Branden Leston: DB · Western Kentucky · #31.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Branden Leston
Plays like an extra linebacker near the line. Third year in the same secondary at Western Kentucky. A game that shows it: 12 tackles against Middle Tennessee — Week 7, 2016.
Play style
Lives near the line of scrimmage as a de facto extra linebacker.
Activity vs finishing · season enumeration
What the box score actually says
95 tackles. 9 passes defended. 1 interception. 1 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 | Western Kentucky | 95 | 61 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 9 | 1 |
| 2015 | Western Kentucky | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1 |
| 2014 | Western Kentucky | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 4 |
| Career | 95 | 61 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 9 | 6 |
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 · 14 games
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| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 46-14vs Rice | 5 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 2 | L 10-38@ No. 1 Alabama | 7 | 6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 3 | W 31-24@ Miami (OH) | 9 | 6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 4 | L 30-31vs Vanderbilt | 11 | 6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 5 | W 50-3vs Houston Christian | 5 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 6 | L 52-55@ Louisiana Tech | 10 | 6 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 7 | W 44-43@ Middle Tennessee | 12 | 10 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 12 tackles |
| Wk 8 | W 59-24vs Old Dominion | 6 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 9 | W 52-3@ Florida Atlantic | 3 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 4 | |
| Wk 10 | W 49-21vs Florida International | 7 | 5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 11 | W 45-7vs North Texas | 2 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 13 | W 60-6@ Marshall | 3 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 14 | W 58-44vs Louisiana Tech | 6 | 5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0 | |
 Bowl | W 51-31vs Memphis | 9 | 5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 2 | |
| Total | 95 | 61 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 1 | 9 |
Bowl · 2016
W 51-31
vs Memphis · neutral site
9 tackles · 2 pass breakups · 5 solo tackles
Edged out Memphis at a neutral site in a shootout.
Where his impact shows up on the stat sheet
PD rate
9%9 pass breakupsInterceptions
1interceptionsTackle volume
95tackles this seasonTFL rate
1%1 TFL95 tackles · 1 for loss · 9 pass breakups · 1 interception.
3 seasons under Jeff Brohm — 31-10 over that span.
Splits · Per-game
2016 season · 14 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home7g | 6.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 |
| Road6g | 7.3 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 1.0 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-78g | 8.5 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.5 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 4.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.8 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Jeff Brohm
Pass share
49.8%
471 pass / 474 run
Plays / game
67.5
14 games
Team sack rate
4.3%
464 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Balanced.
Player standing · 2016
95 tackles in 14 games, more tackles a game than nearly every FBS defensive back who plays every week.
How it ended
Three seasons at Western Kentucky, 95 tackles — the college career is complete.
Coaching lineage · 2013–2016
2 coachesCoaching transition mid-career: Bobby Petrino → Jeff Brohm. Worth noting in scheme + development context.
