cfb zeitgeistZeitgeist
OFFSEASON · SUMMER 2026 · COMMITMENT SEASON
Heisman / Players / Kaevon Merriweather /Iowa

Kaevon Merriweather

DB · Iowa · Sr · #26

Limited signal — not enough coverage for a story yet.

ALUMNUSIowa 2022 alumnus

DB · IOWA · BIG TEN

Kaevon Merriweather

  • 4
  • #26
  • 6-0 | 212 lb
  • Belleville, MI

CFB Zeitgeist DB Score

Awaiting

Heisman Heat

#6081

<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 1 · 2-deep

R02 · Deep reserve

Deep reserve. In the program, working up the two-deep.

Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex

Career arc · Season-by-season Standing

2 seasons on the ladder

Peak: R11 National watch / fringe AA · 2022

2021

Iowa · DB

2022

Iowa · DB

R11 · National watch / fringe AA

Recognized

Career Arc

HS
Recruit
★★★
#2063 national
CFB
College
Iowa
2021–2022
NFL
NFL Draft
Not drafted (yet)

Identity & Role

The durable bio layer: position, size, hometown, and roster role.

PositionDB
Class4
Jersey26
Measurements6-0 | 212 lb
HometownBelleville, MI
Primary teamIowa

Recruiting Pedigree

How big the prospect was before college, and whether the later career arc beat that expectation.

Top pedigree 3-star No. 2063 recruit
Composite rating 0.8093 HighSchool
Signed with Iowa 2018
Origin Belleville Belleville, MI, USA
Class Profile Context
2018 3-star | 0.8093 No. 2063 recruit | HighSchool | Iowa

Transfer Arc

Portal movement changes role, context, and perception. This keeps that path in one place.

Portal moves 0 No portal entry on file
Latest destination -- --
Transfer stars -- CFBD transfer rating context
Eligibility -- Transfer date TBD
Season Move Context
No transfer portal moves on file for this player.

Heisman Lens · 2022 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 20
Current nowcast#6081Latest modeled ballot order
Season forecast#6530Where the full season sim points
Win probability0.0%Chance to actually win the trophy
Finalist probability0.0%Chance to make the finalist tier
Ballot probability0.0%Chance to appear anywhere on a ballot
Best official finish--Best completed Heisman placement on file

Heisman 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.

NIL · Recruiting · NFL Draft

Market value, pedigree & pro outcome

Recruit stars

★★★☆☆

to Iowa

Composite

0.8093

#2063 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

PENDING

The 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 Kaevon Merriweather

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 Kaevon Merriweather

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.

A 3-act season arc returns once this player has six or more games on the ledger.

Scenario Explorer

Available for players with a qualifying signature metric (passing yards, rushing yards, receiving yards, sacks, etc.). The slider projects how a season finishes if the current pace holds.

Why this is a rare defensive case

The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.

Kaevon Merriweather is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on Iowa's defense, with 0.0 sacks, 2.0 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.

Current place #6081 0.0% win | 0.0% finalist
Role load -- Role share still loading
Profile quirk Honors spine 1 honors loaded

2022 Season · Final

Traditional stats first. Advanced context underneath.

Last season

DEF season snapshot

2022 season snapshot | final

2022 season snapshot | finalData: CFBD player stats + local Heisman modelPeer context: same position + same level
Total tackles 47 36 solo | #680/4942 (86th pct)
TFL 2.0 Backfield disruption | #1443/4972 (71st pct)
Sacks 0.0 Pass-rush finish | #1762/4972 (65th pct)
Player identity What kind of player is this?

30-second read

What kind of player is this?

Coverage splash | High-volume tackler against FBS defenders.

Coverage splashHigh-volume tackler

2022 Season · Final

2022 season snapshot | final

Tackling & Disruption

TOT
47 86th
SOLO
36 93rd
TFL
2.0 71st
SACK
0.0 65th
QBH
1 44th

Coverage & Takeaways

PD
3 76th
INT
3 94th

Game Log

Week-by-week box

No per-game rows for this season yet — the table fills in as box scores arrive.

Season-by-season tables Career rows + per-season box score

Traditional history

Traditional Stats

Season rows up top, career context at the bottom.

Season rows Career row

Season context · Team result + system

2021Iowa10-3HC: Kirk Ferentz · Run-leaning
2022Iowa8-5HC: Kirk Ferentz · Run-leaning, slow tempo
SeasonTeam
2022Iowa47362.00.033--
2021Iowa42300.00.041--
Career2 loaded seasons89662.00.074--
Advanced layer Usage, value, and context

Advanced metrics second

Advanced Metrics

Usage, value, and opponent-adjusted context.

