CFB Zeitgeist Score
39
Mid-pack in the position cohort. Carried by passes defended at the 91st percentile.
Dontae Balfour
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
23 TACKLES · 0 SACKS
2026 Outlook
Returning to Texas Tech for 2026
2026 Depth chart
Projected starter
Defensive back · Texas Tech
Returning around him
- 59% of 2024 offensive production back (Solid continuity)
- 9 Texas Tech players drafted to NFL
- Transfer portal: +0 net (21 in / 21 out)
2026 Award watch
No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)
Texas Tech · Last season: 12-2 (AP #4) · Talent rank #29 · 2026 recruiting class #48
DB · TEXAS TECH · BIG 12
Dontae Balfour
- 4
- #20
- 6-1 | 185 lb
- Starke, FL
Heisman Heat
#11750
<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-deepR03 · Backup
Backup. On the two-deep, pushing for snaps.
Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex
Career arc · Season-by-season Standing
4 seasons on the ladder
2022
North Carolina · DB
—
★
2023
Charlotte · DB
R09 · All-Conference HM / 2nd team
Recognized
2024
Charlotte · DB
—
2025
Texas Tech · DB
—
Career Arc
HS
Recruit
★★★
CFB
College
3 teams
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 3-star | 0.8858 | No. 449 recruit | HighSchool | North Carolina |
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 North Carolina
Composite
0.8858
#449 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 Dontae Balfour
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 Dontae Balfour
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 defensive totals stand
Through 10g
23Tackles
0.5Tackles for loss
0Sacks
Per game
2Tackles
0.1Tackles for loss
0Sacks
Projected (13g)
30Tackles
0.7Tackles for loss
0Sacks
To hit 80-tackle season (currently 23): needs 19/game over remaining 3.
To hit 100-tackle season (currently 23): needs 25.7/game over remaining 3.
To hit 6-sack season (currently 0): needs 2/game over remaining 3.
To hit 10-sack season (currently 0): needs 3.3/game over remaining 3.
Why this is a rare defensive case
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Dontae Balfour is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on Texas Tech's defense, with 0.0 sacks, 0.5 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.
2025 Season · Final
Traditional stats first. Advanced context underneath.
Last season
DEF 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?
Coverage splash against FBS defenders.
2025 Season · Final
2025 season snapshot | final
Tackling & Disruption
TOT
23 63rd
SOLO
15 69th
TFL
0.5 47th
SACK
0.0 65th
Coverage & Takeaways
PD
5 90th
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 10 games
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 2 | W 62-14vs Kent State | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 3 | W 45-14vs Oregon State | 3 | 2 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 4 | W 34-10@ Utah | 5 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | Season-high 5 tackles |
| Wk 6 | W 35-11@ Houston | 2 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 7 | W 42-17vs Kansas | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 8 | L 22-26@ Arizona State | 3 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 9 | W 42-0vs Oklahoma State | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 11 | W 29-7vs BYU | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 12 | W 48-9vs UCF | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 14 | W 49-0@ West Virginia | 3 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 23 | 15 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 5 |
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
2022North Carolina9-5HC: Mack Brown · Balanced
2023Charlotte3-9HC: Biff Poggi · Run-leaning
2024Charlotte5-7HC: Biff Poggi · Balanced, slow tempo
2025Texas Tech12-2HC: Joey McGuire · Balanced
| Season | Team | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Texas Tech | 23 | 15 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 5 | -- | -- |
| 2024 | Charlotte | 48 | 35 | 2.5 | 0.0 | 9 | 2 | -- |
| 2023 | Charlotte | 54 | 34 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 10 | 1 | -- |
| 2022 | North Carolina | 6 | 5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | -- | -- | -- |
| Career | 4 loaded seasons | 131 | 89 | 4.0 | 0.0 | 24 | 3 | -- |
Advanced layer Usage, value, and context
Advanced metrics second
Advanced Metrics
Usage, value, and opponent-adjusted context.
TFL, sacks, and QB hurries are grouped together because defensive Heisman cases are usually built on visible havoc, not on tackle counts alone.
