Michael Coats Jr.

Senior cornerback on West Virginia's 2025 roster.

CB · West Virginia · Sr. · #3

5′10″ · 185 lb · Louisville, MS

CFB Index 42 · #222 of 364 cornersLow confidenceReturning to West Virginia for 2026

Recruiting

3★

CB recruit

No. 225 nationally · Joined Nevada

No college snaps yet.

His career numbers, season by season

The story

4 cornerback on West Virginia's 2025 roster.

Signed as a 3-star recruit to Nevada in 2023.
Transferred from Nevada to West Virginia in 2025.

His career, year by year

How he projects

Reads the quarterback's eyes and takes the ball away.

The full scouting read

Michael Coats Jr.

CB · West Virginia · Sr · #3

Reads the quarterback's eyes and takes the ball away. Three head coaches in three seasons, at two different programs. 2024 brought the first one: All-Mountain West. The receipt on tape: 5 tackles against Pittsburgh, Week 3, 2025.

Low coverage — composed from the verified record.

positional archetype classification
head-coach lineage
recognition record
game log

2025 snapshot

Season context · Team result + system

2023Nevada2-10HC: Ken Wilson · Run-leaning

2024Nevada3-10HC: Jeff Choate · Run-leaning

2025West Virginia4-8HC: Rich Rodriguez · Run-heavy

Where this defender ranks vs the field

Box-score production percentiles vs the position cohort

42Rotational starter #222 of 364?

Low confidenceFading7 metrics · season cumulative

Elite: passes defended (96th percentile). Concern: qb hurries (22nd percentile).

Box-score production (7)

Passes defended#85 / 2975 · 96th pct

Solo tackles#902 / 2975 · 69th pct

Tackles#1362 / 2975 · 53rd pct

Forced fumbles#36 / 687 · 47th pct

Tackles for loss#1424 / 2975 · 47th pct

2.0

Sacks#1575 / 2975 · 24th pct

0.0

QB hurries#1662 / 2975 · 22nd pct

Percentiles are versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score production. There are no play-by-play efficiency bars here: CFBD's play-value model credits offensive players only, so no defensive EPA exists to rank.

Splits & context

Splits · Per-game

2025 season · 11 games

Home/Road · Season halves

Home vs Road

	TKL/g	TFL/g	SACK/g	PD/g
Home5g	3.4	0.2	0.0	1.2
Road6g	2.2	0.2	0.0	0.2

First half vs Second half

	TKL/g	TFL/g	SACK/g	PD/g
Weeks 1-75g	2.6	0.0	0.0	0.4
Weeks 8+6g	2.8	0.3	0.0	0.8

Supporting cast · Scheme

Staff and system around the player

2026 season

Head Coach

Rich Rodriguez

Scheme reads (pass share, tempo, sack rate) need at least 3 team games — 2 games in so far.

Awards

Player standing · 2025

Rotational

Tackle volume for the position in rotation-piece range.

Recognition

Roster2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex

Production · CFB Index Score

42 · #222 of 364 corners

Three-star recruit. Now #222 at the position.

2026 outlook

Outside shot for All-Big 12

Based on 2025: #16 of 29 Big 12 CBs

How the All-Big 12 estimate is computed

22% estimated, 95% confidence interval 19–25%. Base rate measured from players who finished at a comparable rank in their conference and came back the next season. It is an estimate from a small sample, not a forecast of this player.

Career stats

Season	Team
2025	West Virginia	30	22	2.0	7	--	--
2024	Nevada	41	29	0.5	10	4	--
2023	Nevada	13	10	0.0	3	1	--
Career		84	61	2.5	20	5	--

Signature game

SIGNATURE GAME · Week 3 · 2025

W 31–24

vs Pittsburgh

5 TOT · 1 SOLO · 1 PD

A wire-to-wire battle — won by 7 at home.

With O. Straw — 45 AVG · 1 IN 20 · 52 LONG · N. Marchiol — 192 yds · 1 TD · 0 INT · QBR 57.4 · -4 rush yds (10 car)

Game log

Game log · Week-by-week

2025 season · 11 games

Box score · CFBD

Wk	Opp	TKL	SOLO	TFL	INT	PD	Note
Wk 2	L 10-17@ Ohio	1	1	0.0	—	0
Wk 3	W 31-24vs Pittsburgh	5	1	0.0	—	1	Season-high 5 tackles
Wk 4	L 10-41@ Kansas	4	3	0.0	—	1
Wk 5	L 14-48vs Utah	1	1	0.0	—	0
Wk 6	L 24-38@ BYU	2	2	0.0	—	0
Wk 8	L 13-45@ UCF	4	4	1.0	—	0
Wk 9	L 17-23vs TCU	4	2	0.0	—	1
Wk 10	W 45-35@ Houston	1	1	0.0	—	0
Wk 11	W 29-22vs Colorado	4	3	1.0	—	3
Wk 12	L 23-25@ Arizona State	1	1	0.0	—	0
Wk 14	L 0-49vs Texas Tech	3	3	0.0	—	1
Total		30	22	2.0	—	7

How he plays

Play style

Reads the quarterback's eyes and takes the ball away.

CFB Index positional classification

Activity vs finishing · season enumeration

What the box score actually says

11 games

30Tackles

22Solo

2TFL

0Sacks

7Pass def.

0INT

30 tackles. 7 passes defended. 0 interceptions. 2 TFL.

Week 31 PD
Week 41 PD
Week 91 PD
Week 113 PD
Week 141 PD

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.

2026 Outlook

West Virginia

2026 Depth chart

Projected starter

Cornerback · West Virginia

Returning around him

Transfer portal: -17 net (34 in / 51 out)

2026 Award watch

No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)

West Virginia · Last season: 4-8 · Talent rank #49 · 2026 recruiting class #25

DNA match

Player DNA

Ball Hawk

Reads the quarterback's eyes and takes the ball away.

His 2025 production profile sits closest to Quavian White’s 2022 season.

Quavian White

88%match

Georgia State · 2022

All-Sun Belt

Michael Coats Jr.

Nevada · 2024

All-Mountain West

88%

Avery Smith

Toledo · 2025

All-MAC

87%

Isaiah King

Buffalo · 2022

86%

Max Ahoia

Rice · 2024

83%

Matches Quavian on

Tackle volume

PD rate

Weight

Differs from Quavian on

Class year (higher)

Not enough data yet for this comparison.

As a junior, his production profile tracks closest to A.J. Odums's junior season at UTEP (2023).

A.J. Odums

96%match

UTEP · 2023

Tyler Bride

Georgia Southern · 2022

95%

Dontae Manning

Oregon · 2023

94%

Colby Dempsey

UAB · 2023

91%

Lu-Magia Hearns III

California · 2023

89%

Matches A.J. on

Class year

Height

PD rate

Player DNA

Players who play like Michael Coats Jr.

Michael Coats Jr.

West Virginia · 2025

88%

Avery Smith

Toledo · 2025

87%

Max Ahoia

Rice · 2024

85%

Tayvion Beasley

BYU · 2025

83%

Smith Snowden

Utah · 2025

80%

Stats from CFBD · ESPN · fan discourse. Every figure computed from source tables — not invented. Methodology

Michael Coats Jr.

20237 games

202413 games

202511 games

2025 snapshot

Splits & context

Awards

Rotational

Career stats

Signature game

Game log

How he plays

DNA match

Ball Hawk

Players who play like Michael Coats Jr.