CFB Zeitgeist Score
49
Mid-pack in the position cohort. Carried by yards / catch at the 81st percentile.
Taeshaun Lyons
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
234 REC YDS · 15 REC · 3 REC TD
2026 Outlook
Returning to UNLV for 2026
2026 Depth chart
Projected starter
Wide receiver · UNLV
Returning around him
2026 Award watch
No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)
UNLV · Last season: 10-4 · Talent rank #51 · 2026 recruiting class #95
WR · UNLV · MOUNTAIN WEST
CFB Zeitgeist Score
49
Mid-pack in the position cohort. Carried by yards / catch at the 81st percentile.
Heisman Heat
#2729
<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 WR AWARD
Biletnikoff
—
CONSENSUS
All-American
—
Player Standing · 17 rungs
Tier 1 · 2-deepRotational. Earning real snaps in the rotation.
Development Trajectory · receiving yards
2024–2025Up 5750% from first season to most-recent.
Career Arc
The durable bio layer: position, size, hometown, and roster role.
How big the prospect was before college, and whether the later career arc beat that expectation.
| Class | Profile | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 4-star | 0.9192 | No. 216 recruit | HighSchool | Washington |
Portal movement changes role, context, and perception. This keeps that path in one place.
| Season | Move | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Utah -> UNLV | 3-star | 0.8500 | Immediate |
| 2024 | Washington -> Utah | 4-star | 0.9000 | Immediate |
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.
Selector Grid · 2025
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 Washington
Composite
0.9192
#216 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.
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 reads how different fanbases talk about this player. Returns once weekly mentions clear the publish floor.
Rival Radar
No rival-bucket mentions in the current season.
Signature Story
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 receiving totals stand
To hit 700-yard receiver (currently 234): needs 93.2/game over remaining 5.
To hit 1,000-yard receiver (currently 234): needs 153.2/game over remaining 5.
To hit 60-catch season (currently 15): needs 9/game over remaining 5.
To hit 80-catch season (currently 15): needs 13/game over remaining 5.
To hit 8 receiving TDs (currently 3): needs 1/game over remaining 5.
To hit 10 receiving TDs (currently 3): needs 1.4/game over remaining 5.
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Taeshaun Lyons's story is about how role and output meet each other. For UNLV, the card already shows enough current-season production to explain why he is on the serious-player board, and the next layer is determining whether the profile is just very good or actually distinctive.
Traditional stats first. Advanced context underneath.
Last season
2025 season snapshot | final
30-second read
Big-play receiver against FBS receiving peers.
2025 season snapshot | final
Receiving
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 8 games
| Wk | Opp | REC | YDS | AVG | TD | LONG | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 2 | W 30-23vs UCLA | 1 | 14 | 14.0 | 0 | 14 | |
| Wk 4 | W 41-38@ Miami (OH) | 2 | 18 | 9.0 | 1 | 9 | |
| Wk 7 | W 51-48vs Air Force | 1 | 18 | 18.0 | 0 | 18 | |
| Wk 11 | W 42-10@ Colorado State | 2 | 40 | 20.0 | 1 | 39 | |
| Wk 12 | W 29-26vs Utah State | 1 | 15 | 15.0 | 0 | 15 | |
| Wk 13 | W 38-10vs Hawai'i | 2 | 75 | 37.5 | 1 | 72 | Season-high 75 yds |
| Wk 15 | L 21-38@ Boise State | 3 | 35 | 11.7 | 0 | 16 | |
| Bowl | L 10-17@ Ohio | 3 | 19 | 6.3 | 0 | 9 | |
| Total | 15 | 234 | 16.4 | 3 | 72 |
Advanced metrics second
Usage, value, and opponent-adjusted context.
The player's share of a team's passing-game involvement. It is the fastest way to see whether the receiver is a true focal point or more of a complementary piece.
A blended workload view that accounts for catches, designed touches, and any return-game involvement that shapes the overall profile.
