CFB Zeitgeist Score
33
Below cohort in the position cohort. Carried by yards / catch at the 72nd percentile.
Reece Vander Zee
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
219 REC YDS · 15 REC · 2 REC TD
2026 Outlook
Returning to Iowa for 2026
2026 Depth chart
Projected starter
Wide receiver · Iowa
Returning around him
- 49% of 2024 offensive production back (Moderate turnover)
- 7 Iowa players drafted to NFL
- Transfer portal: +7 net (15 in / 8 out)
2026 Award watch
No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)
Iowa · Last season: 9-4 · Talent rank #42 · 2026 recruiting class #38
WR · IOWA · BIG TEN
Reece Vander Zee
- 2
- #15
- 6-4 | 215 lb
- Rock Rapids, IA
Heisman Heat
#606
<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 WR AWARD
Biletnikoff
—
CONSENSUS
All-American
—
Player Standing · 17 rungs
Tier 2 · StarterR05 · Part-time starter
Part-time starter. Splitting first-team reps.
Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex
Development Trajectory · receiving yards
2024–2025+24%
Modest growth (24%) across the multi-season window.
Career Arc
HS
Recruit
★★★
CFB
College
Iowa
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 | 0.8672 | No. 1000 recruit | HighSchool | Iowa |
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 Iowa
Composite
0.8672
#1000 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 Reece Vander Zee
Fan sentiment ·
Belief Meter
50
Mixed Sentiment
Top Take
“”
Trajectory
Per-cohort trajectory lands when historical bucket data is aggregated.
Cohort divergence map
- Own fans · n=3
Rival Radar
How rival fanbases talk about Reece Vander Zee
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 receiving totals stand
Through 8g
219Rec yards
15Receptions
2Rec TDs
Per game
27.4Rec yards
2Receptions
0Rec TDs
Projected (13g)
355.9Rec yards
24Receptions
3Rec TDs
To hit 700-yard receiver (currently 219): needs 96.2/game over remaining 5.
To hit 1,000-yard receiver (currently 219): needs 156.2/game over remaining 5.
To hit 60-catch season (currently 15): needs 9/game over remaining 5.
To hit 80-catch season (currently 15): needs 13/game over remaining 5.
To hit 8 receiving TDs (currently 2): needs 1.2/game over remaining 5.
To hit 10 receiving TDs (currently 2): needs 1.6/game over remaining 5.
What made this player interesting
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Reece Vander Zee's story is about how role and output meet each other. For Iowa, 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.
2025 Season · Final
Traditional stats first. Advanced context underneath.
Last season
WR 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?
Receiving weapon against FBS receiving peers.
2025 Season · Final
2025 season snapshot | final
Receiving
REC
15 56th
YDS
219 60th
YPR
14.6 74th
TD
2 75th
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 8 games
| Wk | Opp | REC | YDS | AVG | TD | LONG | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 7 | W 37-0@ Wisconsin | 3 | 29 | 9.7 | 0 | 13 | |
| Wk 8 | W 25-24vs Penn State | 1 | 10 | 10.0 | 0 | 10 | |
| Wk 9 | W 41-3vs Minnesota | 1 | 29 | 29.0 | 1 | 29 | |
| Wk 11 | L 16-18vs Oregon | 1 | 15 | 15.0 | 0 | 15 | |
| Wk 12 | L 21-26@ USC | 1 | 4 | 4.0 | 0 | 4 | |
| Wk 13 | W 20-17vs Michigan State | 2 | 46 | 23.0 | 0 | 29 | |
| Wk 14 | W 40-16@ Nebraska | 2 | 53 | 26.5 | 0 | 27 | Season-high 53 yds |
| Bowl | W 34-27@ Vanderbilt | 4 | 33 | 8.3 | 1 | 13 | |
| Total | 15 | 219 | 15.7 | 2 | 29 |
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
2024Iowa8-5HC: Kirk Ferentz · Run-heavy
2025Iowa9-4HC: Kirk Ferentz · Run-heavy, slow tempo
Advanced layer Usage, value, and context
Advanced metrics second
Advanced Metrics
Usage, value, and opponent-adjusted context.
The player's share of a team's passing-game involvement. It is the fastest way to see whether the receiver is a true focal point or more of a complementary piece.
