CFB Zeitgeist Score
56
Solid starter in the position cohort. Carried by sacks at the 80th percentile.
Isaiah Johnson
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
37 TACKLES · 2 SACKS
2026 Outlook
Returning to North Carolina for 2026
2026 Depth chart
Projected starter
Defensive line · North Carolina
Returning around him
- 16% of 2024 offensive production back (Heavy turnover)
- Transfer portal: -11 net (20 in / 31 out)
2026 Award watch
No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)
North Carolina · Last season: 4-8 · Talent rank #31 · 2026 recruiting class #41
DL · NORTH CAROLINA · ACC
Isaiah Johnson
- 3
- #94
- 6-2 | 275 lb
- Camden, NJ
Heisman Heat
#10705
<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 · StarterR06 · Starter
Starter. A locked-in starting role.
Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex
Career Arc
HS
Recruit
—
CFB
College
2 teams
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 |
|---|---|---|
| No recruiting profile is on file for this player. | ||
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.
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 Isaiah 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 Isaiah 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 11g
37Tackles
2.5Tackles for loss
2Sacks
Per game
3Tackles
0.2Tackles for loss
0.2Sacks
Projected (13g)
44Tackles
3.0Tackles for loss
2.4Sacks
To hit 80-tackle season (currently 37): needs 21.5/game over remaining 2.
To hit 100-tackle season (currently 37): needs 31.5/game over remaining 2.
To hit 6-sack season (currently 2): needs 2/game over remaining 2.
To hit 10-sack season (currently 2): needs 4/game over remaining 2.
Why this is a rare defensive case
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Isaiah Johnson is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on North Carolina's defense, with 2.0 sacks, 2.5 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
37 80th
SOLO
17 73rd
TFL
2.5 75th
SACK
2.0 90th
QBH
1 44th
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 11 games
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | L 14-48vs TCU | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 2 | W 20-3@ Charlotte | 4 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 3 | W 41-6vs Richmond | 5 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 5 tackles |
| Wk 4 | L 9-34@ UCF | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 6 | L 10-38vs Clemson | 3 | 0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 8 | L 18-21@ California | 3 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 9 | L 16-17vs Virginia | 4 | 2 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 11 | W 20-15vs Stanford | 4 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 12 | L 12-28@ Wake Forest | 2 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 13 | L 25-32vs Duke | 5 | 2 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 14 | L 19-42@ NC State | 3 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 37 | 17 | 2.5 | 2.0 | — | 0 |
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
2022Arizona5-7HC: Jedd Fisch · Pass-leaning
2024Arizona4-8HC: Brent Brennan · Pass-leaning
2025North Carolina4-8HC: Bill Belichick · Balanced, slow tempo
| Season | Team | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | North Carolina | 37 | 17 | 2.5 | 2.0 | -- | -- | -- |
| 2024 | Arizona | 8 | 3 | 2.5 | 2.0 | -- | -- | -- |
| 2022 | Arizona | 1 | -- | 0.0 | 0.0 | -- | -- | -- |
| Career | 3 loaded seasons | 46 | 20 | 5.0 | 4.0 | -- | -- | -- |
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 | 37 | #1007/4942 | 80th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | TFL | 2.5 | #1236/4972 | 75th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Sacks | 2.0 | #491/4972 | 90th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | QB hurries | 1 | #1051/1878 | 44th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Solo tackles | 17 | #1252/4584 | 73rd 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 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 · 11 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home6g | 3.8 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
| Road5g | 2.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Win vs Loss
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins3g | 4.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Losses8g | 3.0 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-75g | 3.2 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 3.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the DL cohort
56Solid starter
Concern: passes defended (17th).
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.
Advanced Savant · DL · 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
Isaiah JohnsonNorth CarolinaMarcAnthony ParkerNavy· 72% simDaniel WingateMaryland· 71% simMicah DaveyUTEP· 70% sim
Sacks
Tackles
Solo tackles
Tackles for loss
QB hurries
Passes defended
Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.
Player DNA
The Two-Gap Base
Stout at the point of attack; controls his gap and stacks blocks.
IDL
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Nehemiah Dukes’s 2025 season.
Nehemiah Dukes
89%match
#2
Peyton Price
89%
#3
Bryce Ganious
88%
#4
Tyrone Taleni
87%
#5
Donovan Hinish
87%
Matches Nehemiah on
Class year
Height
TFL rate
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a junior, his production profile tracks closest to Mike Hall's junior season at Ohio State (2023).
Mike Hall
91%match
#2
Devin Drew
91%
#3
JJ Hawkins
88%
#4
John Harris
88%
#5
Donovan Hinish
86%
Matches Mike on
Class year
Height
Weight
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Bill Belichick
Pass share
51.1%
355 pass / 340 run
Plays / game
57.9
12 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
8.4%
262 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Balanced, slow tempo.
Coaching Lineage · 2022–2025
3 coaches2022
Mack Brown
North Carolina
2024era →
Freddie Kitchens
North Carolina
2025era →
Bill Belichick
North Carolina
Played under 3 different head coaches: Mack Brown, Freddie Kitchens, and Bill Belichick. Multi-era developmental context.
Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
HometownCamden, NJ
Height6'2"
Weight275 lb
Class3
PositionDL
Jersey94
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Current teamNorth Carolina
ConferenceACC
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.
| Season | Team | Conference | Pos | Class | Bio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | North Carolina | ACC | DL | 3 | No. 94 | 6-2 | 275 lb | Camden, NJ |
| 2024 | Arizona | Big 12 | DL | 3 | No. 94 | 6-2 | 275 lb | Camden, NJ |
| 2023 | Arizona | Pac-12 | DL | 3 | No. 94 | 6-2 | 275 lb | Camden, NJ |
| 2022 | Arizona | Pac-12 | DL | 3 | No. 94 | 6-2 | 275 lb | Camden, NJ |