Justin Thomas: DB · Utah · #12.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Justin Thomas
Moves between deep coverage and the slot. Second year in the same secondary at Utah. On tape: 5 tackles against Oregon State, Week 7, 2016.
Play style
Moves between deep coverage and the slot — the modern positionless DB.
Activity vs finishing · season enumeration
What the box score actually says
35 tackles. 4 passes defended. 0 interceptions. 3.5 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.
The Salt Lake Tribune Nov 2
KJZZ Oct 29The Salt Lake Tribune Oct 27
KUTV Oct 23Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
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
2016 season · 13 games
Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 24-0vs Southern Utah | 3 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 2 | W 20-19vs BYU | 4 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 3 | W 34-17@ San José State | 3 | 2 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 4 | W 31-27vs USC | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 5 | L 23-28@ California | 2 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 6 | W 36-23vs Arizona | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | W 19-14@ Oregon State | 5 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | Season-high 5 tackles |
| Wk 8 | W 52-45@ UCLA | 2 | 2 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 9 | L 24-31vs No. 4 Washington | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 11 | W 49-26@ Arizona State | 4 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 12 | L 28-30vs Oregon | 3 | 2 | 1.5 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 13 | L 22-27@ No. 9 Colorado | 4 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
 Bowl | W 26-24vs Indiana | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 35 | 28 | 3.5 | 1.0 | — | 4 |
Where his impact shows up on the stat sheet
PD rate
11%4 pass breakupsTackle volume
35tackles this seasonTFL rate
10%4 TFL35 tackles · 3.5 for loss · 1 sack · 4 pass breakups.
2 seasons under Kyle Whittingham — 19-7 over that span.
Splits · Per-game
2016 season · 13 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home6g | 2.3 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.3 |
| Road6g | 3.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-78g | 2.5 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| Weeks 8+5g | 3.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.4 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Kyle Whittingham
Pass share
40.1%
398 pass / 594 run
Plays / game
76.3
13 games
Team sack rate
6.1%
440 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Run-leaning, fast tempo.
Player standing · 2016
Fewer tackles a game than most FBS defensive backs who play every week.
How it ended
Two seasons at Utah, 35 tackles — the college career is complete.
Coaching lineage · 2012–2016
1 coachPlayed every college season under Kyle Whittingham.
