#45

Nick Andersen

Senior defensive back on Wake Forest's 2025 roster.

DB · Wake Forest · Sr. · #45

5′11″ · 197 lb · Clifton, VA

CFB Index 84 · #26 of 544 safetiesLow confidenceAll-Conf 1st teamReturning to Wake Forest for 2026

How he projects

Plays like an extra linebacker near the line.

The full scouting read

The story

4 defensive back on Wake Forest's 2025 roster.

The record fills in as he plays.

His career, year by year

Nick Andersen

DB · Wake Forest · Sr · #45

Plays like an extra linebacker near the line. Nick Andersen has been at Wake Forest through two head coaches in five seasons. Two straight seasons of it now: All-ACC again in 2025. The receipt on tape: 12 tackles, 1 sacks against Mississippi State, Bowl, 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

2020Wake Forest4-5HC: Dave Clawson · Run-leaning, fast tempo

2021Wake Forest11-3HC: Dave Clawson · Balanced, fast tempo

2023Wake Forest4-8HC: Dave Clawson · Run-leaning

2024Wake Forest4-8HC: Dave Clawson · Balanced

2025Wake Forest9-4HC: Jake Dickert · Balanced

Where this defender ranks vs the field

Box-score production percentiles vs the position cohort

84All-Conference level #26 of 544?

Medium confidence6 metrics · season cumulative

Elite: tackles (99th percentile). Strength: solo tackles (96th percentile). Concern: qb hurries (22nd percentile).

Box-score production (6)

Tackles#31 / 2975 · 99th pct

107

Solo tackles#100 / 2975 · 96th pct

Passes defended#85 / 2975 · 96th pct

Tackles for loss#277 / 2975 · 90th pct

7.0

Sacks#707 / 2975 · 74th pct

1.5

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 · 13 games

Home/Road · Season halves

Home vs Road

	TKL/g	TFL/g	SACK/g	PD/g
Home7g	7.7	0.4	0.0	0.7
Road6g	8.8	0.7	0.2	0.3

First half vs Second half

	TKL/g	TFL/g	SACK/g	PD/g
Weeks 1-77g	8.9	0.4	0.1	0.4
Weeks 8+6g	7.5	0.7	0.1	0.7

Supporting cast · Scheme

Staff and system around the player

2026 season

Head Coach

Jake Dickert

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

Awards

Player standing · 2025

All-Conference 1st team

First team in his league at the position.

Recognition

Roster2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex

Production · CFB Index Score

84 · #26 of 544 safeties

Unranked recruit. Now #26 at the position.

2026 outlook

In the mix to repeat All-ACC

Based on 2025: #5 of 75 ACC DBs

How the All-ACC estimate is computed

35% estimated, 95% confidence interval 31–38%. 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	Wake Forest	107	47	7.0	1.5	7	--	--
2024	Wake Forest	122	56	1.0	0.0	1	2	--
2023	Wake Forest	33	19	0.5	0.5	3	1	--
2021	Wake Forest	44	31	1.0	0.0	3	1	--
2020	Wake Forest	63	47	3.0	0.0	3	4	--
Career		369	200	12.5	2.0	17	8	--

Signature game

SIGNATURE GAME · Week 9 · 2025

W 13–12

vs SMU

8 TOT · 2 SOLO · 1 TFL

A wire-to-wire battle — won by 1 at home.

With C. Joseph — 39 AVG · 5 IN 20 · 55 LONG · D. Purdie — 183 yds · 0 TD · 2 INT · QBR 11.4 · 3 rush yds (5 car)

Game log

Game log · Week-by-week

2025 season · 13 games

Box score · CFBD

Wk	Opp	TKL	SOLO	TFL	SACK	INT	PD	Note
Wk 1	W 10-9vs Kennesaw State	9	3	0.0	0.0	—	2	Season-high 12 tackles
Wk 2	W 42-10vs Western Carolina	3	2	1.0	0.0	—	0
Wk 3	L 24-34vs NC State	11	5	0.5	0.0	—	0
Wk 5	L 29-30vs Georgia Tech	11	4	0.0	0.0	—	0
Wk 6	W 30-23@ Virginia Tech	7	2	0.5	0.0	—	1
Wk 7	W 39-14@ Oregon State	9	5	0.0	0.0	—	0
Wk 9	W 13-12vs SMU	8	2	1.5	0.0	—	0
Wk 10	L 7-42@ Florida State	11	6	2.0	0.0	—	1
Wk 11	W 16-9@ Virginia	8	4	0.0	0.0	—	0
Wk 12	W 28-12vs North Carolina	5	3	0.0	0.0	—	2
Wk 13	W 52-14vs Delaware	7	3	0.0	0.0	—	1
Wk 14	L 32-49@ Duke	6	2	0.5	0.5	—	0
Bowl	W 43-29@ Mississippi State	12	6	1.0	1.0	—	0
Total		107	47	7.0	1.5	—	7

How he plays

Play style

Lives near the line of scrimmage as a de facto extra linebacker.

CFB Index positional classification

Activity vs finishing · season enumeration

What the box score actually says

13 games

107Tackles

47Solo

7TFL

1.5Sacks

7Pass def.

0INT

107 tackles. 7 passes defended. 0 interceptions. 7 TFL.

Week 12 PD
Week 11 sack
Week 61 PD
Week 101 PD
Week 122 PD
Week 131 PD
Week 140.5 sacks

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

Wake Forest

2026 Depth chart

Projected starter

Defensive back · Wake Forest

Returning around him

2 Wake Forest players drafted to NFL
Transfer portal: +1 net (24 in / 23 out)

2026 Award watch

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

Wake Forest · Last season: 9-4 · Talent rank #63 · 2026 recruiting class #39

DNA match

Player DNA

Box Safety

Lives near the line of scrimmage as a de facto extra linebacker.

His 2025 production profile sits closest to Ike Larsen’s 2023 season.

Ike Larsen

81%match

Utah State · 2023

All-Mountain West

Khoury Bethley

Hawai'i · 2021

All-Mountain West

77%

Bryce Llewellyn

Eastern Michigan · 2025

All-MAC

76%

Shawn Asbury II

Old Dominion · 2023

71%

Kenny Logan Jr.

Kansas · 2021

All-Big 12

71%

Matches Ike on

PD rate

Tackle volume

Weight

Not enough data yet for this comparison.

As a graduate, his production profile tracks closest to Dalton Johnson's graduate season at Arizona (2025).

Dalton Johnson

81%match

Arizona · 2025

All-Big 12NFL Rd 5

Maxen Hook

Toledo · 2024

All-MAC

76%

JoJo Evans

Florida International · 2024

All-Conference USA

67%

Nick Jackson

Iowa · 2024

All-Big Ten

65%

Tuasivi Nomura

Fresno State · 2024

All-Mountain West

65%

Matches Dalton on

Class year

Weight

PD rate

Player DNA

Players who play like Nick Andersen

Jadarius Green-McKnight

Marshall · 2024

90%

Khalil Ladler

Louisiana Tech · 2021

88%

Matthew Littlejohn

California · 2023

88%

Isaiah Taylor

Arizona · 2022

87%

Chance Keith

Army · 2024

86%

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

Nick Andersen

202412 games

202513 games

2025 snapshot

Splits & context

Awards

All-Conference 1st team

Career stats

Signature game

Game log

How he plays

DNA match

Box Safety

Players who play like Nick Andersen