cfb zeitgeistZeitgeist
OFFSEASON · SUMMER 2026 · COMMITMENT SEASON
Heisman / Players / Dylan Rosiek /Illinois

Dylan Rosiek

LB · Illinois · Sr · #28

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

53 TACKLES · 0 SACKS

2026 RETURNINGReturning to Illinois for 2026

2026 Outlook

Returning to Illinois for 2026

2026 Depth chart

Projected starter

Linebacker · Illinois

Returning around him

  • 52% of 2024 offensive production back (Solid continuity)
  • 3 Illinois players drafted to NFL
  • Transfer portal: -8 net (19 in / 27 out)

2026 Award watch

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

Illinois · Last season: 9-4 (AP #23) · Talent rank #64 · 2026 recruiting class #45

LB · ILLINOIS · BIG TEN

Dylan Rosiek

  • 4
  • #28
  • 6-1 | 235 lb
  • East Lake, FL

CFB Zeitgeist Score

56

Solid starter in the position cohort. Carried by tackles for loss at the 69th percentile.

Heisman Heat

#8543

<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 LB AWARD

Butkus

CONSENSUS

All-American

Player Standing · 17 rungs

Tier 2 · Starter

R07 · Impact starter

Impact starter. Producing measurable value above replacement.

Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex

Career Arc

HS
Recruit
★★★
#1608 national
CFB
College
Illinois
2022–2025
NFL
NFL Draft
Not drafted (yet)

Identity & Role

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

PositionLB
Class4
Jersey28
Measurements6-1 | 235 lb
HometownEast Lake, FL
Primary teamIllinois

Recruiting Pedigree

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

Top pedigree 3-star No. 1608 recruit
Composite rating 0.8348 HighSchool
Signed with Illinois 2021
Origin East Lake Tarpon Springs, FL, USA
Class Profile Context
2021 3-star | 0.8348 No. 1608 recruit | HighSchool | Illinois

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#8543Latest modeled ballot order
Season forecast#8741Where 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 Illinois

Composite

0.8348

#1608 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 Dylan Rosiek

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 Dylan Rosiek

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 defensive totals stand

projecting to 13-game
Through 11g
53Tackles
3.5Tackles for loss
0Sacks
Per game
5Tackles
0.3Tackles for loss
0Sacks
Projected (13g)
63Tackles
4.1Tackles for loss
0Sacks

To hit 80-tackle season (currently 53): needs 13.5/game over remaining 2.

To hit 100-tackle season (currently 53): needs 23.5/game over remaining 2.

To hit 6-sack season (currently 0): needs 3/game over remaining 2.

To hit 10-sack season (currently 0): needs 5/game over remaining 2.

Why this is a rare defensive case

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

Dylan Rosiek is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on Illinois's defense, with 0.0 sacks, 3.5 tackles for loss, and 1 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 #8543 0.0% win | 0.0% finalist
Role load -- Role share still loading
Profile quirk Defensive rarity 0.0 sacks | 3.5 TFL

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
Total tackles 53 29 solo | #525/4942 (89th pct)
TFL 3.5 Backfield disruption | #869/4972 (83rd pct)
Sacks 0.0 Pass-rush finish | #1762/4972 (65th pct)
Player identity What kind of player is this?

30-second read

What kind of player is this?

High-volume tackler against FBS defenders.

High-volume tackler

2025 Season · Final

2025 season snapshot | final

Tackling & Disruption

TOT
53 89th
SOLO
29 88th
TFL
3.5 83rd
SACK
0.0 65th
QBH
1 44th

Coverage & Takeaways

PD
3 76th
INT
1 65th

Game Log · Week-by-week

2025 season · 11 games

Box score · CFBD
WkOppTKLSOLOTFLSACKINTPDNote
Wk 1W 52-3vs Western Illinois211.00.00
Wk 2W 45-19@ Duke610.00.00
Wk 4L 10-63@ Indiana851.00.00Season-high 8 tackles
Wk 5W 34-32vs USC630.00.010
Wk 6W 43-27@ Purdue310.00.00
Wk 7L 16-34vs Ohio State320.00.01
Wk 9L 25-42@ Washington730.00.00
Wk 12W 24-6vs Maryland640.00.02
Wk 13L 10-27@ Wisconsin110.00.00
Wk 14W 20-13vs Northwestern751.50.00
BowlW 30-28vs Tennessee430.00.00
Total53293.50.013
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

2022Illinois8-5HC: Bret Bielema · Run-leaning
2023Illinois5-7HC: Bret Bielema · Balanced
2024Illinois10-3HC: Bret Bielema · Run-leaning
2025Illinois9-4HC: Bret Bielema · Run-leaning
SeasonTeam
2025Illinois53293.50.031--
2024Illinois61253.01.51----
2023Illinois82527.51.03----
2022Illinois841.00.0------
Career4 loaded seasons20411015.02.571--
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 1 0 pick-six TD | #308/869 (65th pct)
Pass breakups 3 Coverage disruption | #521/2184 (76th pct)
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 53 #525/4942 89th pct Volumevs FBS DEF
Defense TFL 3.5 #869/4972 83rd pct Disruptionvs FBS DEF
Defense Sacks 0.0 #1762/4972 65th pct Disruptionvs FBS DEF
Defense Interceptions 1 #308/869 65th pct Takeawaysvs FBS DEF
Defense Pass breakups 3 #521/2184 76th pct Coveragevs FBS DEF
Defense QB hurries 1 #1051/1878 44th pct Disruptionvs FBS DEF
Defense Solo tackles 29 #559/4584 88th 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 Butkus 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 · 11 games

