Nik Needham: DB · UTEP · #5.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Nik Needham
Hits like a linebacker and still takes the ball away. The four seasons at UTEP span three head coaches: Sean Kugler, Mike Price and Dana Dimel. A game that shows it: 10 tackles and 1 tackle for loss against Middle Tennessee — Week 11, 2018.
Play style
Hits like a linebacker and still takes the ball away.
Activity vs finishing · season enumeration
What the box score actually says
60 tackles. 9 passes defended. 1 interception. 5 TFL.
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.
No outlet on our list has written about this player by name this season.
Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
There is no official box score for these seasons, so this sack count comes from the play-by-play.
Each sack is credited to the player named on the play, and a sack shared by two players counts as half for each. We checked the same method against the official box scores for 2016 to 2019: it lands within half a sack for about 9 in 10 players. Tackles and passes defended are not shown for these seasons because the same check does not hold for them. Source: SportsDataverse play data.
Game log · Week-by-week
2018 season · 12 games
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| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | L 10-30vs Northern Arizona | 7 | 5 | 2.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 2 | L 24-52@ UNLV | 3 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 3 | L 0-24@ Tennessee | 6 | 5 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 4 | L 20-27vs New Mexico State | 6 | 6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 5 | L 21-30@ UTSA | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 6 | L 24-27vs North Texas | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 8 | L 24-31@ Louisiana Tech | 3 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 2 | |
| Wk 9 | L 0-19vs UAB | 6 | 5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Wk 10 | W 34-26@ Rice | 5 | 5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 2 | |
| Wk 11 | L 32-48vs Middle Tennessee | 10 | 5 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | Season-high 10 tackles |
| Wk 12 | L 16-40@ Western Kentucky | 8 | 7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 13 | L 7-39vs Southern Miss | 3 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 60 | 46 | 5.0 | 0.0 | 1 | 9 |
Where his impact shows up on the stat sheet
PD rate
15%9 pass breakupsInterceptions
1interceptionsTackle volume
60tackles this seasonTFL rate
8%5 TFL60 tackles · 5 for loss · 9 pass breakups · 1 interception.
Splits · Per-game
2018 season · 12 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home6g | 5.7 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 |
| Road6g | 4.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 1.0 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-76g | 4.2 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.5 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 5.8 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 1.0 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Dana Dimel
Pass share
43.0%
325 pass / 430 run
Plays / game
62.9
12 games
Team sack rate
10.4%
365 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Run-leaning.
Player standing · 2018
60 tackles in 12 games, about as many tackles a game as a typical FBS defensive back who plays every week.
How it ended
Four seasons at UTEP, 173 tackles — the college career is complete.
Four or fewer games in the first season, then ten or more.
Coaching lineage · 2014–2018
3 coachesPlayed under 3 different head coaches: Sean Kugler, Mike Price, and Dana Dimel. Multi-era developmental context.
