Usage / Role
70%
Major defensive role
lowfeatured
Player Dossier
2014-2018UTEP
Nik Needham
DB • 6'0" • 203 lbs • Buena Park, CA, USA
Ball-hunting defenderSplash play profile
Nik Needham shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 33.3 disruption score.
Impact Production
81
High-end production for a defensive back
lowelite
Reliability
74
Reliable weekly contributor
lowhigh
Star Power
79
High-upside career profile
limitedstar
Career Arc
Value trend by season
Best season by Season Value: 2018 Regular Season · UTEP
1415161718
Snapshot
- Career Teams
- 1
- Unique Seasons
- 5
- Program Path
- UTEP
- Peak Game
- Peak game by takeover score: Middle Tennessee
Player Story
Nik Needham built his college career from 2014 through 2018 as a defensive back from Buena Park, CA wearing No. 5, spending time with UTEP. The clearest part of Nik Needham's career was his defensive production: 173...
Read the story2★
- Committed To
- UTEP
- Commit Date
- Jan 1, 2014
Nik Needham, DB. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2018 Regular Season · UTEP. Nik Needham shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 33.3 disruption score.
Stat Footprint
Career production snapshot
- Tackles
- 173
- TFL
- 11.5
- Sacks
- 1
- Passes defended
- 28
Quick Answers
Nik Needham quick answers
- Latest team and position
- UTEP · DB
- Career Tackles
- 173
- Tracked sample
- 5 unique seasons · 5 entries · 39 games
- Best season
- 2018 Regular Season · UTEP
- Top game
- Middle Tennessee
- Recruit profile
- 2-star · Buena Park · UTEP
- High school pipeline
- Buena Park · 7 FBS recruits · 1 drafted player
- Latest roster
- No. 5 · Senior
- 2018 Tackles rank
- 60 tackles · DB 85th (top 10%) · Conference USA 43rd (top 7%) · National 436th (top 8%)
Season Ledger
Crawlable season-by-season stats
| Season | Team | Games | Tackles | TFL | Sacks | QB Hur | PD | TD | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 Regular Season | UTEP | 0 | 0 | - | 0 | - | - | 0 | - |
| 2015 Regular Season | UTEP | 3 | 0 | - | 0 | - | - | 0 | 8.1 |
| 2016 Regular Season | UTEP | 12 | 54 | 2 | 0 | - | 11 | 0 | 48 |
| 2017 Regular Season | UTEP | 12 | 59 | 4.5 | 1 | - | 8 | 0 | 55.4 |
| 2018 Regular Season | UTEP | 12 | 60 | 5 | 0 | - | 9 | 0 | 64.6 |
Related Context
Keep exploring Nik Needham
Nik Needham played DB for UTEP. Across 5 tracked seasons, Nik Needham recorded 1 rushing yards, 18 receiving yards, and 173 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2018 with UTEP.
Player insights
Lead takeaway
Best season by value score: 2018 Regular Season
UTEP paired 15 primary output with 33.3 efficiency.
Supporting note
2018 Regular Season role shape
impact-led usage with 33.3 efficiency.
Supporting note
Career value is trending up
2018 Regular Season improved on the prior stop by season value score.
Supporting note
Peak game by takeover score: Middle Tennessee
Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet. It landed in the 100th percentile of the selected season.
Analysis workspace
Season Workbench
Filter the strongest season sample, inspect game-level shape, and then drop into the full log without losing the story of the year.
Season Explorer
Understand the selected season before dropping into the full game log.
2018 Regular Season · UTEP
Games
12
Havoc Plays / G
1.3
Efficiency
33.3
Usage
6.8
Consistency
68.5
Best Game by takeover score
Middle Tennessee
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Active game
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Game-by-Game Trend
Follow how the selected stat changes from one game to the next. Spikes mark standout outings, while dips show quieter weeks.
Chronological game order.
Game by game trend chart. Northern Arizona: 2. UNLV: 0. Tennessee: 2. New Mexico State: 1. UTSA: 1. North Texas: 1. Louisiana Tech: 2. UAB: 1. Rice: 2. Middle Tennessee: 2. Western Kentucky: 1. Southern Miss: 0
Volume vs Efficiency
Each dot is a game. Farther right means the player carried more of the workload, and higher means they were more efficient with those chances.
Low volumeHigh quality
High volumeHigh quality
Low volumeLower quality
High volumeLower quality
Volume on the x-axis, quality on the y-axis.
