CFB Zeitgeist Score
54
Mid-pack in the position cohort. Carried by sacks at the 51st percentile.
Jalen Brooks
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
48 TACKLES · 0.5 SACKS
2026 Outlook
Returning to Missouri State for 2026
2026 Depth chart
Projected starter
Linebacker · Missouri State
Returning around him
- Transfer portal: +8 net (19 in / 11 out)
2026 Award watch
No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)
Missouri State · Last season: 7-6 · Talent rank #129 · 2026 recruiting class #133
LB · MISSOURI STATE · CONFERENCE USA
Jalen Brooks
- 4
- #19
- 5-11 | 230 lb
- Knightdale, NC
Heisman Heat
#11633
<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 1 · 2-deepR02 · Deep reserve
Deep reserve. In the program, working up the two-deep.
Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 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 · 2023 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 19Heisman 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 Jalen Brooks
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 Jalen Brooks
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 10g
48Tackles
1.5Tackles for loss
0.5Sacks
Per game
5Tackles
0.1Tackles for loss
0.1Sacks
Projected (13g)
62Tackles
1.9Tackles for loss
0.7Sacks
To hit 80-tackle season (currently 48): needs 10.7/game over remaining 3.
To hit 100-tackle season (currently 48): needs 17.3/game over remaining 3.
To hit 6-sack season (currently 0.5): needs 1.8/game over remaining 3.
To hit 10-sack season (currently 0.5): needs 3.2/game over remaining 3.
Why this is a rare defensive case
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Jalen Brooks is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on Missouri State's defense, with 0.5 sacks, 1.5 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-volume tackler against FBS defenders.
2025 Season · Final
2025 season snapshot | final
Tackling & Disruption
TOT
48 87th
SOLO
35 92nd
TFL
1.5 64th
SACK
0.5 70th
Coverage & Takeaways
PD
2 64th
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 10 games
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | L 13-73@ USC | 4 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 2 | W 21-20@ Marshall | 4 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 3 | L 10-28vs SMU | 4 | 4 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 4 | W 42-10vs UT Martin | 6 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 5 | L 22-27vs Western Kentucky | 4 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | W 22-20@ Middle Tennessee | 8 | 7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | Season-high 8 tackles |
| Wk 9 | W 24-17@ New Mexico State | 5 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 11 | W 21-17@ Liberty | 6 | 6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 12 | W 38-24vs UTEP | 6 | 3 | 0.5 | 0.5 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 14 | L 30-42vs Louisiana Tech | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 48 | 35 | 1.5 | 0.5 | — | 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
2022North Carolina9-5HC: Mack Brown · Balanced
2023North Carolina8-5HC: Mack Brown · Balanced
2025Missouri State7-6HC: Ryan Beard · Balanced
| Season | Team | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Missouri State | 48 | 35 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 2 | -- | -- |
| 2023 | North Carolina | 1 | -- | 0.0 | 0.0 | -- | -- | -- |
| 2022 | North Carolina | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | -- | -- | -- |
| Career | 3 loaded seasons | 50 | 36 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 2 | -- | -- |
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 | 48 | #649/4942 | 87th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | TFL | 1.5 | #1771/4972 | 64th 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 | Solo tackles | 35 | #353/4584 | 92nd pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Fumbles recovered | 2 | #13/736 | 98th pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
| Ball Security | Fumbles lost | 0 | #1/773 | 100th pct | Turnoversvs 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 · 10 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home5g | 4.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| Road5g | 5.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 |
Win vs Loss
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins6g | 5.8 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| Losses4g | 3.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-76g | 5.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.3 |
| Weeks 8+4g | 4.5 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the LB cohort
54Mid-pack
Elite: solo tackles (87th). Concern: qb hurries (22nd).
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.
Advanced Savant · LB · 2023
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
Jalen BrooksMissouri StateDalton JohnsonArizona· 85% simTyler MartinMassachusetts· 84% simDevin LafayetteTroy· 84% sim
Solo tackles
Tackles
Passes defended
Sacks
Forced fumbles
Tackles for loss
QB hurries
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 John Bullock’s 2023 season.
John Bullock
79%match
#2
Vinny DePalma
78%
#3
Chatavies Johnson
78%
#4
Karene Reid
76%
#5
Jayden Montgomery
76%
Matches John on
Weight
TFL rate
Sack rate
Differs from John on
Height (lower)
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a senior, his production profile tracks closest to Gerry Vaughn's senior season at Iowa State (2023).
Gerry Vaughn
86%match
#2
Jerome Jolly Jr.
82%
#3
Dorian Hopkins
82%
#4
Dorian Jones
82%
#5
Lawai'a Brown
81%
Matches Gerry on
Tackle volume
Weight
TFL rate
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Ryan Beard
Pass share
51.9%
433 pass / 401 run
Plays / game
64.2
13 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
13.0%
307 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Balanced.
Coaching Lineage · 2022–2025
1 coach2022
—
Missouri State
2023
—
Missouri State
2025era →
Ryan Beard
Missouri State
Played his entire career under Ryan Beard.
Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
HometownKnightdale, NC
Height5'11"
Weight230 lb
Class4
PositionLB
Jersey19
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Current teamMissouri State
ConferenceConference USA
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.
| Season | Team | Role | Latest Model | Forecast | Win | Finalist | Official Finish | Points | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | North Carolina | LB4 | #11633 | #11360 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W19 snapshot | ACC |
| 2022 | North Carolina | LB4 | #12509 | #12284 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W20 snapshot | ACC |
| 2021 | North Carolina | LB4 | #11675 | #11472 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W20 snapshot | ACC |
Roster Timeline
Team, conference, and class by season.
| Season | Team | Conference | Pos | Class | Bio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Missouri State | Conference USA | LB | 4 | No. 19 | 5-11 | 230 lb | Knightdale, NC |
| 2023 | North Carolina | ACC | LB | 4 | No. 19 | 5-11 | 230 lb | Knightdale, NC |
| 2022 | North Carolina | ACC | LB | 4 | No. 19 | 5-11 | 230 lb | Knightdale, NC |
| 2021 | North Carolina | ACC | LB | 4 | No. 19 | 5-11 | 230 lb | Knightdale, NC |