CFB Zeitgeist Score
58
Solid starter in the position cohort. Carried by sacks at the 80th percentile.
James Walley Jr.
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
19 TACKLES · 2 SACKS
2026 Outlook
Returning to UTSA for 2026
2026 Depth chart
Projected starter
Linebacker · UTSA
Returning around him
- 96% of 2024 offensive production back (Strong continuity)
- Transfer portal: -2 net (21 in / 23 out)
2026 Award watch
No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)
UTSA · Last season: 7-6 · Talent rank #65 · 2026 recruiting class #107
LB · UTSA · AMERICAN ATHLETIC
James Walley Jr.
- 2
- #34
- 6-2 | 250 lb
- Missouri City, TX
Heisman Heat
#11582
<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 1 · 2-deepR04 · Rotational
Rotational. Earning real snaps in the rotation.
Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex
Career Arc
HS
Recruit
★★★
CFB
College
UTSA
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 | 0.8478 | No. 1475 recruit | HighSchool | UTSA |
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 UTSA
Composite
0.8478
#1475 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 James Walley Jr.
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 James Walley Jr.
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 7g
19Tackles
5.5Tackles for loss
2Sacks
Per game
3Tackles
0.8Tackles for loss
0.3Sacks
Projected (13g)
35Tackles
10.2Tackles for loss
3.7Sacks
To hit 80-tackle season (currently 19): needs 10.2/game over remaining 6.
To hit 100-tackle season (currently 19): needs 13.5/game over remaining 6.
To hit 6-sack season (currently 2): needs 0.7/game over remaining 6.
To hit 10-sack season (currently 2): needs 1.3/game over remaining 6.
Why this is a rare defensive case
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
James Walley Jr. is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on UTSA's defense, with 2.0 sacks, 5.5 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?
High-disruption defender against FBS defenders.
2025 Season · Final
2025 season snapshot | final
Tackling & Disruption
TOT
19 58th
SOLO
12 62nd
TFL
5.5 90th
SACK
2.0 90th
Coverage & Takeaways
PD
2 64th
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 7 games
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 3 | W 48-20vs Incarnate Word | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 7 | W 61-13vs Rice | 5 | 4 | 2.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 5 tackles |
| Wk 8 | L 17-55@ North Texas | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 12 | W 28-7@ Charlotte | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 13 | W 58-24vs East Carolina | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 14 | L 24-27vs Army | 3 | 2 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Bowl | W 57-20vs Florida International | 4 | 2 | 1.5 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 19 | 12 | 5.5 | 2.0 | — | 2 |
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
2023UTSA9-4HC: Jeff Traylor · Run-leaning
2024UTSA7-6HC: Jeff Traylor · Balanced, fast tempo
2025UTSA7-6HC: Jeff Traylor · Balanced
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 | 19 | #2072/4942 | 58th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | TFL | 5.5 | #477/4972 | 90th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Sacks | 2.0 | #491/4972 | 90th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Pass breakups | 2 | #792/2184 | 64th pct | Coveragevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Solo tackles | 12 | #1735/4584 | 62nd 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 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 · 7 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home5g | 3.2 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Road2g | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
Win vs Loss
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins5g | 2.8 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.2 |
| Losses2g | 2.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-73g | 3.7 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Weeks 8+4g | 2.0 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the LB cohort
58Solid starter
Elite: tackles for loss (82nd). Concern: qb hurries (22nd).
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
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
James Walley Jr.UTSAMichael MontgomerySouthern Miss· 66% simChris JonesSouthern Miss· 62% simAhmaad MosesSMU· 62% sim
Tackles for loss
Sacks
Passes defended
Solo tackles
Tackles
QB hurries
Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.
Player DNA
The Thumper
Downhill striker who fills the run lane and blitzes off the edge.
LB
His 2025 production profile sits closest to O.C. Brothers’s 2023 season.
O.C. Brothers
57%match
#2
Jaishawn Barham
NFL Rd 3 · Pk 28
57%
#3
Amadeo West
54%
#4
Reggie Johnson
54%
#5
DaMarcus Mitchell
50%
Matches O.C. on
TFL rate
Weight
Differs from O.C. on
Class year (lower)
PD rate (lower)
Sack rate (lower)
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a junior, his production profile tracks closest to Anas Luqman's junior season at Ohio (2025).
Anas Luqman
59%match
#2
Brad Spence
59%
#3
Kamren Washington
59%
#4
Cecil Doggette Jr.
57%
#5
Nick Booker-Brown
56%
Matches Anas on
TFL rate
Differs from Anas on
Class year (lower)
Height (lower)
Tackle volume (lower)
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Jeff Traylor
Pass share
50.7%
446 pass / 434 run
Plays / game
67.7
13 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
6.0%
281 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Balanced.
Coaching Lineage · 2023–2025
1 coach2023
Jeff Traylor
UTSA
2024
Jeff Traylor
UTSA
2025
Jeff Traylor
UTSA
Played his entire career under Jeff Traylor.
Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
HometownMissouri City, TX
Height6'2"
Weight250 lb
Class2
PositionLB
Jersey34
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Current teamUTSA
ConferenceAmerican Athletic
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.