Usage / Role
100%
Featured defensive role
lowfeatured
Player Dossier
2017-2020Florida Atlantic
Leighton McCarthy
LB • 6'3" • 220 lbs • Apopka, FL, USA
Ball-hunting defenderSplash play profile
Leighton McCarthy shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 50.9 disruption score.
Impact Production
100
Top-tier box-score impact for a linebacker
lowelite
Reliability
87
Regular contributor with several takeover games
lowhigh
Star Power
85
Elite ceiling indicators
limitedstar
Career Arc
Value trend by season
Best season by Season Value: 2020 Regular Season · Florida Atlantic
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Snapshot
- Career Teams
- 1
- Unique Seasons
- 4
- Program Path
- Florida Atlantic
- Peak Game
- Peak game by takeover score: Charlotte
Player Story
Leighton McCarthy built his college career from 2017 through 2020 as a linebacker from Apopka, FL wearing No. 13, spending time with Florida Atlantic. The clearest part of Leighton McCarthy's career was his defensive...
Read the story2★
- Committed To
- Florida Atlantic
- Commit Date
- Jan 1, 2016
Leighton McCarthy, LB. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2020 Regular Season · Florida Atlantic. Leighton McCarthy shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 50.9 disruption score.
Stat Footprint
Career production snapshot
- Tackles
- 159
- TFL
- 34
- Sacks
- 19
- QB hurries
- 18
- Passes defended
- 2
Quick Answers
Leighton McCarthy quick answers
- Latest team and position
- Florida Atlantic · LB
- Career Tackles
- 159
- Tracked sample
- 4 unique seasons · 5 entries · 47 games
- Best season
- 2020 Regular Season · Florida Atlantic
- Top game
- Charlotte
- Recruit profile
- 2-star · Wekiva · Florida Atlantic
- High school pipeline
- Wekiva · 12 FBS recruits · 3 drafted players
- Latest roster
- No. 13 · Senior
- 2020 Tackles rank
- 39 tackles · LB 248th (top 23%) · Conference USA 59th (top 11%) · National 504th (top 10%)
Season Ledger
Crawlable season-by-season stats
| Season | Team | Games | Tackles | TFL | Sacks | QB Hur | PD | TD | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 Postseason | Florida Atlantic | 14 | 3 | 0.5 | 0.5 | - | - | 0 | 55.1 |
| 2017 Regular Season | Florida Atlantic | 14 | 48 | 8.5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 55.1 |
| 2018 Regular Season | Florida Atlantic | 12 | 39 | 3 | 0.5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 37.7 |
| 2019 Regular Season | Florida Atlantic | 13 | 30 | 10.5 | 6 | 3 | - | 0 | 47.2 |
| 2020 Regular Season | Florida Atlantic | 8 | 39 | 11.5 | 8 | 7 | - | 0 | 79.2 |
Related Context
Keep exploring Leighton McCarthy
Leighton McCarthy played LB for Florida Atlantic. Across 4 tracked seasons, Leighton McCarthy recorded 159 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2017 with Florida Atlantic.
Player insights
Lead takeaway
Best season by value score: 2020 Regular Season
Florida Atlantic paired 26.5 primary output with 50.9 efficiency.
Supporting note
2020 Regular Season role shape
impact-led usage with 50.9 efficiency.
Supporting note
Career value is trending up
2020 Regular Season improved on the prior stop by season value score.
Supporting note
Peak game by takeover score: Charlotte
Win with backfield disruption leading the way. 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.
2020 Regular Season · Florida Atlantic
Games
8
Havoc Plays / G
3.3
Efficiency
50.9
Usage
15.2
Consistency
65.7
Best Game by takeover score
Charlotte
Hover a point or expand a game row to keep the active game context visible here.
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. Charlotte: 7. Marshall: 1. UTSA: 4. Western Kentucky: 3. Florida International: 5. Massachusetts: 3. Georgia Southern: 1.5. Southern Miss: 2
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. Charlotte: 10 by 91.7. Marshall: 2 by 18.3. UTSA: 4 by 56.7. Western Kentucky: 3 by 42.5. Florida International: 4 by 66.7. Massachusetts: 2 by 38.3. Georgia Southern: 8 by 48.3. Southern Miss: 6 by 45
Split Comparison
Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.
