Usage / Role
36%
Rotational defensive role
lowfeatured
Player Dossier
2019-2023Kent State
Khali Saunders
LB • 6'3" • 233 lbs • Elmhurst, IL, USA
Ball-hunting defenderSplash play profile
Khali Saunders shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 18.8 disruption score.
Impact Production
43
Developing production for a linebacker
lowelite
Reliability
30
Sporadic game-to-game production
lowhigh
Star Power
64
Useful peak profile
limitedstar
Career Arc
Value trend by season
Best season by Season Value: 2022 Regular Season · Kent State
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Snapshot
- Career Teams
- 2
- Unique Seasons
- 5
- Program Path
- Purdue • Kent State
- Peak Game
- Peak game by takeover score: Buffalo
Player Story
Khali Saunders built his college career from 2019 through 2023 as a linebacker from Elmhurst, IL wearing No. 45, spending time with Kent State and Purdue. The clearest part of Khali Saunders' career was his defensive...
Read the story3★
- Committed To
- —
- Commit Date
- Jan 1, 2025
Khali Saunders, LB. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2022 Regular Season · Kent State. Khali Saunders shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 18.8 disruption score.
Stat Footprint
Career production snapshot
- Tackles
- 100
- TFL
- 7.5
- Sacks
- 1.5
- QB hurries
- 5
- Passes defended
- 4
Quick Answers
Khali Saunders quick answers
- Latest team and position
- Kent State · LB
- Career Tackles
- 100
- Tracked sample
- 5 unique seasons · 6 entries · 25 games
- Best season
- 2022 Regular Season · Kent State
- Top game
- Buffalo
- Recruit profile
- 3-star · The Lawrenceville School
- High school pipeline
- The Lawrenceville School · 6 FBS recruits · 0 drafted players
- Latest roster
- No. 45 · Senior
- 2023 Tackles rank
- 33 tackles · LB 401st (top 33%) · Mid-American 104th (top 20%) · National 1,191st (top 20%)
Season Ledger
Crawlable season-by-season stats
| Season | Team | Games | Tackles | TFL | Sacks | QB Hur | PD | TD | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 Regular Season | Purdue | 2 | 2 | - | 0 | - | - | 0 | 37.2 |
| 2020 Regular Season | Purdue | 2 | 2 | - | 0 | - | - | 0 | 36.8 |
| 2021 Postseason | Purdue | 3 | 4 | 0.5 | 0 | - | 1 | 0 | 33.9 |
| 2021 Regular Season | Purdue | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | - | - | 0 | 33.9 |
| 2022 Regular Season | Kent State | 8 | 55 | 5 | 1.5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 69.3 |
| 2023 Regular Season | Kent State | 10 | 33 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 27.7 |
Related Context
Keep exploring Khali Saunders
Transfer Portal History
Matched portal movement
| Season | Path | Movement | Value | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Kent State to Unlisted | G5/FCS to Unlisted | 19.6 | Dec 4, 2023 |
| 2022 | Purdue to Unlisted | P4 to Unlisted | 78.4 | Jan 4, 2022 |
Khali Saunders played LB for Purdue and Kent State. Across 5 tracked seasons, Khali Saunders recorded 100 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2022 with Kent State.
Player insights
Lead takeaway
Best season by value score: 2022 Regular Season
Kent State paired 12.5 primary output with 44.3 efficiency.
Supporting note
2023 Regular Season role shape
impact-led usage with 18.8 efficiency.
Supporting note
Career value cooled off
2023 Regular Season fell back from the prior stop by season value score.
Supporting note
Multi-stop career journey
Production spans 2 team stops, with role shifts visible across Purdue, Kent State.
Supporting note
Peak game by takeover score: Central Connecticut
Win 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.
