CFB Zeitgeist Score
64
Solid starter in the position cohort. Carried by interceptions at the 90th percentile.
Juwon Gaston
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
37 TACKLES · 0.5 SACKS
In Portal · 2026
In transfer portal
S · MIDDLE TENNESSEE · CONFERENCE USA
CFB Zeitgeist Score
64
Solid starter in the position cohort. Carried by interceptions at the 90th percentile.
Heisman Heat
#11855
<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 DB AWARD
Jim Thorpe
—
CONSENSUS
All-American
—
Player Standing · 17 rungs
Tier 2 · StarterImpact starter. Producing measurable value above replacement.
Career Arc
The durable bio layer: position, size, hometown, and roster role.
How big the prospect was before college, and whether the later career arc beat that expectation.
| Class | Profile | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 3-star | 0.8467 | No. 101 recruit | JUCO | Houston |
| 2021 | 3-star | 0.8733 | No. 626 recruit | HighSchool |
Portal movement changes role, context, and perception. This keeps that path in one place.
| Season | Move | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Middle Tennessee -> -- | 3-star | Immediate |
| 2025 | Houston -> -- | 3-star | Immediate |
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.
Selector Grid · 2025
Selector recognition fills in once the major honors lists (AP, FWAA, AFCA, Walter Camp, Sporting News, SI) are scraped and ingested.
NIL · Recruiting · NFL Draft
Market value, pedigree & pro outcome
Recruit stars
★★★☆☆
to Houston
Composite
0.8467
#101 national
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.
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 reads how different fanbases talk about this player. Returns once weekly mentions clear the publish floor.
Rival Radar
No rival-bucket mentions in the current season.
Signature Story
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
To hit 80-tackle season (currently 37): needs 10.8/game over remaining 4.
To hit 100-tackle season (currently 37): needs 15.8/game over remaining 4.
To hit 6-sack season (currently 0.5): needs 1.4/game over remaining 4.
To hit 10-sack season (currently 0.5): needs 2.4/game over remaining 4.
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Juwon Gaston is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on Middle Tennessee's defense, with 0.5 sacks, 1.5 tackles for loss, and 3 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.
Traditional stats first. Advanced context underneath.
Last season
2025 season snapshot | final
30-second read
Coverage splash | High-volume tackler against FBS defenders.
2025 season snapshot | final
Tackling & Disruption
Coverage & Takeaways
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 9 games
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | L 14-34vs Austin Peay | 6 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 2 | L 10-42@ Wisconsin | 3 | 1 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 3 | W 14-13@ Nevada | 4 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Wk 4 | L 28-42vs Marshall | 8 | 4 | 0.5 | 0.5 | — | 2 | Season-high 8 tackles |
| Wk 5 | L 16-24@ Kennesaw State | 4 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 11 | L 30-56vs Florida International | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 12 | L 26-42@ Western Kentucky | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 13 | W 31-17vs Sam Houston | 6 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 14 | W 31-24@ New Mexico State | 4 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Total | 37 | 23 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 3 | 4 |
Traditional history
Season rows up top, career context at the bottom.
Season context · Team result + system
| Season | Team | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Middle Tennessee | 37 | 23 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 4 | 3 | -- |
| 2024 | Houston | 13 | 6 | 1.0 | 0.0 | -- | -- | -- |
| 2023 | Houston | 19 | 13 | 1.0 | 0.0 | -- | -- | -- |
| Career | 3 loaded seasons | 69 | 42 | 3.5 | 0.5 | 4 | 3 | -- |
Advanced metrics second
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.
| Group | Metric | Value | Rank | Pct | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Defense | Total tackles | 37 | #1007/4942 | 80th 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 | Interceptions | 3 | #56/869 | 94th pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Pass breakups | 4 | #340/2184 | 84th pct | Coveragevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | QB hurries | 1 | #1051/1878 | 44th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | INT return yards | 30 | #216/578 | 63rd pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Solo tackles | 23 | #839/4584 | 82nd pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | INT return avg | 10.0 | #361/578 | 38th pct | Takeawaysvs FBS DEF |
Universal 17-step ladder. Tier pills below; accolade streams nested.
AWAITING CLASSIFICATION
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
The Thorpe 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 · 9 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home4g | 5.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.8 |
| Road5g | 3.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 |
Win vs Loss
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins3g | 4.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 |
| Losses6g | 3.8 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.5 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-75g | 5.0 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.4 |
| Weeks 8+4g | 3.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the S cohort
Elite: interceptions (89th). Strength: passes defended (85th).
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.
Advanced Savant · S · 2024
Advanced opponent-adjusted percentile bars are coming soon for this player.
Opponent-adjusted advanced metrics with a cohort filter.
Peer Comparator · Fingerprint match
Three closest profiles by box-rate percentile
Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.
Player DNA
Single-high range who erases the deep middle of the field.
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Kyndrich Breedlove’s 2024 season.
Kyndrich Breedlove
Gregory Rubin
Jayden Williams
Camron Harrell
Chris Smith
Matches Kyndrich on
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a junior, his production profile tracks closest to Kyndrich Breedlove's junior season at Purdue (2024).
Kyndrich Breedlove
Elijah Gates
Jalen Mcmurray
Sage Ryan
Nicktroy Fortune
Matches Kyndrich on
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Derek Mason
Pass share
61.3%
495 pass / 313 run
Plays / game
67.3
12 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
8.6%
373 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Pass-leaning.
Coaching Lineage · 2023–2025
2 coachesCoaching transition mid-career: Rick Stockstill → Derek Mason. Worth noting in scheme + development context.
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Every honor on the ledger, broken out by stream and selector.
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.
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. | ||||
Modeled rank and official finish by season.
Team, conference, and class by season.
| Season | Team | Conference | Pos | Class | Bio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Middle Tennessee | Conference USA | S | 4 | No. 22 | 5-11 | 188 lb | Montgomery, AL |
| 2024 | Houston | Big 12 | S | 4 | No. 22 | 5-11 | 188 lb | Montgomery, AL |
| 2023 | Houston | Big 12 | S | 4 | No. 22 | 5-11 | 188 lb | Montgomery, AL |