cfb zeitgeistZeitgeist
OFFSEASON · SUMMER 2026 · COMMITMENT SEASON
Heisman / Players / Dakota Twitty /Virginia

Dakota Twitty

TE · Virginia · Sr · #9

Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.

129 REC YDS · 11 REC · 0 REC TD

2026 RETURNINGReturning to Virginia for 2026

2026 Outlook

Returning to Virginia for 2026

2026 Depth chart

Projected starter

Tight end · Virginia

Returning around him

  • 28% of 2024 offensive production back (Heavy turnover)
  • Transfer portal: +8 net (30 in / 22 out)

2026 Award watch

No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)

Virginia · Last season: 11-3 (AP #20) · Talent rank #62 · 2026 recruiting class #58

TE · VIRGINIA · ACC

Dakota Twitty

  • 4
  • #9
  • 6-5 | 245 lb
  • Columbus, NC

CFB Zeitgeist Score

21

Below cohort in the position cohort. Carried by yards / catch at the 67th percentile.

Heisman Heat

#1217

<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 · Starter

R06 · Starter

Starter. A locked-in starting role.

Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex

Development Trajectory · receiving yards

2023–2025
7.02023
78.02024
1292025

+1743%

Up 1743% from first season to most-recent.

Career Arc

HS
Recruit
★★★★
#309 national
CFB
College
Virginia
2023–2025
NFL
NFL Draft
Not drafted (yet)

Identity & Role

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

PositionTE
Class4
Jersey9
Measurements6-5 | 245 lb
HometownColumbus, NC
Primary teamVirginia

Recruiting Pedigree

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

Top pedigree 4-star No. 309 recruit
Composite rating 0.9007 HighSchool
Signed with Virginia 2022
Origin Thomas Jefferson Class Academy Mooresboro, NC, USA
Class Profile Context
2022 4-star | 0.9007 No. 309 recruit | HighSchool | Virginia

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#1217Latest modeled ballot order
Season forecast#1360Where 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 Virginia

Composite

0.9007

#309 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 Dakota Twitty

Fan sentiment ·

Belief Meter

50

Mixed Sentiment

Sample 2 mentions
Confidence BELOW-FLOOR

Top Take

Trajectory

Cohort divergence mapbearishbullishheatedcalmOwn fans: 2 mentions · belief +0 · "Tight end Dakota Twitty brings value for Virginia football &nbsp;&nbsp; dnronlin"Own fans
  • Own fans · n=2

Rival Radar

How rival fanbases talk about Dakota Twitty

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.

Season Pace · Projection

Where the receiving totals stand

projecting to 13-game
Through 5g
129Rec yards
11Receptions
0Rec TDs
Per game
25.8Rec yards
2Receptions
0Rec TDs
Projected (13g)
335.4Rec yards
29Receptions
0Rec TDs

To hit 700-yard receiver (currently 129): needs 71.4/game over remaining 8.

To hit 1,000-yard receiver (currently 129): needs 108.9/game over remaining 8.

To hit 60-catch season (currently 11): needs 6.1/game over remaining 8.

To hit 80-catch season (currently 11): needs 8.6/game over remaining 8.

To hit 8 receiving TDs (currently 0): needs 1/game over remaining 8.

To hit 10 receiving TDs (currently 0): needs 1.2/game over remaining 8.

What made this player interesting

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

Dakota Twitty's story is about how role and output meet each other. For Virginia, 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.

Current place #1217 0.0% win | 0.0% finalist
Role load 4.6% Overall usage share
Profile quirk Blue-chip pedigree No. 309 recruit

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
Receptions 11 0 rec TD | #176/475 (63rd pct)
Receiving yards 129 11.7 per catch | #166/475 (65th pct)
Scrimmage yards 129 Total offensive yardage | #166/475 (65th pct)
Player identity What kind of player is this?

30-second read

What kind of player is this?

Receiving weapon against FBS receiving peers.

Balanced profile

2025 Season · Final

2025 season snapshot | final

Receiving

REC
11 63rd
YDS
129 65th
YPR
11.7 70th
TD
0 46th

Game Log · Week-by-week

2025 season · 5 games

Box score · CFBD
WkOppRECYDSAVGTDLONGNote
Wk 1W 48-7vs Coastal Carolina2157.508
Wk 2L 31-35@ NC State11212.0012
Wk 3W 55-16vs William & Mary12626.0026
Wk 4W 48-20vs Stanford24723.5026Season-high 47 yds
Wk 5W 46-38vs Florida State5295.808
Total1112915.0026
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

2023Virginia3-9HC: Tony Elliott · Run-leaning
2024Virginia5-7HC: Tony Elliott · Balanced
2025Virginia11-3HC: Tony Elliott · Balanced
SeasonTeam
2025Virginia1112911.70--
2024Virginia10787.81--
2023Virginia177.00--
Career3 loaded seasons222149.71--
Advanced layer Usage, value, and context

Advanced metrics second

Advanced Metrics

Usage, value, and opponent-adjusted context.

Usage Value Context
Pass share

The tight end's share of the passing offense, which helps distinguish a featured receiving tight end from a secondary option.

Role share

A blended usage view that shows how often the offense flows through the tight end compared with other same-level peers.

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.

