CFB Zeitgeist Score
69
Solid starter in the position cohort. Carried by qb hurries at the 88th percentile.
Brandon Booker
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
69 TACKLES · 0.5 SACKS
2026 Outlook
Returning to SMU for 2026
2026 Depth chart
Projected starter
Linebacker · SMU
Returning around him
- 50% of 2024 offensive production back (Solid continuity)
- 1 SMU player drafted to NFL
- Transfer portal: -11 net (14 in / 25 out)
2026 Award watch
No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)
SMU · Last season: 9-4 (AP #25) · Talent rank #25 · 2026 recruiting class #31
LB · SMU · ACC
Brandon Booker
- 2
- #28
- 6-1 | 225 lb
- Desoto, TX
Heisman Heat
#7218
<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 LB AWARD
Butkus
—
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
SMU
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 3-star | 0.8706 | No. 894 recruit | HighSchool |
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—
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
0.8706
#894 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 Brandon Booker
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 Brandon Booker
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
69Tackles
3Tackles for loss
0.5Sacks
Per game
5Tackles
0.2Tackles for loss
0Sacks
Final
69Tackles
3Tackles for loss
0.5Sacks
Why this is a rare defensive case
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Brandon Booker is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on SMU's defense, with 0.5 sacks, 3.0 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
69 94th
SOLO
26 85th
TFL
3.0 80th
SACK
0.5 70th
QBH
4 85th
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 | W 42-13vs East Texas A&M | 5 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 2 | L 45-48vs Baylor | 8 | 2 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 8 tackles |
| Wk 3 | W 28-10@ Missouri State | 5 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 4 | L 24-35@ TCU | 8 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 6 | W 31-18vs Syracuse | 3 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | W 34-10vs Stanford | 4 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 8 | W 35-24@ Clemson | 4 | 2 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 9 | L 12-13@ Wake Forest | 4 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 2 | |
| Wk 10 | W 26-20vs Miami | 5 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 11 | W 45-13@ Boston College | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 13 | W 38-6vs Louisville | 8 | 5 | 1.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 14 | L 35-38@ California | 8 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Bowl | W 24-19vs Arizona | 7 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 69 | 26 | 3.0 | 0.5 | — | 2 |
Season-by-season tables Career rows + per-season box score
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 | 69 | #280/4942 | 94th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | TFL | 3.0 | #1006/4972 | 80th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Sacks | 0.5 | #1501/4972 | 70th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Pass breakups | 2 | #792/2184 | 64th pct | Coveragevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | QB hurries | 4 | #291/1878 | 85th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Solo tackles | 26 | #696/4584 | 85th pct | Volumevs 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 Butkus 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home7g | 5.7 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Road6g | 4.8 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
Win vs Loss
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins9g | 4.6 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| Losses4g | 7.0 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.5 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-77g | 5.7 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 4.8 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the LB cohort
69Solid starter
Elite: tackles (90th). Strength: qb hurries (87th).
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.
Advanced Savant · LB · 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
Brandon BookerSMUTrey FieldsNorth Texas· 85% simAndon ThomasArmy· 85% simBryce BoettcherOregon· 83% sim
Tackles
QB hurries
Solo tackles
Passes defended
Tackles for loss
Sacks
Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.
Player DNA
The Balanced Linebacker
Solid in every phase without a signature dimension.
LB
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Derrell Farrar’s 2025 season.
Derrell Farrar
93%match
#2
Kip Lewis
84%
#3
Cade Uluave
82%
#4
Shemar James
NFL Rd 5
81%
#5
Maverick Baranowski
81%
Matches Derrell on
Class year
PD rate
Tackle volume
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a sophomore, his production profile tracks closest to John Curry's sophomore season at Texas Tech (2025).
John Curry
85%match
#2
Khmori House
85%
#3
Kieren Douglas
84%
#4
Boen Phelps
81%
#5
Brian Asamoah
81%
Matches John on
TFL rate
Weight
Tackle volume
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Rhett Lashlee
Pass share
53.7%
460 pass / 396 run
Plays / game
65.8
13 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
5.4%
333 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Balanced.
Coaching Lineage · 2024–2025
1 coach2024
Rhett Lashlee
SMU
2025
Rhett Lashlee
SMU
Played his entire career under Rhett Lashlee.
Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
HometownDesoto, TX
Height6'1"
Weight225 lb
Class2
PositionLB
Jersey28
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Current teamSMU
ConferenceACC
Joined2025
Career arc2 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.
| Season | Team | Role | Latest Model | Forecast | Win | Finalist | Official Finish | Points | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | SMU | LB2 | #7218 | #7183 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W16 snapshot | ACC |
Roster Timeline
Team, conference, and class by season.