Toby Payne

#81 · TE · Marshall6′4″ · 237 lb · Poca, WV

Receiving yards26934th of 107 tight ends Last gameW 36–23at Old Dominion · Oct 31

Nextat Georgia SouthernSat Nov 7 · 3:30 pm ET

Worth knowing

Toby Payne has 43 receiving yards a game at home, 24.2 on the road.
Toby Payne has 30 catches, tied for 13th among FBS tight ends.

Every catch and target this season

102030

leftmiddleright

a catch, dashed to the catch point then solid afterthrown to him, incomplete

Seen from behind the quarterback; numbers are yards past the line of scrimmage. The play text only says left, middle or right, so inside a lane marks are sorted, not placed. Of his catches with a spot in the play text: left 9, middle 9, right 12.

Toby Payne

TE · Marshall · #81

Shows up in the passing game from any alignment. Played for two head coaches at Marshall: Charles Huff and Tony Gibson. The first career honor came in 2025: All-Sun Belt. On tape: 69 receiving yards and 7 receptions against South Alabama, Week 8, 2026.

269 receiving yards · 30 catches · 0 receiving TD

Style of play

Play style

No single go-to route — the receiving numbers show up inline and split out alike.

Similar players

Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.

Hayden PlinkeUTEP · 2015 · 91% season match
Marcus SmithNorth Texas · 2015 · 87% season match
Henry Krieger-CobleIowa · 2015 · 83% season match
Jyrin JohnsonBowling Green · 2025 · 80% season match
Frank AbreuHawai'i · 2026 · 80% season match

Career stats

Swipe the table sideways for more columns.

Season	Team
2026	Marshall	30	269	9.0	0	19
2025	Marshall	36	387	10.8	3	48
2024	Marshall	17	168	9.9	6	32
2022	Marshall	2	27	13.5	1	15
Career		85	851	10.0	10	48

Last game (Wk 9): 13 receiving yards, 1 catch.

Game log

Game log · Week-by-week

2026 season · 8 games

Box score · CFBD

Swipe the table sideways for more columns.

Wk	Opp	REC	YDS	AVG	LONG	Note
Wk 1	L 0-45@ No. 18 Penn State	8	55	6.9	11
Wk 2	W 28-26vs Middle Tennessee	1	6	6.0	6
Wk 3	W 30-24@ Missouri State	2	23	11.5	18
Wk 4	W 36-35vs Gardner-Webb	7	57	8.1	19
Wk 5	L 17-45@ James Madison	1	6	6.0	6
Wk 6	L 21-27vs Coastal Carolina	3	40	13.3	17
Wk 8	W 20-13vs South Alabama	7	69	9.9	16	Season-high 69 yds
Wk 9	W 36-23@ Old Dominion	1	13	13.0	13
Total		30	269	9.0	19

The latest game

Oct. 20 · W 20-13 vs South Alabama, play by play

7 catches for 69 yards, his most this season. Marshall threw to him on 8 of its 33 passes. 56 of the 69 came before halftime.

7 of 8 targets caught
3 moved the chains
0 of 2 on 3rd and 4th down

First quarterbegan tied 0-0
2nd & 514 1st down
2nd & 916 1st down1
Second quarterbegan down 3-0
1st & 1015 1st down
1st & 16incomplete
1st & 105
3rd & 106 2
Third quarterbegan tied 6-6
2nd & 109
Fourth quarterbegan up 13-6
3rd & 94 3
FinalW 20-13

a catch, by its yardsa touchdownthrown to him, incomplete

1
16-yard catch. First quarter, down 3-0.
2
6-yard catch on 3rd and 10. Second quarter, tied 3-3.
3
4-yard catch on 3rd and 9. Fourth quarter, up 13-6.

The season, game by game

Signature game

Week 1 · 2026

L 0-45

at Penn State

8 rec · 55 yds

With C. Heimbach — 42.6 yards per punt · 8 punts · 4 inside the 20 · C. Del Rio-Wilson — 102 yds · 0 TD · 0 INT · 30 rush yds (13 car)

Signature plays

The plays that mattered most

Week 1 · Penn State · 3rd and 9 · Q2 · EPA +2.73C.Del Rio-Wilson pass complete short middle to T.Payne for 11 yards (C.Bacon)
Week 6 · Coastal Carolina · 2nd and 12 · Q2 · EPA +2.65C.Del Rio-Wilson pass complete short middle to T.Payne for 17 yards (J.Lee)
Week 8 · South Alabama · 2nd and 9 · Q1 · EPA +2.36Turner to Payne: a 16-yard pass.
Week 4 · Gardner-Webb · 2nd and 8 · Q3 · EPA +2.35C.Del Rio-Wilson pass complete short middle to T.Payne for 19 yards (N.Lucas)
Week 6 · Coastal Carolina · 3rd and 7 · Q3 · EPA +1.98Turner to Payne: a 10-yard pass.
Week 8 · South Alabama · 2nd and 5 · Q1 · EPA +1.31Turner to Payne: a 14-yard pass.