Wins4.4 · Games = 5 · +2.9 vs Losses
Losses1.5 · Games = 3 · -2.9 vs Wins
Game Log
Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.
8 games
Featured metric
Havoc Plays
Top game by takeover score
Charlotte
Best efficiency game
91.7 vs Charlotte
| Result | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thu 12/10 | @ Southern MissSplash game | L 31-45 | 6 | 3 | — | 1 | 1 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 12/5 | @ Georgia Southern | L 3-20 | 8 | 3 | — | 1.50 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 11/21 | vs MassachusettsSplash game | W 24-2 | 2 | 2 | — | 1 | 1 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 11/14 | @ Florida InternationalSplash game | W 38-19 | 4 | 2 | — | 1.50 | 1.50 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 11/7 | vs Western KentuckySplash game | W 10-6 | 3 | 1 | — | 1.50 | 0.50 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/31 | vs UTSASplash game | W 24-3 | 4 | 3 | — | 1 | 1 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/24 | @ Marshall | L 9-20 | 2 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/3 | vs Charlotte10+ tackles · 2+ sacks | W 21-17 | 10 | 5 | — | 4 | 3 | — | 0 | — | — |
Player Story
Leighton McCarthy story
Leighton McCarthy built his college career from 2017 through 2020 as a linebacker from Apopka, FL wearing No. 13, spending time with Florida Atlantic. The clearest part of Leighton McCarthy's career was his defensive production: 159 tackles, 34 tackles for loss, 19 sacks, and 1 interception across 47 career games in the available record. His largest box-score season came in 2020 with Florida Atlantic. Those numbers show where he fit, how often the ball or action found him, and how his role developed over time.
Defensive careers can be hard to read from one number, but Leighton McCarthy's production has multiple signals. With 47 career games in the available record, his career has enough shape to show both opportunity and production across Florida Atlantic.
The arc is straightforward: Leighton McCarthy moved through the depth chart, found a larger role, and turned that opportunity into production that can be understood through standard football numbers.
Career Arc
Track team changes, role shifts, and season-to-season movement.
- 1
Florida Atlantic
2017-2020
Opening stop
Season Value Progression
20172017201820192020
| Season | Team | Primary | Efficiency | Usage | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 Postseason | Florida Atlantic | 18.5 | 28.4 | 8.8 | — |
| 2017 Regular Season | Florida Atlantic | 18.5 | 28.4 | 8.8 | 0 |
| 2018 Regular Season | Florida Atlantic | 9.5 | 21.5 | 5.4 | -9 |
| 2019 Regular Season | Florida Atlantic | 19.5 | 24.6 | 6.7 | 10 |
| 2020 Regular Season | Florida Atlantic | 26.5 | 50.9 | 15.2 | 7 |
Signature Performances
Top Games
#1 Featured game
vs Charlotte
Week 5 · W 21-17 · Conference game
Win with backfield disruption leading the way.
7
Havoc Plays
97.2 takeover
7 disruption/tackle impact with 97.2 takeover score.
#2
@ Old Dominion
Week 9 · W 41-3 · Conference game
4.5
Havoc Plays
85.3 takeover
Win with backfield disruption leading the way.
4.5 disruption/tackle impact with 85.3 takeover score.
#3
vs North Texas
Week 8 · W 69-31 · Conference game
3
Havoc Plays
83.6 takeover
Win with 3 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
3 disruption/tackle impact with 83.6 takeover score.
#4
vs Louisiana Tech
Week 9 · L 13-21 · Conference game
3
Havoc Plays
80.8 takeover
Loss with 3 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
3 disruption/tackle impact with 80.8 takeover score.
#5
@ Ball State
Week 3 · W 41-31
4
Havoc Plays
80.5 takeover
Win with 4 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
4 disruption/tackle impact with 80.5 takeover score.
Top Seasons
#1 Season by Season Value
2020 Regular Season · Florida Atlantic
26.5 primary output · 50.9 efficiency · 15.2 usage
79.2
#2
2017 Postseason · Florida Atlantic
55.1
18.5 primary · 28.4 efficiency · 8.8 usage
#3
2017 Regular Season · Florida Atlantic
55.1
18.5 primary · 28.4 efficiency · 8.8 usage
Milestones
14
Impact games
17
Splash games
1
10+ tackle games
Next best actions
Keep exploring Leighton McCarthy
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