Pass breakups, interceptions, and forced fumbles matter because national awards voters respond to plays that change possessions and highlight reels.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Defense | Total tackles | 23 | #1813/4942 | 63rd pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | TFL | 0.5 | #2658/4972 | 47th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Sacks | 0.0 | #1762/4972 | 65th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Pass breakups | 5 | #218/2184 | 90th pct | Coveragevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Solo tackles | 15 | #1434/4584 | 69th 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
Status—Awaiting 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
2025 season · 10 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home6g | 1.7 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.5 |
| Road4g | 3.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 |
Win vs Loss
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins9g | 2.2 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.6 |
| Losses1g | 3.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-75g | 2.8 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.6 |
| Weeks 8+5g | 1.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.4 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the DB cohort
39Mid-pack
Elite: passes defended (90th). Concern: tackles for loss (18th).
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.
Advanced Savant · DB · 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
Dontae BalfourTexas TechTyler MartinMassachusetts· 65% simTahj Ra-ElPurdue· 65% simDalton JohnsonArizona· 63% sim
Passes defended
Solo tackles
Tackles
Sacks
QB hurries
Tackles for loss
Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.
Player DNA
The Centerfielder
Single-high range who erases the deep middle of the field.
S
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Thaddeus Dixon’s 2023 season.
Thaddeus Dixon
86%match
#2
Juan Lua
81%
#3
Dashawn Jones
81%
#4
Brandon Crossley
81%
#5
Reggie Akles
81%
Matches Thaddeus on
Height
Tackle volume
PD rate
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a senior, his production profile tracks closest to Nyland Green's senior season at Purdue (2024).
Nyland Green
88%match
#2
Jalen Kimber
88%
#3
Dreyden Norwood
87%
#4
Justin Hodges
84%
#5
Cam Allen
84%
Matches Nyland on
Class year
PD rate
Tackle volume
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Joey McGuire
Pass share
47.6%
484 pass / 532 run
Plays / game
72.6
14 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
6.5%
336 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Balanced.
Coaching Lineage · 2022–2025
1 coach2022
Joey McGuire
Texas Tech
2023
Joey McGuire
Texas Tech
2024
Joey McGuire
Texas Tech
2025
Joey McGuire
Texas Tech
Played his entire career under Joey McGuire.
Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
HometownStarke, FL
Height6'1"
Weight185 lb
Class4
PositionDB
Jersey20
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Current teamTexas Tech
ConferenceBig 12
Joined2025
Career arc5 season(s)
Trophy Case · Confirmed honors
What the selectors said
🎖
ALL-CONFERENCE
All-Conf mention (2023)
All-AAC
Trophy Case · Detail
Every honor on the ledger, broken out by stream and selector.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | All-AAC | all_conference | Charlotte | AAC | DB |
Heisman By Year
Modeled rank and official finish by season.
| Season | Team | Role | Latest Model | Forecast | Win | Finalist | Official Finish | Points | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Charlotte | DB4 | #11750 | #12530 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W16 snapshot | American Athletic |
| 2023 | Charlotte | DB4 | #12803 | #13254 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W19 snapshot | American Athletic |
| 2022 | North Carolina | DB4 | #12201 | #11997 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W20 snapshot | ACC |
| 2021 | North Carolina | DB4 | #11397 | #11270 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W20 snapshot | ACC |
Roster Timeline
Team, conference, and class by season.
| Season | Team | Conference | Pos | Class | Bio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Texas Tech | Big 12 | DB | 4 | No. 20 | 6-1 | 185 lb | Starke, FL |
| 2024 | Charlotte | American Athletic | DB | 4 | No. 20 | 6-1 | 185 lb | Starke, FL |
| 2023 | Charlotte | American Athletic | DB | 4 | No. 20 | 6-1 | 185 lb | Starke, FL |
| 2022 | North Carolina | ACC | DB | 4 | No. 20 | 6-1 | 185 lb | Starke, FL |
| 2021 | North Carolina | ACC | DB | 4 | No. 20 | 6-1 | 185 lb | Starke, FL |