DL · Air Force · Sr · #87

Limited signal — not enough coverage for a story yet.

ALUMNUSAir Force 2023 alumnus

DL · AIR FORCE · MOUNTAIN WEST

Caden Blum

  • 4
  • #87
  • 6-5 | 265 lb

CFB Zeitgeist DL Score

Awaiting

Heisman Heat

#10507

<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 DEFENSE AWARD

Nagurski

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
★★
#2894 national
CFB
College
Air Force
2021–2023
NFL
NFL Draft
Not drafted (yet)

Identity & Role

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

PositionDL
Class4
Jersey87
Measurements6-5 | 265 lb
Hometown--
Primary teamAir Force

Recruiting Pedigree

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

Top pedigree 2-star No. 2894 recruit
Composite rating 0.7900 HighSchool
Signed with Air Force 2019
Origin Baraboo Baraboo, WI, USA
Class Profile Context
2019 2-star | 0.7900 No. 2894 recruit | HighSchool | Air Force

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 · 2023 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 19
Current nowcast#10507Latest modeled ballot order
Season forecast#10523Where 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 Air Force

Composite

0.7900

#2894 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

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 Caden Blum

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 Caden Blum

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.

Caden Blum is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on Air Force's defense, with 1.5 sacks, 1.5 tackles for loss, and -- 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 #10507 0.0% win | 0.0% finalist
Role load -- Role share still loading
Profile quirk Defensive rarity 1.5 sacks | 1.5 TFL

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 10 6 solo | #2859/4942 (42nd pct)
TFL 1.5 Backfield disruption | #1771/4972 (64th pct)
Sacks 1.5 Pass-rush finish | #724/4972 (85th pct)
Player identity What kind of player is this?

30-second read

What kind of player is this?

High-disruption defender against FBS defenders.

High-disruption defender

2023 Season · Final

2023 season snapshot | final

Tackling & Disruption

TOT
10 42nd
SOLO
6 43rd
TFL
1.5 64th
SACK
1.5 85th
QBH
1 44th

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

2021Air Force9-3HC: Troy Calhoun · Run-heavy, fast tempo
2023Air Force9-4HC: Troy Calhoun · Run-heavy, slow tempo
SeasonTeam
2023Air Force1061.51.5------
2021Air Force--------------
Career2 loaded seasons1061.51.5------
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 -- -- pick-six TD
Pass breakups 0 Coverage disruption
QB pressures 1 Quarterback hurries | #1051/1878 (44th pct)
Open full stat explorer
0 metrics visible Showing all metrics
Group Metric Value Rank Pct Why it matters
Defense Total tackles 10 #2859/4942 42nd pct Volumevs FBS DEF
Defense TFL 1.5 #1771/4972 64th pct Disruptionvs FBS DEF
Defense Sacks 1.5 #724/4972 85th pct Disruptionvs FBS DEF
Defense QB hurries 1 #1051/1878 44th pct Disruptionvs FBS DEF
Defense Solo tackles 6 #2592/4584 43rd pct Volumevs 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 Lombardi 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 · DL · 2023

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

Troy Calhoun

Pass share

20.0%

163 pass / 650 run

Plays / game

67.8

12 games

OL sack rate (allowed)

10.6%

151 dropbacks · PBP

Scheme: Run-heavy.

Coaching Lineage · 2021–2023

1 coach
2021
Troy Calhoun
Air Force
2023
Troy Calhoun
Air Force

Played his entire career under Troy Calhoun.

Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster

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

Height6'5"
Weight265 lb
Class4
PositionDL
Jersey87

Trophy Case · Detail

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

Honors

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
2023 Air Force DL4 #10507 #10523 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W19 snapshot | Mountain West
2022 Air Force DL4 #9786 #9297 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W20 snapshot | Mountain West
2021 Air Force DL4 #11606 #11417 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W20 snapshot | Mountain West

Roster Timeline

Team, conference, and class by season.

Season Team Conference Pos Class Bio
2023 Air Force Mountain West DL 4 No. 87 | 6-5 | 265 lb
2022 Air Force Mountain West DL 4 No. 87 | 6-5 | 265 lb
2021 Air Force Mountain West DL 4 No. 87 | 6-5 | 265 lb