2023 Regular Season · Kent State
Games
10
Havoc Plays / G
0.5
Efficiency
18.8
Usage
4.7
Consistency
13.3
Best Game by takeover score
Central Connecticut
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. Arkansas: 0. Central Connecticut: 2. Fresno State: 0. Miami (OH): 1. Ohio: 1. Eastern Michigan: 0. Buffalo: 1. Bowling Green: 0. Ball State: 0. Northern Illinois: 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. Arkansas: 3 by 12.5. Central Connecticut: 3 by 32.5. Fresno State: 3 by 12.5. Miami (OH): 1 by 14.2. Ohio: 3 by 22.5. Eastern Michigan: 3 by 12.5. Buffalo: 0 by 10. Bowling Green: 1 by 4.2. Ball State: 6 by 25. Northern Illinois: 10 by 41.7
Split Comparison
Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.
Wins2 · Games = 1 · +1.7 vs Losses
Losses0.3 · Games = 9 · -1.7 vs Wins
Game Log
Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.
10 games
Featured metric
Havoc Plays
Top game by takeover score
Central Connecticut
Best efficiency game
41.7 vs Northern Illinois
| Result | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sat 11/25 | vs Northern Illinois10+ tackles | L 27-37 | 10 | 5 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 11/18 | @ Ball State | L 3-34 | 6 | 2 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Thu 11/9 | vs Bowling Green | L 19-49 | 1 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/21 | vs Buffalo | L 6-24 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/14 | @ Eastern Michigan | L 14-28 | 3 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/7 | @ Ohio | L 17-42 | 3 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 1 | — | — |
| Sat 9/30 | vs Miami (OH) | L 3-23 | 1 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sun 9/24 | @ Fresno State | L 10-53 | 3 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/16 | vs Central ConnecticutSplash game | W 38-10 | 3 | 2 | — | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/9 | @ Arkansas | L 6-28 | 3 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
Player Story
Khali Saunders story
Khali Saunders built his college career from 2019 through 2023 as a linebacker from Elmhurst, IL wearing No. 45, spending time with Kent State and Purdue. The clearest part of Khali Saunders' career was his defensive production: 100 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, and 2 interceptions across 25 career games in the available record. His largest box-score season came in 2022 with Kent State. 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 Khali Saunders' production has multiple signals. With 25 career games in the available record, his career has enough shape to show both opportunity and production across Kent State and Purdue.
The arc is straightforward: Khali Saunders 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
Purdue
2019-2021
Opening stop
- 2
Kent State
2022-2023
Final stop
Season Value Progression
201920202021202120222023
| Season | Team | Primary | Efficiency | Usage | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 Regular Season | Purdue | 0 | 4.2 | 0.9 | — |
| 2020 Regular Season | Purdue | 0 | 4.2 | 0.8 | 0 |
| 2021 Postseason | Purdue | 2.5 | 19.5 | 3.9 | 2.5 |
| 2021 Regular Season | Purdue | 2.5 | 19.5 | 3.9 | 0 |
| 2022 Regular Season | Kent State | 12.5 | 44.3 | 11 | 10 |
| 2023 Regular Season | Kent State | 5 | 18.8 | 4.7 | -7.5 |
Signature Performances
Top Games
#1 Featured game
@ Buffalo
Week 13 · W 30-27 · Conference game
Win with 4 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
4
Havoc Plays
93.9 takeover
4 disruption/tackle impact with 93.9 takeover score.
#2
vs Ball State
Week 10 · L 20-27 · 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.
#3
vs Central Connecticut
Week 3 · W 38-10
2
Havoc Plays
74.7 takeover
Win with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
2 disruption/tackle impact with 74.7 takeover score.
#4
vs Eastern Michigan
Week 12 · L 24-31 · Conference game
1
Havoc Plays
61.7 takeover
Loss with 1 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
1 disruption/tackle impact with 61.7 takeover score.
#5
vs Tennessee
Week 1 · W 48-45 · Postseason
1.5
Havoc Plays
55.6 takeover
Win with 1.5 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
1.5 disruption/tackle impact with 55.6 takeover score.
Top Seasons
#1 Season by Season Value
2022 Regular Season · Kent State
12.5 primary output · 44.3 efficiency · 11 usage
69.3
#2
2019 Regular Season · Purdue
37.2
0 primary · 4.2 efficiency · 0.9 usage
#3
2020 Regular Season · Purdue
36.8
0 primary · 4.2 efficiency · 0.8 usage
Milestones
4
Impact games
3
Splash games
3
10+ tackle games
Next best actions
Keep exploring Khali Saunders
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