Volume versus efficiency scatter chart. Northern Arizona: 7 by 49.2. UNLV: 3 by 12.5. Tennessee: 6 by 45. New Mexico State: 6 by 35. UTSA: 1 by 14.2. North Texas: 2 by 18.3. Louisiana Tech: 3 by 32.5. UAB: 6 by 35. Rice: 5 by 40.8. Middle Tennessee: 10 by 61.7. Western Kentucky: 8 by 43.3. Southern Miss: 3 by 12.5
Split Comparison
Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.
Wins2 · Games = 1 · +0.8 vs Losses
Losses1.2 · Games = 11 · -0.8 vs Wins
Game Log
Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.
12 games
Featured metric
Havoc Plays
Top game by takeover score
Middle Tennessee
Best efficiency game
61.7 vs Middle Tennessee
| Result | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sat 11/24 | vs Southern Miss | L 7-39 | 3 | 3 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sun 11/18 | @ Western Kentucky | L 16-40 | 8 | 7 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 1 | — | — |
| Sat 11/10 | vs Middle Tennessee10+ tackles · Splash game | L 32-48 | 10 | 5 | — | 1 | 0 | — | 1 | — | — |
| Sat 11/3 | @ RiceSplash game | W 34-26 | 5 | 5 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 2 | — | — |
| Sat 10/27 | vs UAB | L 0-19 | 6 | 5 | — | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/20 | @ Louisiana TechSplash game | L 24-31 | 3 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 2 | — | — |
| Sat 10/6 | vs North Texas | L 24-27 | 2 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 1 | — | — |
| Sat 9/29 | @ UTSA | L 21-30 | 1 | 1 | — | 1 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/22 | vs New Mexico State | L 20-27 | 6 | 6 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 1 | — | — |
| Sat 9/15 | @ TennesseeSplash game | L 0-24 | 6 | 5 | — | 1 | 0 | — | 1 | — | — |
| Sun 9/9 | @ UNLV | L 24-52 | 3 | 2 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/1 | vs Northern ArizonaSplash game | L 10-30 | 7 | 5 | — | 2 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
Player Story
Nik Needham story
Nik Needham built his college career from 2014 through 2018 as a defensive back from Buena Park, CA wearing No. 5, spending time with UTEP. The clearest part of Nik Needham's career was his defensive production: 173 tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss, 1 sack, and 3 interceptions across 39 career games in the available record. His career also includes 1 rushing yard, 18 receiving yards, and 9 return yards, giving the story more than a single-category snapshot. That gives Nik Needham's career enough real context without stretching the story beyond the available production.
Career Arc
Track team changes, role shifts, and season-to-season movement.
- 1
UTEP
2014-2018
Opening stop
Season Value Progression
20142015201620172018
| Season | Team | Primary | Efficiency | Usage | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 Regular Season | UTEP | 0 | — | — | — |
| 2015 Regular Season | UTEP | 1 | 6.7 | — | 1 |
| 2016 Regular Season | UTEP | 13 | 29.6 | 5.3 | 12 |
| 2017 Regular Season | UTEP | 14.5 | 32.2 | 6.6 | 1.5 |
| 2018 Regular Season | UTEP | 15 | 33.3 | 6.8 | 0.5 |
Signature Performances
Top Games
#1 Featured game
vs Middle Tennessee
Week 11 · L 32-48 · Conference game
Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
2
Havoc Plays
87.2 takeover
2 disruption/tackle impact with 87.2 takeover score.
#2
vs Northern Arizona
Week 1 · L 10-30
2
Havoc Plays
83.1 takeover
Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
2 disruption/tackle impact with 83.1 takeover score.
#3
@ Tennessee
Week 3 · L 0-24
2
Havoc Plays
81.7 takeover
Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
2 disruption/tackle impact with 81.7 takeover score.
#4
vs Southern Miss
Week 4 · L 7-34 · Conference game
3
Havoc Plays
76.1 takeover
Loss with 3 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
3 disruption/tackle impact with 76.1 takeover score.
#5
@ Louisiana Tech
Week 5 · L 7-28 · Conference game
2
Havoc Plays
73.3 takeover
Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
2 disruption/tackle impact with 73.3 takeover score.
Top Seasons
#1 Season by Season Value
2018 Regular Season · UTEP
15 primary output · 33.3 efficiency · 6.8 usage
64.6
#2
2017 Regular Season · UTEP
55.4
14.5 primary · 32.2 efficiency · 6.6 usage
#3
2016 Regular Season · UTEP
48
13 primary · 29.6 efficiency · 5.3 usage
Milestones
9
Impact games
13
Splash games
1
10+ tackle games
Next best actions
Keep exploring Nik Needham
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