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OFFSEASON · SUMMER 2026 · COMMITMENT SEASON
Heisman / Players / Jesse Luketa /Penn State

Jesse Luketa

LB · Penn State · Jr · #40

Limited signal — not enough coverage for a story yet.

NOW IN NFLArizona — drafted 2022, Rd 7, Pick 35, #256 overall

Where He Ended Up · NFL

ArizonaEntering 5th NFL season

#256Rd 7 · Pick 35
ArizonaEntering 5th NFL season

LB · PENN STATE · BIG TEN

Jesse Luketa

  • 3
  • #40
  • 6-3 | 242 lb
  • Ottawa, ON

CFB Zeitgeist LB Score

Awaiting

Heisman Heat

#5269

<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-deep

R03 · Backup

Backup. On the two-deep, pushing for snaps.

Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex

Career Arc

HS
Recruit
★★★★
#238 national
CFB
College
Penn State
2021
NFL
NFL Draft
R7 &middot; #256
Arizona &middot; 2022

Identity & Role

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

PositionLB
Class3
Jersey40
Measurements6-3 | 242 lb
HometownOttawa, ON
Primary teamPenn State

Recruiting Pedigree

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

Top pedigree 4-star No. 238 recruit
Composite rating 0.9113 HighSchool
Signed with Penn State 2018
Origin Mercyhurst Preparatory School Erie, PA, USA
Class Profile Context
2018 4-star | 0.9113 No. 238 recruit | HighSchool | Penn State

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 · 2021 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 20
Current nowcast#5269Latest modeled ballot order
Season forecast#5793Where 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 Penn State

Composite

0.9113

#238 national

NFL Draft

2022 · Rd 7, Pick 35

#256 overall · Arizona

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 Jesse Luketa

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 Jesse Luketa

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.

Jesse Luketa is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on Penn State's defense, with 0.5 sacks, 8.5 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 #5269 0.0% win | 0.0% finalist
Role load -- Role share still loading
Profile quirk Blue-chip pedigree No. 238 recruit

2021 Season · Final

Traditional stats first. Advanced context underneath.

Last season

DEF season snapshot

2021 season snapshot | final

2021 season snapshot | finalData: CFBD player stats + local Heisman modelPeer context: same position + same level
Total tackles 61 34 solo | #387/4942 (92nd pct)
TFL 8.5 Backfield disruption | #175/4972 (97th pct)
Sacks 0.5 Pass-rush finish | #1501/4972 (70th pct)
Player identity What kind of player is this?

30-second read

What kind of player is this?

High-disruption defender | High-volume tackler against FBS defenders.

High-disruption defenderHigh-volume tackler

2021 Season · Final

2021 season snapshot | final

Tackling & Disruption

TOT
61 92nd
SOLO
34 92nd
TFL
8.5 97th
SACK
0.5 70th
QBH
5 90th

Coverage & Takeaways

INT
1 65th

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

2021Penn State7-5HC: James Franklin · Balanced
SeasonTeam
2021Penn State61348.50.5--1--
Career1 loaded season61348.50.5--1--
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 1 pick-six TD | #308/869 (65th pct)
Pass breakups 0 Coverage disruption
QB pressures 5 Quarterback hurries | #188/1878 (90th pct)
Open full stat explorer
0 metrics visible Showing all metrics
Group Metric Value Rank Pct Why it matters
Defense Total tackles 61 #387/4942 92nd pct Volumevs FBS DEF
Defense TFL 8.5 #175/4972 97th pct Disruptionvs FBS DEF
Defense Sacks 0.5 #1501/4972 70th pct Disruptionvs FBS DEF
Defense Interceptions 1 #308/869 65th pct Takeawaysvs FBS DEF
Defense QB hurries 5 #188/1878 90th pct Disruptionvs FBS DEF
Defense Solo tackles 34 #386/4584 92nd pct Volumevs FBS DEF
Defense INT return avg 16.0 #267/578 54th pct Takeawaysvs FBS DEF
Defense INT return yards 16 #350/578 40th pct Takeawaysvs FBS DEF
Defense Defensive TD 1 #23/200 89th pct Scoringvs FBS DEF
Defense Pick-six TD 1 #13/119 90th pct Scoringvs 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 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 · LB · 2021

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

James Franklin

Pass share

42.0%

339 pass / 469 run

Plays / game

62.2

13 games

OL sack rate (allowed)

7.4%

230 dropbacks · PBP

Scheme: Run-leaning.

Coaching Lineage · 2021

1 coach
2021
James Franklin
Penn State

Played his entire career under James Franklin.

Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster

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

HometownOttawa, ON
Height6'3"
Weight242 lb
Class3
PositionLB
Jersey40

Trophy Case · Confirmed honors

What the selectors said

1 entries
🎖

ALL-CONFERENCE

All-Conf mention (2021)

All-Big Ten

Trophy Case · Detail

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

All-Conference

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
2021 All-Big Ten all_conference Penn State | Big Ten DL

Heisman By Year

Modeled rank and official finish by season.

Season Team Role Latest Model Forecast Win Finalist Official Finish Points Context
2021 Penn State LB3 #5269 #5793 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W20 snapshot | Big Ten

Roster Timeline

Team, conference, and class by season.

Season Team Conference Pos Class Bio
2021 Penn State Big Ten LB 3 No. 40 | 6-3 | 242 lb | Ottawa, ON