cfb zeitgeistZeitgeist
OFFSEASON · SUMMER 2026 · COMMITMENT SEASON
Heisman / Players / Mac McWilliams /UCF

Mac McWilliams

DB · UCF · Sr · #20

Limited signal — not enough coverage for a story yet.

NOW IN NFLPhiladelphia — drafted 2025, Rd 5, Pick 7, #145 overall

Where He Ended Up · NFL

PhiladelphiaEntering 2nd NFL season

#145Rd 5 · Pick 7
PhiladelphiaEntering 2nd NFL season

DB · UCF · BIG 12

Mac McWilliams

  • 4
  • #20
  • 5-10 | 185 lb
  • Pensacola, FL

CFB Zeitgeist DB Score

Awaiting

Heisman Heat

#10805

<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-deep

R02 · Deep reserve

Deep reserve. In the program, working up the two-deep.

Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex

Career Arc

HS
Recruit
★★★
#2640 national
CFB
College
2 teams
2020–2024
NFL
NFL Draft
R5 &middot; #145
Philadelphia &middot; 2025

Identity & Role

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

PositionDB
Class4
Jersey20
Measurements5-10 | 185 lb
HometownPensacola, FL
Primary teamUCF

Recruiting Pedigree

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

Top pedigree 3-star No. 2640 recruit
Composite rating 0.8081 HighSchool
Signed with UAB 2020
Origin Pine Forest Pensacola, FL, USA
Class Profile Context
2020 3-star | 0.8081 No. 2640 recruit | HighSchool | UAB

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#10805Latest modeled ballot order
Season forecast#10876Where 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 UAB

Composite

0.8081

#2640 national

NFL Draft

2025 · Rd 5, Pick 7

#145 overall · Philadelphia

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 Mac McWilliams

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 Mac McWilliams

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.

Mac McWilliams is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on UCF's defense, with 1.0 sacks, 6.5 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 #10805 0.0% win | 0.0% finalist
Role load -- Role share still loading
Profile quirk Transfer path 0 portal moves

2024 Season · Final

Traditional stats first. Advanced context underneath.

Last season

DEF season snapshot

2024 season snapshot | final

2024 season snapshot | finalData: CFBD player stats + local Heisman modelPeer context: same position + same level
Total tackles 32 25 solo | #1250/4942 (75th pct)
TFL 6.5 Backfield disruption | #340/4972 (93rd pct)
Sacks 1.0 Pass-rush finish | #872/4972 (82nd pct)
Player identity What kind of player is this?

30-second read

What kind of player is this?

High-disruption defender against FBS defenders.

High-disruption defender

2024 Season · Final

2024 season snapshot | final

Tackling & Disruption

TOT
32 75th
SOLO
25 84th
TFL
6.5 93rd
SACK
1.0 82nd

Coverage & Takeaways

PD
2 64th
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

2020UAB6-3HC: Bill Clark · Run-leaning
2021UAB8-4HC: Bill Clark · Run-heavy
2022UAB7-6HC: Bryant Vincent · Run-heavy
2023UAB4-8HC: Trent Dilfer · Balanced
2024UCF4-8HC: Gus Malzahn · Run-heavy
SeasonTeam
2024UCF32256.51.021--
2023UAB52392.00.08--1
2022UAB19111.00.0101--
2021UAB23183.00.04----
2020UAB650.00.0------
Career5 loaded seasons1329812.51.02421
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 2 Coverage disruption | #792/2184 (64th pct)
QB pressures 0 Quarterback hurries
Open full stat explorer
0 metrics visible Showing all metrics
Group Metric Value Rank Pct Why it matters
Defense Total tackles 32 #1250/4942 75th pct Volumevs FBS DEF
Defense TFL 6.5 #340/4972 93rd pct Disruptionvs FBS DEF
Defense Sacks 1.0 #872/4972 82nd pct Disruptionvs FBS DEF
Defense Interceptions 1 #308/869 65th pct Takeawaysvs FBS DEF
Defense Pass breakups 2 #792/2184 64th pct Coveragevs FBS DEF
Defense INT return avg 27.0 #124/578 79th pct Takeawaysvs FBS DEF
Defense INT return yards 27 #245/578 58th pct Takeawaysvs FBS DEF
Defense Solo tackles 25 #744/4584 84th 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 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 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 · DB · 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 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

Scott Frost

Pass share

51.7%

403 pass / 377 run

Plays / game

65.0

12 games

OL sack rate (allowed)

6.5%

324 dropbacks · PBP

Scheme: Balanced.

Coaching Lineage · 2020–2024

2 coaches
2020
Josh Heupel
UCF
2021
Gus Malzahn
UCF
era →
2022
Gus Malzahn
UCF
2023
Gus Malzahn
UCF
2024
Gus Malzahn
UCF

Coaching transition mid-career: Josh Heupel → Gus Malzahn. Worth noting in scheme + development context.

Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster

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

HometownPensacola, FL
Height5'10"
Weight185 lb
Class4
PositionDB
Jersey20

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 UCF DB4 #10805 #10876 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W16 snapshot | Big 12
2023 UAB DB4 #13335 #13753 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W19 snapshot | American Athletic
2022 UAB DB4 #10164 #10416 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W20 snapshot | Conference USA
2021 UAB DB4 #8934 #8816 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W20 snapshot | Conference USA
2020 UAB DB4 #1153 #1143 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W16 snapshot | Conference USA

Roster Timeline

Team, conference, and class by season.

Season Team Conference Pos Class Bio
2024 UCF Big 12 DB 4 No. 20 | 5-10 | 185 lb | Pensacola, FL
2023 UAB American Athletic DB 4 No. 20 | 5-10 | 185 lb | Pensacola, FL
2022 UAB Conference USA DB 4 No. 20 | 5-10 | 185 lb | Pensacola, FL
2021 UAB Conference USA DB 4 No. 20 | 5-10 | 185 lb | Pensacola, FL
2020 UAB Conference USA DB 4 No. 20 | 5-10 | 185 lb | Pensacola, FL