CFB Zeitgeist Score
72
Solid starter in the position cohort. Carried by sacks at the 74th percentile.
Nicholas Rodriguez
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
61 TACKLES · 1.5 SACKS
2026 Outlook
Returning to Missouri for 2026
2026 Depth chart
Projected starter
Linebacker · Missouri
Returning around him
- 20% of 2024 offensive production back (Heavy turnover)
- 6 Missouri players drafted to NFL
- Transfer portal: +3 net (30 in / 27 out)
2026 Award watch
No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)
Missouri · Last season: 8-5 (AP #25) · Talent rank #22 · 2026 recruiting class #20
LB · MISSOURI · SEC
Nicholas Rodriguez
- 2
- #20
- 6-0 | 211 lb
- Miami, FL
Heisman Heat
#8916
<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 LB AWARD
Butkus
—
CONSENSUS
All-American
—
Player Standing · 17 rungs
Tier 2 · StarterR06 · Starter
Starter. A locked-in starting role.
Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex
Career Arc
HS
Recruit
★★★
CFB
College
Missouri
NFL
NFL Draft
—
Identity & Role
The durable bio layer: position, size, hometown, and roster role.
Recruiting Pedigree
How big the prospect was before college, and whether the later career arc beat that expectation.
| Class | Profile | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 3-star | 0.8775 | No. 709 recruit | HighSchool |
Transfer Arc
Portal movement changes role, context, and perception. This keeps that path in one place.
| Season | Move | Context |
|---|---|---|
| No transfer portal moves on file for this player. | ||
Heisman Lens · 2024 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 16Heisman 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 —
Composite
0.8775
#709 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.
The Room on Nicholas Rodriguez
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 Nicholas Rodriguez
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.
Season Pace · Projection
Where the defensive totals stand
Through 11g
61Tackles
4Tackles for loss
1.5Sacks
Per game
6Tackles
0.4Tackles for loss
0.1Sacks
Projected (13g)
72Tackles
4.7Tackles for loss
1.8Sacks
To hit 80-tackle season (currently 61): needs 9.5/game over remaining 2.
To hit 100-tackle season (currently 61): needs 19.5/game over remaining 2.
To hit 6-sack season (currently 1.5): needs 2.2/game over remaining 2.
To hit 10-sack season (currently 1.5): needs 4.2/game over remaining 2.
Why this is a rare defensive case
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Nicholas Rodriguez is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on Missouri's defense, with 1.5 sacks, 4.0 tackles for loss, and -- 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.
2025 Season · Final
Traditional stats first. Advanced context underneath.
Last season
DEF season snapshot
2025 season snapshot | final
2025 season snapshot | finalData: CFBD player stats + local Heisman modelPeer context: same position + same level
Player identity What kind of player is this?
30-second read
What kind of player is this?
High-disruption defender | Coverage splash | High-volume tackler against FBS defenders.
2025 Season · Final
2025 season snapshot | final
Tackling & Disruption
TOT
61 92nd
SOLO
27 86th
TFL
4.0 85th
SACK
1.5 85th
Coverage & Takeaways
PD
7 96th
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 11 games
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 61-6vs Central Arkansas | 4 | 2 | 1.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 15 tackles |
| Wk 2 | W 42-31vs Kansas | 4 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 4 | W 29-20vs South Carolina | 5 | 4 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 2 | |
| Wk 5 | W 42-6vs Massachusetts | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | L 24-27vs Alabama | 5 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 9 | L 10-17@ Vanderbilt | 3 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 11 | L 17-38vs Texas A&M | 6 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 12 | W 49-27vs Mississippi State | 6 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 2 | |
| Wk 13 | L 6-17@ Oklahoma | 6 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 14 | W 31-17@ Arkansas | 5 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Bowl | L 7-13vs Virginia | 15 | 5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Total | 61 | 27 | 4.0 | 1.5 | — | 7 |
Season-by-season tables Career rows + per-season box score
Traditional history
Traditional Stats
Season rows up top, career context at the bottom.
Season context · Team result + system
2024Missouri10-3HC: Eli Drinkwitz · Run-leaning, fast tempo
2025Missouri8-5HC: Eli Drinkwitz · Run-heavy
Advanced layer Usage, value, and context
Advanced metrics second
Advanced Metrics
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.
Open full stat explorer
| Group | Metric | Value | Rank | Pct | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Defense | Total tackles | 61 | #387/4942 | 92nd pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | TFL | 4.0 | #738/4972 | 85th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Sacks | 1.5 | #724/4972 | 85th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Pass breakups | 7 | #85/2184 | 96th pct | Coveragevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Solo tackles | 27 | #649/4584 | 86th pct | Volumevs 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
Status—Awaiting tracker
The Butkus 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 · 11 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home8g | 5.9 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.6 |
| Road3g | 4.7 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.7 |
Win vs Loss
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins6g | 4.3 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.8 |
| Losses5g | 7.0 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.4 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-76g | 5.8 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.5 |
| Weeks 8+5g | 5.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.8 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the LB cohort
72Solid starter
Elite: passes defended (96th). Strength: tackles (86th). Concern: qb hurries (22nd).
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.
Advanced Savant · LB · 2024
Percentile Card
Advanced opponent-adjusted percentile bars are coming soon for this player.
P4G5All FBS
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 · Fingerprint match
Three closest profiles by box-rate percentile
Nicholas RodriguezMissouriOwen LongColorado State· 89% simNick AndersenWake Forest· 89% simBrevin HamblinUtah State· 88% sim
Passes defended
Tackles
Solo tackles
Sacks
Tackles for loss
QB hurries
Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.
Player DNA
The Coverage 'Backer
Carries tight ends and patrols the middle of the field in coverage.
LB
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Kalen DeLoach’s 2022 season.
Kalen DeLoach
67%match
#2
Sean Brown
64%
#3
Bradley Jennings Jr.
63%
#4
Jack Fries
62%
#5
Troy Brown
All-MAC
62%
Matches Kalen on
Tackle volume
TFL rate
Differs from Kalen on
Class year (lower)
Height (lower)
Sack rate (lower)
Not enough data yet for this comparison.
As a sophomore, his production profile tracks closest to Zach Lutmer's sophomore season at Iowa (2025).
Zach Lutmer
82%match
All-Big Ten
#2
Daxton Hill
All-Big TenNFL Rd 1 · Pk 31
81%
#3
Nick Cross
NFL Rd 3 · Pk 32
80%
#4
Zashon Rich
78%
#5
Leon O'Neal Jr.
76%
Matches Zach on
TFL rate
Weight
Sack rate
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Eli Drinkwitz
Pass share
39.6%
360 pass / 550 run
Plays / game
70.0
13 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
8.4%
308 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Run-heavy.
Coaching Lineage · 2024–2025
1 coach2024
Eli Drinkwitz
Missouri
2025
Eli Drinkwitz
Missouri
Played his entire career under Eli Drinkwitz.
Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
HometownMiami, FL
Height6'0"
Weight211 lb
Class2
PositionLB
Jersey20
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Current teamMissouri
ConferenceSEC
Joined2025
Career arc2 season(s)
Trophy Case · Detail
Every honor on the ledger, broken out by stream and selector.
No formal honors on the ledger yet
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.
Honors Timeline
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. | ||||
Heisman By Year
Modeled rank and official finish by season.
| Season | Team | Role | Latest Model | Forecast | Win | Finalist | Official Finish | Points | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Missouri | LB2 | #8916 | #8656 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W16 snapshot | SEC |
Roster Timeline
Team, conference, and class by season.