Tony Mekari: DT · California · #97.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Tony Mekari
Wins the gap play after play. Played for two head coaches at California: Sonny Dykes and Justin Wilcox. One game to point at: 6 tackles and 1 tackle for loss against Weber State — Week 2, 2017.
Play style
Stout at the point of attack — steady tackle-for-loss production without a standout pass-rush number.
Activity vs finishing · season enumeration
What the box score actually says
20 tackles. 0 passes defended. 0 interceptions. 2 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.
Sports Illustrated Oct 29Swipe the table sideways for more columns.
| Season | Team | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | California | 20 | 11 | 2.0 | 0.0 |
| 2016 | California | 35 | 10 | 4.5 | 1.0 |
| Career | 55 | 21 | 6.5 | 1.0 |
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
2017 season · 10 games
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| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | W 35-30@ North Carolina | 2 | 1 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 2 | W 33-20vs Weber State | 6 | 5 | 1.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 6 tackles |
| Wk 3 | W 27-16vs Ole Miss | 2 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 5 | L 24-45@ Oregon | 2 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 6 | L 7-38@ No. 6 Washington | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | W 37-3vs No. 8 Washington State | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 8 | L 44-45vs Arizona | 2 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 10 | W 37-23vs Oregon State | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 12 | L 14-17@ No. 20 Stanford | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 13 | L 27-30@ UCLA | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 20 | 11 | 2.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 |
Where his impact shows up on the stat sheet
TFL rate
10%2 TFLSack rate
0%0 sacksHurry rate
5%1 hurry20 tackles · 2 for loss.
Splits · Per-game
2017 season · 10 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home5g | 2.6 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Road5g | 1.4 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-76g | 2.5 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Weeks 8+4g | 1.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Justin Wilcox
Pass share
53.6%
473 pass / 410 run
Plays / game
73.6
12 games
Team sack rate
6.4%
532 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Balanced.
Player standing · 2017
Fewer tackles a game than most FBS defensive linemen who play every week.
How it ended
Two seasons at California, 55 tackles — the college career is complete.
Coaching lineage · 2013–2017
2 coachesCoaching transition mid-career: Sonny Dykes → Justin Wilcox. Worth noting in scheme + development context.