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.
| Group | Metric | Value | Rank | Pct | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Receiving | Receptions | 15 | #484/1110 | 56th pct | Volumevs FBS WR |
| Receiving | Receiving yards | 234 | #426/1107 | 62nd pct | Volumevs FBS WR |
| Receiving | Receiving TD | 3 | #206/1111 | 82nd pct | Scoringvs FBS WR |
| Receiving | Yards / catch | 15.6 | #227/1106 | 80th pct | Efficiencyvs FBS WR |
| Usage | Pass share | 7.3% | #665/1137 | 42nd pct | Air-game usagevs FBS WR |
| Receiving | Receiving LONG | 72 | #83/1105 | 93rd pct | Metricvs FBS WR |
| Usage | 3rd-down usage | 4.0% | #732/1137 | 36th pct | Money-down loadvs FBS WR |
| Usage | Passing-down usage | 3.7% | #844/1137 | 26th pct | Known-passing sharevs FBS WR |
| Usage | 1st-down usage | 3.6% | #611/1137 | 46th pct | Early-down loadvs FBS WR |
| Usage | Role share | 3.6% | #673/1137 | 41st pct | Share of team offensevs FBS WR |
| Usage | 2nd-down usage | 3.5% | #727/1137 | 36th pct | Middle-down loadvs FBS WR |
| Usage | Standard-down usage | 3.5% | #604/1137 | 47th pct | Base-situation sharevs FBS WR |
| Usage | Rush share | 0.0% | #391/1137 | 66th pct | Ground-game usagevs FBS WR |
Universal 17-step ladder. Tier pills below; accolade streams nested.
AWAITING CLASSIFICATION
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
Heisman model tracks the top FBS contenders weekly; this player hasn't entered the watch list yet.
Splits · Per-game
2025 season · 8 games
Home vs Road
| REC/g | YDS/g | YPR | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home4g | 1.2 | 30.5 | 21.1 | 0.2 |
| Road4g | 2.5 | 28.0 | 11.8 | 0.5 |
Win vs Loss
| REC/g | YDS/g | YPR | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins6g | 1.5 | 30.0 | 18.9 | 0.5 |
| Losses2g | 3.0 | 27.0 | 9.0 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| REC/g | YDS/g | YPR | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-74g | 1.8 | 17.2 | 11.8 | 0.2 |
| Weeks 8+4g | 2.0 | 41.2 | 21.1 | 0.5 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the WR cohort
Elite: long catch (85th). Strength: yards / catch (80th). Concern: receptions (12th).
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.
Advanced Savant · WR · 2024
Advanced opponent-adjusted percentile bars are coming soon for this player.
Opponent-adjusted advanced metrics with a cohort filter.
Peer Comparator · Fingerprint match
Three closest profiles by box-rate percentile
Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.
Player DNA
Reliable target who converts on critical downs. Not flashy; consistently productive.
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Nic Trujillo’s 2025 season.
Nic Trujillo
Javen Banks
Javen Banks
Andrel Anthony Jr.
Aidan Mizell
Matches Nic on
Differs from Nic on
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a sophomore, his production profile tracks closest to Zaquandre White's sophomore season at South Carolina (2021).
Zaquandre White
Karmello English
Jalen Brown
Taj Davis
Micah Mays Jr.
Matches Zaquandre on
Differs from Zaquandre on
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Dan Mullen
Pass share
46.5%
423 pass / 487 run
Plays / game
65.0
14 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
7.8%
283 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Run-leaning.
Coaching Lineage · 2024–2025
2 coachesCoaching transition mid-career: Barry Odom → Dan Mullen. Worth noting in scheme + development context.
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Every honor on the ledger, broken out by stream and selector.
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.
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. | ||||
Modeled rank and official finish by season.
| Season | Team | Role | Latest Model | Forecast | Win | Finalist | Official Finish | Points | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Utah | WR2 | #2729 | #2555 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W16 snapshot | Big 12 |
| 2023 | Washington | WR2 | #2367 | #1777 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W19 snapshot | Pac-12 |
Team, conference, and class by season.
| Season | Team | Conference | Pos | Class | Bio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | UNLV | Mountain West | WR | 2 | No. 8 | 6-1 | 180 lb | Hayward, CA |
| 2024 | Utah | Big 12 | WR | 2 | No. 8 | 6-1 | 180 lb | Hayward, CA |
| 2023 | Washington | Pac-12 | WR | 2 | No. 8 | 6-1 | 180 lb | Hayward, CA |