CFB Zeitgeist Score
64
Solid starter in the position cohort. Carried by sacks at the 91st percentile.
Steven Soles Jr.
Below the discourse floor — the honest stats-only state.
11 TACKLES · 3.5 SACKS
Where He Ended Up · Transfer
Transferred to Arkansas
2025Kentucky
2026Arkansas
LB · KENTUCKY · SEC
Steven Soles Jr.
- 2
- #35
- 6-2 | 235 lb
- Powell, TN
Heisman Heat
#9648
<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 1 · 2-deepR03 · Backup
Backup. On the two-deep, pushing for snaps.
Not on team2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex
Career Arc
HS
Recruit
★★★
CFB
College
Kentucky
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 | 0.8681 | No. 969 recruit | HighSchool |
Transfer Arc
Portal movement changes role, context, and perception. This keeps that path in one place.
| Season | Move | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Kentucky -> Arkansas | 3-star | 0.8600 | Immediate |
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
0.8681
#969 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 Steven Soles Jr.
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 Steven Soles Jr.
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 8g
11Tackles
4.5Tackles for loss
3.5Sacks
Per game
1Tackles
0.6Tackles for loss
0.4Sacks
Projected (13g)
18Tackles
7.3Tackles for loss
5.7Sacks
To hit 80-tackle season (currently 11): needs 13.8/game over remaining 5.
To hit 100-tackle season (currently 11): needs 17.8/game over remaining 5.
To hit 6-sack season (currently 3.5): needs 0.5/game over remaining 5.
To hit 10-sack season (currently 3.5): needs 1.3/game over remaining 5.
Why this is a rare defensive case
The fast read on the thing that makes this player more than a generic stat line.
Steven Soles Jr. is trying to climb the steepest award hill in college football: a defensive candidacy. The hook is the disruption profile on Kentucky's defense, with 3.5 sacks, 4.5 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 against FBS defenders.
2025 Season · Final
2025 season snapshot | final
Tackling & Disruption
TOT
11 44th
SOLO
8 50th
TFL
4.5 87th
SACK
3.5 95th
QBH
3 75th
Coverage & Takeaways
PD
2 64th
Game Log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 8 games
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 24-16vs Toledo | 3 | 3 | 2.0 | 2.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 3 tackles |
| Wk 2 | L 23-30vs Ole Miss | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 3 | W 48-23vs Eastern Michigan | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 8 | L 13-16vs Texas | 2 | 2 | 1.0 | 1.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 10 | W 10-3@ Auburn | 1 | 0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 11 | W 38-7vs Florida | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 12 | W 42-10vs Tennessee Tech | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 14 | L 0-41@ Louisville | 2 | 1 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 11 | 8 | 4.5 | 3.5 | — | 2 |
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
2024Kentucky4-8HC: Mark Stoops · Run-leaning, slow tempo
2025Kentucky5-7HC: Mark Stoops · Run-leaning
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 | 11 | #2749/4942 | 44th pct | Volumevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | TFL | 4.5 | #648/4972 | 87th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Sacks | 3.5 | #233/4972 | 95th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Pass breakups | 2 | #792/2184 | 64th pct | Coveragevs FBS DEF |
| Defense | QB hurries | 3 | #462/1878 | 75th pct | Disruptionvs FBS DEF |
| Defense | Solo tackles | 8 | #2283/4584 | 50th 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 · 8 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home6g | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 |
| Road2g | 1.5 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
Win vs Loss
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wins5g | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.4 |
| Losses3g | 2.0 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-73g | 1.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.3 |
| Weeks 8+5g | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 |
Pocket and defense-quality (clean vs. pressure) splits are coming soon.
Savant · Box-rate percentiles
Where this profile ranks vs the LB cohort
64Solid starter
Elite: sacks (91st). Strength: qb hurries (81st). Concern: tackles (5th).
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
Steven Soles Jr.KentuckyTreylin PayneTexas State· 51% simRay ConeyTulsa· 51% simRasheem BilesPittsburgh· 51% sim
Sacks
QB hurries
Tackles for loss
Passes defended
Solo tackles
Tackles
Closest peers by overall box-score percentile profile at the same position.
Supporting Cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Mark Stoops
Pass share
46.2%
366 pass / 427 run
Plays / game
66.1
12 games
OL sack rate (allowed)
10.0%
280 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Run-leaning.
Coaching Lineage · 2024–2025
1 coach2024
Mark Stoops
Kentucky
2025
Mark Stoops
Kentucky
Played his entire career under Mark Stoops.
Bio · Recruiting · Transfer · Roster
Off-field context — switch tabs to drill into recruit profile, transfer arc, or roster timeline.
HometownPowell, TN
Height6'2"
Weight235 lb
Class2
PositionLB
Jersey35
No fields populated yet.
No fields populated yet.
Current teamKentucky
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 | Kentucky | LB2 | #9648 | #9856 | 0.0% | 0.0% | -- | -- | W16 snapshot | SEC |
Roster Timeline
Team, conference, and class by season.