CFB Zeitgeist DE Score
Awaiting
Kam Thomas
Limited signal — not enough coverage for a story yet.
2026 Outlook
Returning to UTEP for 2026
2026 Depth chart
Projected starter
Defensive end · UTEP
Returning around him
- 100% of 2024 offensive production back (Strong continuity)
- Transfer portal: +1 net (21 in / 20 out)
2026 Award watch
No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)
UTEP · Last season: 2-10 · Talent rank #101 · 2026 recruiting class #70
DE · UTEP · CONFERENCE USA
Kam Thomas
- 4
- #5
- 5-7 | 184 lb
- Birmingham, AL
Heisman Heat
#12553
<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 DEFENSE AWARD
Nagurski
—
CONSENSUS
All-American
—
Player Standing · 17 rungs
Tier 2 · StarterR07 · Impact starter
Impact starter. Producing measurable value above replacement.
Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex
Career arc · Season-by-season Standing
2 seasons on the ladder
★
2024
UTEP · DE
R09 · All-Conference HM / 2nd team
Recognized
2025
UTEP · DE
—
Career Arc
HS
Recruit
—
CFB
College
UTEP
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 |
|---|---|---|
| No recruiting profile is on file for this player. | ||
Transfer Arc
Portal movement changes role, context, and perception. This keeps that path in one place.
| Season | Move | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Austin Peay -> UTEP | 3-star | 0.8200 | Immediate |
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.
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 Kam Thomas
Fan sentiment ·
Belief Meter
50
Mixed Sentiment
Top Take
“”
Trajectory
Per-cohort trajectory lands when historical bucket data is aggregated.
Cohort divergence map
- Own fans · n=2
Rival Radar
How rival fanbases talk about Kam Thomas
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.
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.
Kam Thomas is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on UTEP's defense, with -- sacks, -- 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?
Defensive contributor against FBS defenders.
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 1 games
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | L 16-28@ Utah State | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Total | — | — | — | — | — | — |
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
2024UTEP3-9HC: Scotty Walden · Run-leaning
2025UTEP2-10HC: Scotty Walden · 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Usage | Pass share | 14.5% | -- | -- | Air-game usagevs FBS DEF |
| Usage | 2nd-down usage | 12.3% | -- | -- | Middle-down loadvs FBS DEF |
| Usage | Passing-down usage | 10.9% | -- | -- | Known-passing sharevs FBS DEF |
| Usage | Role share | 9.1% | -- | -- | Share of team offensevs FBS DEF |
| Usage | Standard-down usage | 8.2% | -- | -- | Base-situation sharevs FBS DEF |
| Usage | 1st-down usage | 8.0% | -- | -- | Early-down loadvs FBS DEF |
| Usage | 3rd-down usage | 7.9% | -- | -- | Money-down loadvs FBS DEF |
| Usage | Rush share | 4.1% | -- | -- | Ground-game usagevs 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 Lombardi 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 · 1 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Road1g | — | — | — | — |
Win vs Loss
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Losses1g | — | — | — | — |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-71g | — | — | — | — |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Advanced Savant · DE · 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.
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Scotty Walden
Pass share
52.4%
410 pass / 372 run
Plays / game
65.2
12 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
8.2%
342 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Balanced.
Coaching Lineage · 2024–2025
1 coach2024
Scotty Walden
UTEP
2025
Scotty Walden
UTEP
Played his entire career under Scotty Walden.
Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
HometownBirmingham, AL
Height5'7"
Weight184 lb
Class4
PositionDE
Jersey5
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Current teamUTEP
ConferenceConference USA
Joined2025
Career arc2 season(s)
Trophy Case · Confirmed honors
What the selectors said
🎖
ALL-CONFERENCE
All-Conf mention (2024)
All-Conference USA
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | All-Conference USA | all_conference | UTEP | Conference USA | RET |
Heisman By Year
Modeled rank and official finish by season.
| Season | Team | Role | Latest Model | Forecast | Win | Finalist | Official Finish | Points | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | UTEP | DE4 | #12553 | #12941 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W16 snapshot | Conference USA |
Roster Timeline
Team, conference, and class by season.