James Looney: DE · California · #9.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
James Looney
Holds up snap after snap without a weakness to attack. Played for two head coaches at California: Sonny Dykes and Justin Wilcox. On tape: 6 tackles and 1 tackle for loss against Arizona, Week 8, 2017.
Play style
No single standout number, but nothing missing either — competent across the board.
Activity vs finishing · season enumeration
What the box score actually says
41 tackles. 0 passes defended. 0 interceptions. 9.5 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.
Sports Illustrated Oct 29Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Season | Team | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | California | 41 | 19 | 9.5 | 3.5 | -- |
| 2016 | California | 55 | 21 | 7.5 | 3.5 | 1 |
| Career | 96 | 40 | 17.0 | 7.0 | 1 |
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 35-30@ North Carolina | 4 | 0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 2 | W 33-20vs Weber State | 5 | 4 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 3 | W 27-16vs Ole Miss | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 4 | L 20-30vs No. 5 USC | 4 | 2 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 5 | L 24-45@ Oregon | 3 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 6 | L 7-38@ No. 6 Washington | 4 | 3 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | W 37-3vs No. 8 Washington State | 4 | 1 | 2.0 | 1.5 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 8 | L 44-45vs Arizona | 6 | 3 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 6 tackles |
| Wk 9 | L 28-44@ Colorado | 3 | 3 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 10 | W 37-23vs Oregon State | 2 | 0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 12 | L 14-17@ No. 20 Stanford | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 13 | L 27-30@ UCLA | 3 | 2 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 41 | 19 | 9.5 | 3.5 | — | 0 |
Week 7 · 2017
W 37-3
1.5 sacks · 2 tackles for loss · 4 tackles
Dominant 34-point win at home against Washington State.
Where his impact shows up on the stat sheet
Sack rate
9%4 sacksTFL rate
23%10 TFLHurry rate
7%3 hurriesPressure-to-sack conversion
54%4 of 6 pressures41 tackles · 9.5 for loss · 3.5 sacks.
Splits · Per-game
2017 season · 12 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home6g | 3.7 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
| Road6g | 3.2 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-77g | 3.6 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
| Weeks 8+5g | 3.2 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Justin Wilcox
Pass share
53.6%
473 pass / 410 run
Plays / game
73.6
12 games
Team sack rate
6.4%
532 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Balanced.
Player standing · 2017
41 tackles in 12 games, about as many tackles a game as a typical FBS defensive lineman who plays every week.
How it ended
Two seasons at California, 7 sacks — drafted at #232 overall by the Green Bay Packers.
Coaching lineage · 2014–2017
2 coachesCoaching transition mid-career: Sonny Dykes → Justin Wilcox. Worth noting in scheme + development context.
Next stop · NFL
Green Bay PackersEntering 9th NFL season
Green Bay PackersEntering 9th NFL season
