CFB Zeitgeist Score
77
All-Conference in the position cohort. Carried by tackles for loss at the 83rd percentile.
Noah McNeal-Franklin
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
63 TACKLES · 1 SACKS
In Portal · 2026
In transfer portal
2025San José State
DestinationTBD
LB · SAN JOSÉ STATE · MOUNTAIN WEST
Noah McNeal-Franklin
- 4
- #9
- 6-0 | 210 lb
- Vallejo, CA
Heisman Heat
#11389
<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 · StarterR06 · Starter
Starter. A locked-in starting role.
Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex
Career Arc
HS
Recruit
★★★
CFB
College
San José State
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 | 0.8163 | No. 156 recruit | JUCO | San José State |
Transfer Arc
Portal movement changes role, context, and perception. This keeps that path in one place.
| Season | Move | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | San José State -> -- | 3-star | 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.
NIL · Recruiting · NFL Draft
Market value, pedigree & pro outcome
Recruit stars
★★★☆☆
to San José State
Composite
0.8163
#156 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 Noah McNeal-Franklin
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 Noah McNeal-Franklin
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 12g
63Tackles
5.5Tackles for loss
1Sacks
Per game
5Tackles
0.5Tackles for loss
0.1Sacks
Projected (13g)
68Tackles
6.0Tackles for loss
1.1Sacks
To hit 80-tackle season (currently 63): needs 17/game over remaining 1.
To hit 100-tackle season (currently 63): needs 37/game over remaining 1.
To hit 6-sack season (currently 1): needs 5/game over remaining 1.
To hit 10-sack season (currently 1): needs 9/game over remaining 1.
Why this is a rare defensive case
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Noah McNeal-Franklin is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on San José State's defense, with 1.0 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 | High-volume tackler against FBS defenders.
2025 Season · Final
2025 season snapshot | final
Tackling & Disruption
TOT
63 93rd
SOLO
38 94th
TFL
5.5 90th
SACK
1.0 82nd
QBH
3 75th
Coverage & Takeaways
PD
2 64th
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 12 games
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | L 14-16vs Central Michigan | 8 | 4 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 8 tackles |
| Wk 2 | L 7-38@ Texas | 5 | 3 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 4 | W 31-28vs Idaho | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 5 | L 29-30@ Stanford | 6 | 5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 6 | W 35-28vs New Mexico | 4 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | L 28-35@ Wyoming | 7 | 6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 8 | L 25-30@ Utah State | 5 | 1 | 1.5 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 10 | W 45-38vs Hawai'i | 6 | 4 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 11 | L 16-26vs Air Force | 5 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 12 | L 10-55@ Nevada | 7 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 13 | L 3-25@ San Diego State | 6 | 4 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 14 | L 14-41vs Fresno State | 2 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 63 | 38 | 5.5 | 1.0 | — | 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
2025San José State3-9HC: Ken Niumatalolo · Pass-leaning
| Season | Team | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | San José State | 63 | 38 | 5.5 | 1.0 | 2 | -- | -- |
| Career | 1 loaded season | 63 | 38 | 5.5 | 1.0 | 2 | -- | -- |
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 | 63 | #360/4942 | 93rd pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | TFL | 5.5 | #477/4972 | 90th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Sacks | 1.0 | #872/4972 | 82nd pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Pass breakups | 2 | #792/2184 | 64th pct | Coveragevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | QB hurries | 3 | #462/1878 | 75th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Solo tackles | 38 | #271/4584 | 94th 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 · 12 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home6g | 4.5 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.2 |
| Road6g | 6.0 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
Win vs Loss
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins3g | 4.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 |
| Losses9g | 5.7 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-76g | 5.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 5.2 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the LB cohort
77All-Conference
Elite: solo tackles (90th). Strength: tackles (87th).
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
Noah McNeal-FranklinSan José StateTrey FieldsNorth Texas· 92% simJaylen WesterWestern Kentucky· 92% simJaxton EckNew Mexico· 92% sim
Solo tackles
Tackles
Tackles for loss
QB hurries
Passes defended
Sacks
Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.
Player DNA
The Balanced Linebacker
Solid in every phase without a signature dimension.
LB
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Kavian Gaither’s 2023 season.
Kavian Gaither
86%match
#2
Kalen DeLoach
81%
#3
Jared Small
81%
#4
Logan Doublin
79%
#5
JaTerious Evans
79%
Matches Kavian on
Height
TFL rate
Weight
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a sophomore, his production profile tracks closest to Kavian Gaither's sophomore season at Sam Houston (2023).
Kavian Gaither
94%match
All-Conference USA
#2
Logan Doublin
91%
#3
Jared Small
90%
#4
Brandon McKinney
88%
#5
Trey Taylor
88%
Matches Kavian on
Class year
Tackle volume
TFL rate
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Ken Niumatalolo
Pass share
61.1%
486 pass / 310 run
Plays / game
66.3
12 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
2.1%
420 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Pass-leaning.
Coaching Lineage · 2025
1 coach2025
Ken Niumatalolo
San José State
Played his entire career under Ken Niumatalolo.
Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
HometownVallejo, CA
Height6'0"
Weight210 lb
Class4
PositionLB
Jersey9
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Current teamSan José State
ConferenceMountain West
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.
| Season | Team | Role | Latest Model | Forecast | Win | Finalist | Official Finish | Points | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | San José State | LB4 | #11389 | #11292 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W16 snapshot | Mountain West |
| 2023 | San José State | LB4 | #12314 | #12025 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W19 snapshot | Mountain West |
Roster Timeline
Team, conference, and class by season.
| Season | Team | Conference | Pos | Class | Bio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | San José State | Mountain West | LB | 4 | No. 9 | 6-0 | 210 lb | Vallejo, CA |
| 2024 | San José State | Mountain West | LB | 4 | No. 9 | 6-0 | 210 lb | Vallejo, CA |
| 2023 | San José State | Mountain West | LB | 4 | No. 9 | 6-0 | 210 lb | Vallejo, CA |