Usage 4.6% 10.0% pass-game share | #91/468 (81st pct)
Return yards 0 0 return TD
Touchdowns 0 Across offense and returns | #257/475 (46th pct)
Open full stat explorer
0 metrics visible Showing all metrics
Group Metric Value Rank Pct Why it matters
Receiving Receptions 11 #176/475 63rd pct Volumevs FBS TE
Receiving Receiving yards 129 #166/475 65th pct Volumevs FBS TE
Receiving Receiving TD 0 #257/475 46th pct Scoringvs FBS TE
Receiving Yards / catch 11.7 #142/475 70th pct Efficiencyvs FBS TE
Usage Pass share 10.0% #91/468 81st pct Air-game usagevs FBS TE
Receiving Receiving LONG 26 #178/475 63rd pct Metricvs FBS TE
Usage Passing-down usage 7.3% #62/468 87th pct Known-passing sharevs FBS TE
Usage 3rd-down usage 5.1% #147/468 69th pct Money-down loadvs FBS TE
Usage 2nd-down usage 4.8% #125/468 74th pct Middle-down loadvs FBS TE
Usage 1st-down usage 4.6% #99/468 79th pct Early-down loadvs FBS TE
Usage Role share 4.6% #101/468 79th pct Share of team offensevs FBS TE
Usage Standard-down usage 3.6% #157/468 67th pct Base-situation sharevs 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

StatusAwaiting 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 · 5 games

Home/Road · Win/Loss · Season halves

Home vs Road

REC/gYDS/gYPRTD/g
Home4g2.529.215.70.0
Road1g1.012.012.00.0

Win vs Loss

REC/gYDS/gYPRTD/g
Wins4g2.529.215.70.0
Losses1g1.012.012.00.0

First half vs Second half

REC/gYDS/gYPRTD/g
Weeks 1-75g2.225.815.00.0

Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.

Savant · Box-rate percentiles

Where this profile ranks vs the TE cohort

21Below cohort
5 metrics · season cumulative

Concern: receptions (0th).

Yards / catch#58 / 175 · 67th pct
11.7rece
Long catch#134 / 175 · 23rd pct
26rece
Rec yards#157 / 175 · 11th pct
129rece
Rec TDs#152 / 175 · 7th pct
0rece
Receptions#176 / 175 · 0th pct
11rece

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
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 · Fingerprint match

Three closest profiles by box-rate percentile

3 peers · 5 metrics
Dakota TwittyVirginiaLuke LindenmeyerNebraska· 59% simBryce CaufieldOregon State· 56% simHayden HansenFlorida· 54% sim
Yards / catch
67
Twitty
53
Lindenmeyer
7
Caufield
16
Hansen
Long catch
23
Twitty
23
Lindenmeyer
39
Caufield
32
Hansen
Rec yards
11
Twitty
63
Lindenmeyer
44
Caufield
54
Hansen
Rec TDs
7
Twitty
43
Lindenmeyer
21
Caufield
43
Hansen
Receptions
0
Twitty
66
Lindenmeyer
66
Caufield
69
Hansen

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 Tre Watson’s 2021 season.

Tre Watson

87%match

Fresno State · 2021

#2

Levi Gazarek

Bowling Green · 2021

83%
#3

Mike O'Laughlin

West Virginia · 2021

81%
#4

Johncarlos Miller II

Texas Tech · 2025

80%
#5

Mike O'Laughlin

Houston · 2023

78%

Matches Tre on

Height
Weight
EPA / play (adj)

Not enough data yet for this comparison.

As a junior, his production profile tracks closest to Dylan Leonard's junior season at Georgia Tech (2022).

Dylan Leonard

89%match

Georgia Tech · 2022

#2

Boden Groen

Rice · 2024

83%
#3

Grant Misch

Virginia · 2022

83%
#4

Josiah Johnson

Massachusetts · 2022

81%
#5

Hayden Large

Iowa · 2025

80%

Matches Dylan on

Reception volume
Yards / reception
Total EPA (college ability)

Supporting Cast · Scheme

Staff and system around the player

2025 season

Head Coach

Tony Elliott

Pass share

48.0%

492 pass / 534 run

Plays / game

73.3

14 games

OL sack rate (allowed)

5.0%

337 dropbacks · PBP

Scheme: Balanced.

Coaching Lineage · 2023–2025

1 coach
2023
Tony Elliott
Virginia
2024
Tony Elliott
Virginia
2025
Tony Elliott
Virginia

Played his entire career under Tony Elliott.

Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster

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

HometownColumbus, NC
Height6'5"
Weight245 lb
Class4
PositionTE
Jersey9

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
2024 Virginia TE4 #1217 #1360 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W16 snapshot | ACC
2023 Virginia TE4 #4120 #4441 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W19 snapshot | ACC
2022 Virginia TE4 #4116 #4409 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W20 snapshot | ACC

Roster Timeline

Team, conference, and class by season.

Season Team Conference Pos Class Bio
2025 Virginia ACC TE 4 No. 9 | 6-5 | 245 lb | Columbus, NC
2024 Virginia ACC TE 4 No. 9 | 6-5 | 245 lb | Columbus, NC
2023 Virginia ACC TE 4 No. 9 | 6-5 | 245 lb | Columbus, NC
2022 Virginia ACC TE 4 No. 9 | 6-5 | 245 lb | Columbus, NC