CFB Zeitgeist Score
42
Mid-pack in the position cohort. Carried by pass tds at the 64th percentile.
Nick Vattiato
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
2,157 PASS YDS · 16 PASS TD · 20 RUSH YDS
2026 Outlook
Returning to Middle Tennessee for 2026
2026 Depth chart
Returning starter
Quarterback · Middle Tennessee
Returning around him
2026 Award watch
No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)
Middle Tennessee · Last season: 3-9 · Talent rank #110 · 2026 recruiting class #98
QB · MIDDLE TENNESSEE · CONFERENCE USA
CFB Zeitgeist Score
42
Mid-pack in the position cohort. Carried by pass tds at the 64th percentile.
Heisman Heat
#2210
<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 QB AWARD
Davey O'Brien
—
CONSENSUS
All-American
—
Player Standing · 17 rungs
Tier 2 · StarterImpact starter. Producing measurable value above replacement.
Development Trajectory · passing yards
2021–2025Up 106% from first season to most-recent.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 3-star | 0.8407 | No. 1459 recruit | HighSchool | Middle Tennessee |
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. | ||
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.
Achievements
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 Middle Tennessee
Composite
0.8407
#1459 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 passing totals stand
To hit 3,000-yard season (currently 2,157): needs 210.8/game over remaining 4.
To hit 4,000-yard season (currently 2,157): needs 460.8/game over remaining 4.
To hit 25 passing TDs (currently 16): needs 2.2/game over remaining 4.
To hit 30 passing TDs (currently 16): needs 3.5/game over remaining 4.
To hit 35 passing TDs (currently 16): needs 4.8/game over remaining 4.
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Nick Vattiato's story is about how role and output meet each other. For Middle Tennessee, the card already shows enough current-season production to explain why he is on the serious-player board, and the next layer is determining whether the profile is just very good or actually distinctive.
Traditional stats first. Advanced context underneath.
Last season
2025 season snapshot | final
30-second read
High-volume passer | Pocket-leaning against FBS QB peers. The quickest read is whether the profile wins on volume, efficiency, explosiveness, or rushing value.
2025 season snapshot | final
Passing Efficiency
Passing Production
Rushing
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 9 games
| Wk | Opp | CMP/ATT | YDS | TD | INT | YPA | QBR | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | L 14-34vs Austin Peay | 15/36 | 104 | 2 | 0 | 2.9 | 3.6 | |
| Wk 2 | L 10-42@ Wisconsin | 20/31 | 197 | 1 | 1 | 6.4 | 69.9 | |
| Wk 3 | W 14-13@ Nevada | 27/44 | 247 | 1 | 1 | 5.6 | 40.4 | |
| Wk 4 | L 28-42vs Marshall | 19/32 | 299 | 2 | 1 | 9.3 | 35.7 | Season-high 299 yds |
| Wk 5 | L 16-24@ Kennesaw State | 28/42 | 285 | 0 | 1 | 6.8 | 17.8 | |
| Wk 7 | L 20-22vs Missouri State | 30/42 | 267 | 2 | 0 | 6.4 | 35.1 | Clean 2-TD game |
| Wk 9 | L 28-31@ Delaware | 31/48 | 281 | 3 | 1 | 5.9 | 41.4 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 10 | L 21-24vs Jacksonville State | 23/45 | 235 | 2 | 1 | 5.2 | 31.2 | |
| Wk 11 | L 30-56vs Florida International | 26/37 | 242 | 3 | 1 | 6.5 | 50.6 | 3 TD passes |
| Total | 219/357 | 2157 | 16 | 7 | 6.1 | 36.2 |
Traditional history
Season rows up top, career context at the bottom.
Season context · Team result + system
| Season | Team | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Middle Tennessee | 219 | 357 | 61.3% | 2,157 | 6.0 | 16 | 7 | 123.0 | -- | -- |
| 2023 | Middle Tennessee | 286 | 428 | 66.8% | 3,087 | 7.2 | 23 | 13 | 139.1 | -- | -- |
| 2022 | Middle Tennessee | 30 | 46 | 65.2% | 293 | 6.4 | 0 | 1 | 114.4 | -- | -- |
| 2021 | Middle Tennessee | 115 | 171 | 67.3% | 1,047 | 6.1 | 7 | 6 | 125.2 | -- | -- |
| Career | 4 loaded seasons | 650 | 1,002 | 64.9% | 6,584 | 6.6 | 46 | 27 | 129.8 | -- | -- |
| Season | Team | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Middle Tennessee | 62 | 20 | 0.3 | 2 | -- |
| 2023 | Middle Tennessee | 139 | 402 | 2.9 | 2 | -- |
| 2022 | Middle Tennessee | 24 | 13 | 0.5 | 0 | -- |
| 2021 | Middle Tennessee | 25 | 27 | 1.1 | 0 | -- |
| Career | 4 loaded seasons | 250 | 462 | 1.8 | 4 | -- |
Advanced metrics second
Usage, value, and opponent-adjusted context.
Opponent-adjusted passing value. Positive numbers mean the quarterback is adding more value through the air than a neutral peer would in the same environment.