Usage Value Context
Disruption stats

TFL, sacks, and QB hurries are grouped together because defensive Heisman cases are usually built on visible havoc, not on tackle counts alone.

Coverage splash

Pass breakups, interceptions, and forced fumbles matter because national awards voters respond to plays that change possessions and highlight reels.

Peer percentile

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.

Traditional first

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.

INT 3 0 pick-six TD | #56/869 (94th pct)
Pass breakups 3 Coverage disruption | #521/2184 (76th pct)
QB pressures 1 Quarterback hurries | #1051/1878 (44th pct)
Open full stat explorer
0 metrics visible Showing all metrics
Group Metric Value Rank Pct Why it matters
Defense Total tackles 47 #680/4942 86th pct Volumevs FBS DEF
Defense TFL 2.0 #1443/4972 71st pct Disruptionvs FBS DEF
Defense Sacks 0.0 #1762/4972 65th pct Disruptionvs FBS DEF
Defense Interceptions 3 #56/869 94th pct Takeawaysvs FBS DEF
Defense Pass breakups 3 #521/2184 76th pct Coveragevs FBS DEF
Defense QB hurries 1 #1051/1878 44th pct Disruptionvs FBS DEF
Defense Solo tackles 36 #322/4584 93rd pct Volumevs FBS DEF
Defense INT return yards 33 #198/578 66th pct Takeawaysvs FBS DEF
Defense INT return avg 11.0 #336/578 42nd pct Takeawaysvs 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

StatusAwaiting tracker

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 splits

Splits fill in once box scores from at least three games land for this season.

Box-score Savant card waits for a season-stat snapshot above the cohort floor. Returns once enough box-score volume lands.

Advanced Savant · DB · 2022

Percentile Card

Advanced opponent-adjusted percentile bars are coming soon for this player.

P4G5All FBS
EPA / dropback
awaiting
CPOE
awaiting
Success rate
awaiting
Explosive rate (20+)
awaiting
aDOT
awaiting
Deep-ball accuracy
awaiting
Pressure-to-sack
awaiting
3rd-down EPA
awaiting
Red-zone TD rate
awaiting
Play-action EPA
awaiting
Scramble EPA
awaiting
Turnover-worthy play rate
awaiting

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 returns once this player clears the Savant metric floor (4+ scored bars).
DNA Match awaiting data — similarity scores compute once season stats clear the volume gate for this position cohort.

Supporting Cast · Scheme

Staff and system around the player

2025 season

Head Coach

Kirk Ferentz

Pass share

36.6%

286 pass / 495 run

Plays / game

60.1

13 games

OL sack rate (allowed)

7.9%

228 dropbacks · PBP

Scheme: Run-heavy, slow tempo.

Coaching Lineage · 2021–2022

1 coach
2021
Kirk Ferentz
Iowa
2022
Kirk Ferentz
Iowa

Played his entire career under Kirk Ferentz.

Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster

Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.

HometownBelleville, MI
Height6'0"
Weight212 lb
Class4
PositionDB
Jersey26

Trophy Case · Confirmed honors

What the selectors said

1 entries
🥇

ALL-AMERICA

Named All-American (2022)

1 selectors honored him

Trophy Case · Detail

Every honor on the ledger, broken out by stream and selector.

All-America

1 All-America selection

National selector recognition is one of the strongest non-Heisman signals on a player card and should sit near the top of the showcase.

Honors Timeline

Season-end distinction and week-by-week recognition on one timeline.

Season Honor Scope Team / Selector Context
2022 All-America (CBS) all_america Iowa | CBS first | DB

Heisman By Year

Modeled rank and official finish by season.

Season Team Role Latest Model Forecast Win Finalist Official Finish Points Context
2022 Iowa DB4 #6081 #6530 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W20 snapshot | Big Ten
2021 Iowa DB4 #4943 #5100 0.0% 0.0% -- -- W20 snapshot | Big Ten

Roster Timeline

Team, conference, and class by season.

Season Team Conference Pos Class Bio
2022 Iowa Big Ten DB 4 No. 26 | 6-0 | 212 lb | Belleville, MI
2021 Iowa Big Ten DB 4 No. 26 | 6-0 | 212 lb | Belleville, MI