Austin Smaha: DE · Northern Illinois · #50.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Austin Smaha
Turns pressure into sacks — pressures become finishes. A game that shows it: 3 tackles against Western Michigan — Week 6, 2016.
Play style
Turns pressure into sacks — when he gets there, he finishes.
Activity vs finishing · season enumeration
What the box score actually says
19 tackles. 0 passes defended. 0 interceptions. 5.5 TFL.
Counts only, never a rate — splash-event sample sizes this small (interceptions, pass breakups, TFL) are noise as a rate and signal only as a tally.
No outlet on our list has written about this player by name this season.
Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Season | Team | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Northern Illinois | 19 | 14 | 5.5 | 5.0 |
| Career | 19 | 14 | 5.5 | 5.0 |
There is no official box score for these seasons, so this sack count comes from the play-by-play.
Each sack is credited to the player named on the play, and a sack shared by two players counts as half for each. We checked the same method against the official box scores for 2016 to 2019: it lands within half a sack for about 9 in 10 players. Tackles and passes defended are not shown for these seasons because the same check does not hold for them. Source: SportsDataverse play data.
Game log · Week-by-week
2016 season · 11 games
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| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 2 | L 17-48@ South Florida | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 3 | L 28-42vs San Diego State | 1 | 0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 4 | L 23-28vs Western Illinois | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 5 | W 31-24@ Ball State | 2 | 1 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 6 | L 30-45@ Western Michigan | 3 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | L 28-34vs Central Michigan | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Wk 8 | W 44-7vs Buffalo | 2 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 10 | W 45-20vs Bowling Green | 4 | 3 | 2.0 | 2.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 4 tackles |
| Wk 11 | L 24-31vs Toledo | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 12 | W 31-24@ Eastern Michigan | 2 | 2 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 13 | W 31-21@ Kent State | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 19 | 14 | 5.5 | 5.0 | — | 0 |
Week 10 · 2016
W 45-20
2 sacks · 2 tackles for loss · 4 tackles
Dominant 25-point win at home against Bowling Green.
Where his impact shows up on the stat sheet
Sack rate
26%5 sacksTFL rate
29%6 TFLHurry rate
0%0 hurriesPressure-to-sack conversion
100%5 of 5 pressures19 tackles · 5.5 for loss · 5 sacks.
Splits · Per-game
2016 season · 11 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home5g | 1.6 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.0 |
| Road5g | 2.0 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-76g | 1.5 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
| Weeks 8+5g | 2.0 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.0 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Rod Carey
Pass share
42.8%
402 pass / 538 run
Plays / game
78.3
12 games
Team sack rate
1.5%
392 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Run-leaning, fast tempo.
Player standing · 2016
Fewer tackles a game than most FBS defensive linemen who play every week.
How it ended
One season at Northern Illinois, 5 sacks — the college career is complete.
Coaching lineage · 2013–2016
1 coachPlayed every college season under Rod Carey.