How much of the offense runs through the quarterback once passing and rushing responsibility are blended together.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Passing | Passing yards | 2,157 | #80/382 | 79th pct | Volumevs FBS QB |
| Passing | Pass TD | 16 | #63/407 | 85th pct | Scoringvs FBS QB |
| Passing | Completions | 219 | #52/383 | 87th pct | Volumevs FBS QB |
| Passing | Completion % | 61.3% | #194/383 | 50th pct | Efficiencyvs FBS QB |
| Passing | Yards / attempt | 6.0 | #265/382 | 31st pct | Efficiencyvs FBS QB |
| Rushing | Rushing yards | 20 | #248/408 | 39th pct | Volumevs FBS QB |
| Value | Passing WEPA | +0.20 | #146/200 | 28th pct | Opponent-adjusted passing value | 321 weighted playsvs FBS QB |
| Usage | Role share | 55.9% | #34/428 | 92nd pct | Share of team offensevs FBS QB |
| Passing | Attempts | 357 | #50/407 | 88th pct | Volumevs FBS QB |
| Passing | Interceptions | 7 | #316/407 | 23rd pct | Turnoversvs FBS QB |
| Rushing | Carries | 62 | #98/408 | 76th pct | Volumevs FBS QB |
| Rushing | Rushing LONG | 12 | #261/391 | 34th pct | Metricvs FBS QB |
| Rushing | Rush TD | 2 | #113/408 | 73rd pct | Scoringvs FBS QB |
| Rushing | Yards / carry | 0.3 | #326/407 | 20th pct | Efficiencyvs FBS QB |
| Usage | Pass share | 76.3% | #128/428 | 70th pct | Air-game usagevs FBS QB |
| Usage | Passing-down usage | 66.0% | #70/428 | 84th pct | Known-passing sharevs FBS QB |
| Usage | 3rd-down usage | 65.2% | #66/428 | 85th pct | Money-down loadvs FBS QB |
| Usage | 2nd-down usage | 57.4% | #31/428 | 93rd pct | Middle-down loadvs FBS QB |
| Usage | Standard-down usage | 51.0% | #26/428 | 94th pct | Base-situation sharevs FBS QB |
| Usage | 1st-down usage | 50.9% | #27/428 | 94th pct | Early-down loadvs FBS QB |
| Usage | Rush share | 18.8% | #72/428 | 83rd pct | Ground-game usagevs FBS QB |
| Value | Rushing WEPA | +0.08 | #131/140 | 7th pct | Opponent-adjusted rushing value | 46 weighted playsvs FBS QB |
| Ball Security | Fumbles lost | 1 | #69/258 | 74th pct | Turnoversvs FBS QB |
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
Heisman model tracks the top FBS contenders weekly; this player hasn't entered the watch list yet.
Splits · Per-game
2025 season · 9 games
Home vs Road
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home5g | 229 | 2.2 | 6.1 | 0.6 |
| Road4g | 252 | 1.2 | 6.2 | 1.0 |
Win vs Loss
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins1g | 247 | 1.0 | 5.6 | 1.0 |
| Losses8g | 239 | 1.9 | 6.2 | 0.8 |
First half vs Second half
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-76g | 233 | 1.3 | 6.2 | 0.7 |
| Weeks 8+3g | 253 | 2.7 | 5.9 | 1.0 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the QB cohort
Concern: yards / att (12th).
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.
Advanced Savant · QB · 2024
Concerns: EPA / dropback.
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
Balanced passer who operates within the system. Profile sits near league average across dimensions.
His 2025 production profile sits closest to E.J. Warner’s 2024 season.
E.J. Warner
Devin Leary
Layne Hatcher
Drew Plitt
Ta'Quan Roberson
Matches E.J. on
Differs from E.J. on
Through 5 college seasons, his career arc tracks closest to Parker McKinney’s path through Eastern Kentucky.
Parker McKinney
Trenton Bourguet
Chase Cunningham
Luke Anthony
Kadin Semonza
Matches Parker on
As a graduate, his production profile tracks closest to Preston Stone's graduate season at Northwestern (2025).
Preston Stone
Cade McNamara
Ta'Quan Roberson
Stone Earle
Miller Moss
Matches Preston on
Differs from Preston 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 · 2021–2025
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.
| Season | Team | Role | Latest Model | Forecast | Win | Finalist | Official Finish | Points | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Middle Tennessee | QB4 | #2210 | #2795 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W16 snapshot | Conference USA |
| 2023 | Middle Tennessee | QB4 | #220 | #384 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W19 snapshot | Conference USA |
| 2022 | Middle Tennessee | QB4 | #1548 | #1704 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W20 snapshot | Conference USA |
| 2021 | Middle Tennessee | QB4 | #702 | #901 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W20 snapshot | Conference USA |
Team, conference, and class by season.
| Season | Team | Conference | Pos | Class | Bio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Middle Tennessee | Conference USA | QB | 4 | No. 11 | 6-0 | 212 lb | Plantation, FL |
| 2024 | Middle Tennessee | Conference USA | QB | 4 | No. 11 | 6-0 | 212 lb | Plantation, FL |
| 2023 | Middle Tennessee | Conference USA | QB | 4 | No. 11 | 6-0 | 212 lb | Plantation, FL |
| 2022 | Middle Tennessee | Conference USA | QB | 4 | No. 11 | 6-0 | 212 lb | Plantation, FL |
| 2021 | Middle Tennessee | Conference USA | QB | 4 | No. 11 | 6-0 | 212 lb | Plantation, FL |