A blended workload view that accounts for catches, designed touches, and any return-game involvement that shapes the overall profile.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Receiving | Receptions | 15 | #484/1110 | 56th pct | Volumevs FBS WR |
| Receiving | Receiving yards | 219 | #442/1107 | 60th pct | Volumevs FBS WR |
| Receiving | Receiving TD | 2 | #281/1111 | 75th pct | Scoringvs FBS WR |
| Receiving | Yards / catch | 14.6 | #291/1106 | 74th pct | Efficiencyvs FBS WR |
| Usage | Pass share | 14.7% | #257/1137 | 77th pct | Air-game usagevs FBS WR |
| Receiving | Receiving LONG | 29 | #611/1105 | 45th pct | Metricvs FBS WR |
| Returns | Kick returns | 1 | #169/243 | 31st pct | Volumevs FBS WR |
| Usage | 3rd-down usage | 9.9% | #233/1137 | 80th pct | Money-down loadvs FBS WR |
| Usage | Passing-down usage | 7.7% | #406/1137 | 64th pct | Known-passing sharevs FBS WR |
| Usage | Role share | 5.0% | #482/1137 | 58th pct | Share of team offensevs FBS WR |
| Usage | 2nd-down usage | 4.2% | #612/1137 | 46th pct | Middle-down loadvs FBS WR |
| Usage | Standard-down usage | 4.0% | #522/1137 | 54th pct | Base-situation sharevs FBS WR |
| Usage | 1st-down usage | 3.2% | #667/1137 | 41st pct | Early-down loadvs FBS WR |
| Usage | Rush share | 0.0% | #391/1137 | 66th pct | Ground-game usagevs FBS WR |
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
Heisman model tracks the top FBS contenders weekly; this player hasn't entered the watch list yet.
Splits · Per-game
2025 season · 8 games
Home vs Road
| REC/g | YDS/g | YPR | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home4g | 1.2 | 25.0 | 19.2 | 0.2 |
| Road4g | 2.5 | 29.8 | 12.1 | 0.2 |
Win vs Loss
| REC/g | YDS/g | YPR | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins6g | 2.2 | 33.3 | 17.8 | 0.3 |
| Losses2g | 1.0 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| REC/g | YDS/g | YPR | TD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-72g | 3.5 | 31.0 | 9.0 | 0.5 |
| Weeks 8+6g | 1.3 | 26.2 | 17.9 | 0.2 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the WR cohort
33Below cohort
Concern: receptions (12th).
Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score rates.
Advanced Savant · WR · 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
Reece Vander ZeeIowaMichael Jackson IIIPurdue· 49% simTrent WalkerOregon State· 49% simSean WilsonDelaware· 46% sim
Yards / catch
Rec TDs
Rec yards
Long catch
Receptions
Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.
Player DNA
The Possession Receiver
Reliable target who converts on critical downs. Not flashy; consistently productive.
WR
His 2025 production profile sits closest to Tyler Griffin’s 2025 season.
Tyler Griffin
80%match
#2
Leo Blackburn
78%
#3
Alex Perry
77%
#4
Andre Johnson
72%
#5
Brad Rozner
72%
Matches Tyler on
TD rate
Weight
Total EPA (college ability)
Differs from Tyler on
Class year (lower)
Through 2 college seasons, his career arc tracks closest to Max Tomczak’s path through Youngstown State.
Max Tomczak
97%match
#2
Antwan Davis
96%
#3
Khalil McClain
94%
#4
Neno Lemay
94%
#5
J.J. Sparkman
94%
Matches Max on
Yards per reception
As a sophomore, his production profile tracks closest to Brian Thomas Jr.'s sophomore season at LSU (2022).
Brian Thomas Jr.
77%match
All-SECNFL Rd 1 · Pk 23
#2
Xavier Gravette
74%
#3
Tyler Hunt
73%
#4
Lawson Luckie
72%
#5
Walker Lyons
72%
Matches Brian on
Yards / reception
Total EPA (college ability)
Weight
Differs from Brian on
Class year (lower)
Reception volume (lower)
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Kirk Ferentz
Pass share
36.6%
286 pass / 495 run
Plays / game
60.1
13 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
7.9%
228 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Run-heavy, slow tempo.
Coaching Lineage · 2024–2025
1 coach2024
Kirk Ferentz
Iowa
2025
Kirk Ferentz
Iowa
Played his entire career under Kirk Ferentz.
Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
HometownRock Rapids, IA
Height6'4"
Weight215 lb
Class2
PositionWR
Jersey15
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Current teamIowa
ConferenceBig Ten
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 | Iowa | WR2 | #606 | #665 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W16 snapshot | Big Ten |
Roster Timeline
Team, conference, and class by season.