Home/Road · Win/Loss · Season halves

Home vs Road

TKL/gTFL/gSACK/gPD/g
Home6g4.70.40.00.5
Road5g5.00.20.00.0

Win vs Loss

TKL/gTFL/gSACK/gPD/g
Wins7g4.90.40.00.3
Losses4g4.80.20.00.2

First half vs Second half

TKL/gTFL/gSACK/gPD/g
Weeks 1-77g4.60.30.00.1
Weeks 8+4g5.20.40.00.5

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

Savant · Box-rate percentiles

Where this profile ranks vs the LB cohort

56Solid starter
7 metrics · season cumulative

Elite: tackles (81st). Strength: solo tackles (80th). Concern: sacks (23rd).

Tackles#525 / 2975 · 82nd pct
53defe
Solo tackles#559 / 2975 · 80th pct
29defe
Passes defended#517 / 2975 · 78th pct
3defe
Tackles for loss#866 / 2975 · 69th pct
3.5defe
QB hurries#1007 / 2975 · 55th pct
1defe
Interceptions#304 / 817 · 31st pct
1inte
Sacks#1575 / 2975 · 24th pct
0.0defe

Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.

Advanced Savant · LB · 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 · 7 metrics
Dylan RosiekIllinoisRobert FitzgeraldNorthwestern· 88% simTyler MartinMassachusetts· 85% simTahj Ra-ElPurdue· 81% sim
Tackles
82
Rosiek
99
Fitzgerald
98
Martin
99
Ra-El
Solo tackles
80
Rosiek
100
Fitzgerald
87
Martin
100
Ra-El
Passes defended
78
Rosiek
86
Fitzgerald
67
Martin
91
Ra-El
Tackles for loss
69
Rosiek
85
Fitzgerald
63
Martin
56
Ra-El
QB hurries
55
Rosiek
55
Fitzgerald
22
Martin
22
Ra-El
Interceptions
31
Rosiek
31
Fitzgerald
31
Martin
Sacks
24
Rosiek
24
Fitzgerald
24
Martin
24
Ra-El

Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.

Player DNA

The Coverage 'Backer

Carries tight ends and patrols the middle of the field in coverage.

LB

His 2025 production profile sits closest to Nikhai Hill-Green’s 2025 season.

Nikhai Hill-Green

81%match

Alabama · 2025

#2

Tre Freeman

Duke · 2025

80%
#3

Owen McGowan

Boston College · 2025

79%
#4

David Gbenda

Texas · 2023

79%
#5

Joseph Harper

Southern Miss · 2025

79%

Matches Nikhai on

Class year
Tackle volume
PD rate

Differs from Nikhai on

Height (lower)

Not enough data yet for this comparison.

As a senior, his production profile tracks closest to Dorian Mausi's senior season at Duke (2023).

Dorian Mausi

87%match

Duke · 2023

#2

Teylor Jackson

East Carolina · 2023

86%
#3

Owen McGowan

Boston College · 2025

84%
#4

Khadry Jackson

Georgia Southern · 2023

84%
#5

Jeffrey Bassa

Oregon · 2024

All-Big TenNFL Rd 5
84%

Matches Dorian on

TFL rate
Tackle volume
Sack rate

Supporting Cast · Scheme

Staff and system around the player

2025 season

Head Coach

Bret Bielema

Pass share

45.6%

372 pass / 444 run

Plays / game

62.8

13 games

OL sack rate (allowed)

11.0%

292 dropbacks · PBP

Scheme: Run-leaning.

Coaching Lineage · 2022–2025

1 coach
2022
Bret Bielema
Illinois
2023
Bret Bielema
Illinois
2024
Bret Bielema
Illinois
2025
Bret Bielema
Illinois

Played his entire career under Bret Bielema.

Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster

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

HometownEast Lake, FL
Height6'1"
Weight235 lb
Class4
PositionLB
Jersey28

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 Illinois LB4 #8543 #8741 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W16 snapshot | Big Ten
2023 Illinois LB4 #9985 #10431 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W19 snapshot | Big Ten
2022 Illinois LB4 #8144 #8000 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W20 snapshot | Big Ten
2021 Illinois LB4 #11925 #11840 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W20 snapshot | Big Ten

Roster Timeline

Team, conference, and class by season.

Season Team Conference Pos Class Bio
2025 Illinois Big Ten LB 4 No. 28 | 6-1 | 235 lb | East Lake, FL
2024 Illinois Big Ten LB 4 No. 28 | 6-1 | 235 lb | East Lake, FL
2023 Illinois Big Ten LB 4 No. 28 | 6-1 | 235 lb | East Lake, FL
2022 Illinois Big Ten LB 4 No. 28 | 6-1 | 235 lb | East Lake, FL
2021 Illinois Big Ten LB 4 No. 28 | 6-1 | 235 lb | East Lake, FL