CFB Zeitgeist Score
57
Solid starter in the position cohort. Carried by interceptions at the 75th percentile.
Tao Johnson
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
50 TACKLES · 0 SACKS
Where He Ended Up · Transfer
Transferred to UCLA
2025Utah
2026UCLA
S · UTAH · BIG 12
Tao Johnson
- 3
- #5
- 6-1 | 193 lb
- Idaho Falls, ID
Heisman Heat
#7921
<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 2 · StarterR07 · Impact starter
Impact starter. Producing measurable value above replacement.
Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex
Career Arc
HS
Recruit
★★★★
CFB
College
Utah
NFL
NFL Draft
—
Heisman futures · live sportsbook odds
#29 in market ▼ from #23 · 5 books
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 4-star | 0.9124 | No. 239 recruit | HighSchool | Utah |
| 2022 | 3-star | 0.8689 | No. 789 recruit | HighSchool |
Transfer Arc
Portal movement changes role, context, and perception. This keeps that path in one place.
| Season | Move | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Utah -> UCLA | 3-star | 0.8700 | 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 —
Composite
0.8689
#789 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 Tao Johnson
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 Tao Johnson
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
50Tackles
2.5Tackles for loss
0Sacks
Per game
4Tackles
0.2Tackles for loss
0Sacks
Projected (13g)
54Tackles
2.7Tackles for loss
0Sacks
To hit 80-tackle season (currently 50): needs 30/game over remaining 1.
To hit 100-tackle season (currently 50): needs 50/game over remaining 1.
To hit 6-sack season (currently 0): needs 6/game over remaining 1.
To hit 10-sack season (currently 0): needs 10/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.
Tao Johnson is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on Utah's defense, with 0.0 sacks, 2.5 tackles for loss, and 2 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?
Coverage splash | High-volume tackler against FBS defenders.
2025 Season · Final
2025 season snapshot | final
Tackling & Disruption
TOT
50 88th
SOLO
27 86th
TFL
2.5 75th
SACK
0.0 65th
Coverage & Takeaways
PD
4 84th
INT
2 87th
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 12 games
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 43-10@ UCLA | 4 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 2 | W 63-9vs Cal Poly | 3 | 2 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 4 | L 10-34vs Texas Tech | 6 | 2 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Wk 5 | W 48-14@ West Virginia | 4 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | W 42-10vs Arizona State | 4 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 8 | L 21-24@ BYU | 5 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 9 | W 53-7vs Colorado | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Wk 10 | W 45-14vs Cincinnati | 4 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 12 | W 55-28@ Baylor | 3 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 13 | W 51-47vs Kansas State | 5 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 14 | W 31-21@ Kansas | 9 | 3 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 1 | Season-high 9 tackles |
| Bowl | W 44-22vs Nebraska | 3 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 50 | 27 | 2.5 | 0.0 | 2 | 4 |
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
2023Utah8-5HC: Kyle Whittingham · Run-heavy
2024Utah5-7HC: Kyle Whittingham · Balanced
2025Utah11-2HC: Kyle Whittingham · Run-heavy
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 | 50 | #600/4942 | 88th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | TFL | 2.5 | #1236/4972 | 75th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Sacks | 0.0 | #1762/4972 | 65th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Interceptions | 2 | #114/869 | 87th pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Pass breakups | 4 | #340/2184 | 84th pct | Coveragevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Solo tackles | 27 | #649/4584 | 86th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | INT return yards | 3 | #511/578 | 12th pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | INT return avg | 1.5 | #533/578 | 8th pct | Takeawaysvs 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 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
2025 season · 12 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home7g | 3.6 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 |
| Road5g | 5.0 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.4 |
Win vs Loss
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins10g | 3.9 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.4 |
| Losses2g | 5.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-76g | 4.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 4.3 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.7 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the S cohort
57Solid starter
Elite: passes defended (85th). Concern: qb hurries (22nd).
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.
Advanced Savant · S · 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
Tao JohnsonUtahTahj Ra-ElPurdue· 88% simDevin LafayetteTroy· 82% simTyler MartinMassachusetts· 80% sim
Passes defended
Tackles
Solo tackles
Interceptions
Tackles for loss
Sacks
QB hurries
Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.
Player DNA
The Hybrid Nickel
Moves between deep coverage and the slot — the modern positionless DB.
S
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Akeem Dent’s 2022 season.
Akeem Dent
88%match
#2
Anthony Cook
88%
#3
Key Lawrence
87%
#4
Myles Slusher
87%
#5
Jayden Goodwin
87%
Matches Akeem on
Tackle volume
Height
PD rate
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a junior, his production profile tracks closest to Kalen Carroll's junior season at Central Michigan (2025).
Kalen Carroll
95%match
#2
Saveon Brown
89%
#3
Tayon Holloway
85%
#4
Mychal Yharbrough
83%
#5
Jamison Patton
83%
Matches Kalen on
Class year
Height
PD rate
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Kyle Whittingham
Pass share
39.8%
371 pass / 562 run
Plays / game
71.8
13 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
4.2%
289 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Run-heavy.
Coaching Lineage · 2023–2025
1 coach2023
Kyle Whittingham
Utah
2024
Kyle Whittingham
Utah
2025
Kyle Whittingham
Utah
Played his entire career under Kyle Whittingham.
Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
HometownIdaho Falls, ID
Height6'1"
Weight193 lb
Class3
PositionS
Jersey5
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Current teamUtah
ConferenceBig 12
Joined2025
Career arc4 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.
Roster Timeline
Team, conference, and class by season.