4 more plays

Week 4 · Gardner-Webb · 2nd and 5 · Q4 · EPA +0.96C.Del Rio-Wilson pass complete short middle to T.Payne for 9 yards (C.Haynes)
Week 1 · Penn State · 2nd and 5 · Q3 · EPA +0.93C.Del Rio-Wilson pass complete short middle to T.Payne for 7 yards QB hurried by C.Bacon (C.Brezina)
Week 1 · Penn State · 1st and 10 · Q2 · EPA +0.93C.Del Rio-Wilson pass complete short left to T.Payne for 10 yards (D.Dixson)
Week 1 · Penn State · 2nd and 4 · Q2 · EPA +0.89C.Del Rio-Wilson pass complete short middle to T.Payne for 8 yards QB hurried by C.Brezina (Z.Tracy)

Where he ranks

Rec yards269tied for 34thAmong 107 tight ends with 12 or more catches

Receptions30tied for 13thAmong 107 tight ends with 12 or more catches

Yards / catch9.083rdAmong 107 tight ends with 12 or more catches

Long catch19tied for 97thAmong 107 tight ends with 12 or more catches

307th in receiving yards, among all 2,086 FBS players with a receiving row this season, any position

Opponents faced, by strength

Ratings of the games shown run from -17 to +11 points against an average team (SP+ rating of each opponent).

Receiving profile

Receiver profile · Targets, catch rate, and throw depth

How often he's targeted, and how well it works

30 rec · 269 yds · 0 TD

30 of 30 receptions matched to play-by-play

44 of 44 targets charted for true throw depth

Targets

4418% of team targets

Catch rate

68%30 of 44 targets

Behind LOS · Negative air yds

7% of targets (3)

100%catch rate

Air -1.3 · YAC 9.7 avg

Short · 0–9 air yds

64% of targets (28)

82%catch rate

Air 4.2 · YAC 3.2 avg

Middle · 10–19 air yds

27% of targets (12)

33%catch rate

Air 14.0 · YAC 2.2 avg

Deep · 20+ air yds

2% of targets (1)

0%catch rate

Air 39.0 avg

68% catch rate on 44 targets · 18% of the team's targets.

Teams and coaches

2022Marshall9-4HC: Charles Huff · Run-heavy

2024Marshall10-3HC: Charles Huff · Run-leaning

2025Marshall5-7HC: Tony Gibson · Run-leaning

2026Marshall5-3HC: Tony Gibson · Run-leaning

Our ratings

CFB Zeitgeist Score 59 (#35 of 132). Show the ratings

Where this profile ranks vs the TE cohort

Box-score + play-by-play EPA percentiles

59Quality starter #35 of 132?

10 metrics · season cumulative

Elite: receptions (87th percentile). Concern: explosive rate (2nd percentile).

Real play-by-play efficiency

Catch rate#211 / 569 · 63rd pct

68.2%

EPA / target#484 / 569 · 15th pct

0.14

Yards / catch#499 / 569 · 12th pct

9.0

TD rate#449 / 569 · 11th pct

0.0%

Explosive rate#544 / 569 · 2nd pct

0.0%

Box-score rates (5)

Receptions#13 / 107 · 87th pct

Rec yards#34 / 107 · 68th pct

269

Yards / catch#83 / 107 · 23rd pct

9.0

Rec TDs#82 / 107 · 12th pct

Long catch#97 / 107 · 9th pct

Season trend

Last seasonThis season

EPA / target

78th → 15th percentile

Explosive rate

72nd → 2nd percentile

Catch rate

99th → 63rd percentile

TD rate

84th → 11th percentile

Yards / catch

42nd → 12th percentile

Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season. Most bars are box-score rates; EPA / success-rate bars are computed from real play-by-play (offense only — no defensive EPA model exists yet).

Splits

Home and road splits, scheme and staff

Splits · Per-game

2026 season · 8 games

Home/Road · Season halves

Home vs Road

	REC/g	YDS/g	YPR	TD/g
Home4g	4.5	43.0	9.3	0.0
Road4g	3.0	24.2	9.3	0.0

First half vs Second half

	REC/g	YDS/g	YPR	TD/g
Weeks 1-76g	3.7	31.2	8.6	0.0
Weeks 8+2g	4.0	41.0	11.4	0.0

Supporting cast · Scheme

Staff and system around the player

2026 season

Head Coach

Tony Gibson

Pass share

46.6%

255 pass / 292 run

Plays / game

68.4

8 games

Team sack rate

5.8%

291 dropbacks · PBP

Scheme: Run-leaning.

Awards

Player standing · 2025

All-Conference 1st team

First team in his league at the position.

Recognition

Roster2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex

2026 outlook

In the mix to repeat All-Sun Belt

Based on 2025: #1 of 16 Sun Belt TEs

How the All-Sun Belt base rate is computed

A base rate for the rank, not a forecast of this player: 49% of returning players who ranked #1–3 at their position in their conference made an all-conference team the next season (95% confidence interval 43–54%).

Starter

The No. 1,116 recruit in the country is starting at tight end in the Sun Belt.

Toby Payne

This week

Worth knowing

Every catch and target this season

Style of play

Similar players

Named in

Where to follow

Career stats

Game log

The latest game

The season, game by game

Signature game

Signature plays

Where he ranks

Receiving profile

Teams and coaches

Our ratings

Splits

Awards

All-Conference 1st team

Starter

Five seasons at Marshall

2022

2025 11 games