CFB Zeitgeist Score
86
All-Conference in the position cohort. Carried by sacks at the 97th percentile.
Will Heldt
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
46 TACKLES · 6 SACKS
2026 Outlook
Returning to Clemson for 2026
2026 Depth chart
Projected starter
Defensive end · Clemson
Returning around him
- 83% of 2024 offensive production back (Strong continuity)
- 9 Clemson players drafted to NFL
- Transfer portal: -4 net (11 in / 15 out)
2026 Award watch
No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)
Clemson · Last season: 7-6 (AP #12) · Talent rank #7 · 2026 recruiting class #26
DE · CLEMSON · ACC
Will Heldt
- 3
- #13
- 6-6 | 260 lb
- Carmel, IN
Heisman Heat
#10515
<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
3 seasons on the ladder
2023
Purdue · DE
—
2024
Purdue · DE
—
★
2025
Clemson · DE
R09 · All-Conference HM / 2nd team
Recognized
Career Arc
HS
Recruit
★★★
CFB
College
2 teams
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 | 0.8753 | No. 717 recruit | HighSchool | Purdue |
Transfer Arc
Portal movement changes role, context, and perception. This keeps that path in one place.
| 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 16Heisman Futures
Not yet listed on major futures markets.
No achievements unlocked yet this season.
Selector Grid · 2025
AP—
FWAA—
AFCA—
WCFF—
SN—
SI—
NIL · Recruiting · NFL Draft
Market value, pedigree & pro outcome
NIL Valuation · On3
$961K
On3 ranking · Jun 2026
Whisper Rate
$1.00M
per-deal market estimate
Recruit stars
★★★☆☆
to Purdue
Composite
0.8753
#717 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 Will Heldt
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 Will Heldt
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 13g
46Tackles
14.5Tackles for loss
6Sacks
Per game
4Tackles
1.1Tackles for loss
0.5Sacks
Final
46Tackles
14.5Tackles for loss
6Sacks
✓ Hit 6-sack season · finished with 6.
Why this is a rare defensive case
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Will Heldt is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on Clemson's defense, with 6.0 sacks, 14.5 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
46 86th
SOLO
20 78th
TFL
14.5 100th
SACK
6.0 99th
QBH
10 99th
Coverage & Takeaways
PD
2 64th
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 13 games
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | L 10-17vs LSU | 3 | 1 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 8 tackles |
| Wk 2 | W 27-16vs Troy | 5 | 4 | 2.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 3 | L 21-24@ Georgia Tech | 4 | 3 | 2.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 4 | L 21-34vs Syracuse | 4 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 6 | W 38-10@ North Carolina | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | W 41-10@ Boston College | 4 | 2 | 1.5 | 0.5 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 8 | L 24-35vs SMU | 2 | 0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 10 | L 45-46vs Duke | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 11 | W 24-10vs Florida State | 3 | 3 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 12 | W 20-19@ Louisville | 4 | 0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 13 | W 45-10vs Furman | 2 | 2 | 2.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 14 | W 28-14@ South Carolina | 4 | 2 | 2.5 | 1.5 | — | 1 | 2.5 TFL |
| Bowl | L 10-22vs Penn State | 8 | 0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 46 | 20 | 14.5 | 6.0 | — | 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
2023Purdue4-8HC: Ryan Walters · Run-leaning
2024Purdue1-11HC: Ryan Walters · Balanced, slow tempo
2025Clemson7-6HC: Dabo Swinney · 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Defense | Total tackles | 46 | #706/4942 | 86th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | TFL | 14.5 | #25/4972 | 100th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Sacks | 6.0 | #74/4972 | 99th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Pass breakups | 2 | #792/2184 | 64th pct | Coveragevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | QB hurries | 10 | #19/1878 | 99th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Solo tackles | 20 | #1029/4584 | 78th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
Player Standing
Universal 17-step ladder. Tier pills below; accolade streams nested.
ALL-CONF HM
On-team2-deepStartingRecognizedEliteApex
ALL-CONF HM · Rung 9 of 16
Why he’s here
All-Conference honorable mention / 2nd team — the recognition has started.
What moves him up
A best-at-position run lifts to 1st team.
What moves him down
A back-end conference finish drops out of the honor list.
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 · 13 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home8g | 3.5 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.1 |
| Road5g | 3.6 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.2 |
Win vs Loss
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins7g | 3.4 | 1.4 | 0.7 | 0.1 |
| Losses6g | 3.7 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-77g | 4.3 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.1 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 2.7 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 0.2 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the DE cohort
86All-Conference
Elite: qb hurries (99th). Strength: tackles for loss (99th).
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.
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.
Peer Comparator · Fingerprint match
Three closest profiles by box-rate percentile
Will HeldtClemsonJohn MillerUtah State· 84% simRasheem BilesPittsburgh· 83% simMac HarrisSouth Florida· 83% sim
QB hurries
Tackles for loss
Sacks
Tackles
Passes defended
Solo tackles
Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.
Player DNA
The Versatile End
Holds up against run and pass without a single dominant trait.
EDGE
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Patrick Payton’s 2023 season.
Patrick Payton
85%match
#2
J.T. Tuimoloau
79%
#3
Jared Ivey
76%
#4
Princely Umanmielen
NFL Rd 3 · Pk 13
75%
#5
Kameryn Fountain
74%
Matches Patrick on
Height
Sack rate
TFL rate
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a junior, his production profile tracks closest to Tyler Baron's junior season at Tennessee (2022).
Tyler Baron
73%match
NFL Rd 5
#2
Tomiwa Durojaiye
70%
#3
Colby Wooden
All-SECNFL Rd 4
70%
#4
Anas Luqman
68%
#5
Gabe Kirschke
68%
Matches Tyler on
Weight
Sack rate
TFL rate
Differs from Tyler on
Class year (lower)
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Dabo Swinney
Pass share
53.8%
474 pass / 407 run
Plays / game
67.8
13 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
4.5%
337 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Balanced.
Coaching Lineage · 2023–2025
1 coach2023
Dabo Swinney
Clemson
2024
Dabo Swinney
Clemson
2025
Dabo Swinney
Clemson
Played his entire career under Dabo Swinney.
Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
HometownCarmel, IN
Height6'6"
Weight260 lb
Class3
PositionDE
Jersey13
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Current teamClemson
ConferenceACC
Joined2025
Career arc3 season(s)
Trophy Case · Confirmed honors
What the selectors said
🎖
ALL-CONFERENCE
All-Conf mention (2025)
All-ACC
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | All-ACC | all_conference | Clemson | ACC | DE |
Heisman By Year
Modeled rank and official finish by season.
Roster Timeline
Team, conference, and class by season.