James Hearns: LB · Louisville · #99.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
James Hearns
Fills the run lane and blitzes off the edge. Second year in the same linebacker corps at Louisville. A game that shows it: 8 tackles and 2 sacks against Clemson — Week 3, 2017.
Play style
Downhill striker who fills the run lane and blitzes off the edge.
Activity vs finishing · season enumeration
What the box score actually says
42 tackles. 3 passes defended. 0 interceptions. 13.5 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.
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| Season | Team | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Louisville | 42 | 29 | 13.5 | 7.0 | 3 |
| 2016 | Louisville | 43 | 31 | 11.0 | 8.0 | 2 |
| Career | 85 | 60 | 24.5 | 15.0 | 5 |
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
2017 season · 12 games
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| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 35-28vs Purdue | 3 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 2 | W 47-35@ North Carolina | 4 | 3 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 3 | L 21-47vs No. 3 Clemson | 8 | 6 | 2.0 | 2.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 8 tackles |
| Wk 4 | W 42-3vs Kent State | 5 | 3 | 2.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 5 | W 55-10vs Murray State | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 6 | L 25-39@ No. 24 NC State | 3 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | L 42-45vs Boston College | 2 | 2 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 8 | W 31-28@ Florida State | 4 | 2 | 1.5 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 9 | L 32-42@ Wake Forest | 1 | 0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 11 | W 38-21vs Virginia | 4 | 4 | 3.0 | 3.0 | — | 0 | 3 sacks |
| Wk 12 | W 56-10vs Syracuse | 4 | 4 | 3.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | 3.0 TFL |
| Wk 13 | W 44-17@ Kentucky | 4 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Total | 42 | 29 | 13.5 | 7.0 | — | 3 |
Where his impact shows up on the stat sheet
Tackle volume
42tackles this seasonTFL rate
32%14 TFLSack rate
17%7 sacksPD rate
7%3 pass breakups42 tackles · 13.5 for loss · 7 sacks.
2 seasons under Bobby Petrino — 17-9 over that span.
Splits · Per-game
2017 season · 12 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home6g | 3.8 | 1.8 | 1.2 | 0.2 |
| Road5g | 3.2 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.4 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-77g | 3.6 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.1 |
| Weeks 8+5g | 3.4 | 1.6 | 0.8 | 0.4 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Bobby Petrino
Pass share
48.5%
464 pass / 492 run
Plays / game
73.5
13 games
Team sack rate
6.6%
500 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Balanced.
Player standing · 2017
Fewer tackles a game than most FBS linebackers who play every week.
How it ended
Two seasons at Louisville, 85 tackles — the college career is complete.
Coaching lineage · 2013–2017
2 coachesCoaching transition mid-career: Charlie Strong → Bobby Petrino. Worth noting in scheme + development context.
