Player Dossier

2021-2024

SMU

Cale Sanders Jr.

S • 5'10" • 185 lbs • Porter, TX, USA

Ball-hunting defenderSplash play profile

Cale Sanders Jr. shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 26.5 disruption score.

Usage / Role

64%

Regular defensive contributor

lowfeatured

Impact Production

51

Solid production for a safety

lowelite

Reliability

70

Reliable weekly contributor

lowhigh

Star Power

42

Limited ceiling signals so far

limitedstar

Career Arc

Value trend by season

Best season by Season Value: 2024 Postseason · SMU

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Snapshot

Career Teams
2
Unique Seasons
4
Program Path
Fresno State • SMU
Peak Game
Peak game by takeover score: New Mexico

Player Story

Cale Sanders Jr. built his college career from 2021 through 2024 as a safety from Porter, TX wearing No. 22, spending time with Fresno State and SMU. The clearest part of Cale Sanders Jr.'s career was his defensive...

Read the story

Cale Sanders Jr., S. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2024 Postseason · SMU. Cale Sanders Jr. shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 26.5 disruption score.

Stat Footprint

Career production snapshot

Tackles
125
TFL
12
Sacks
1
QB hurries
5
Passes defended
16

Quick Answers

Cale Sanders Jr. quick answers

Latest team and position
SMU · S
Career Tackles
125
Tracked sample
4 unique seasons · 7 entries · 40 games
Best season
2024 Postseason · SMU
Top game
New Mexico
Latest roster
No. 22 · Senior
2024 Tackles rank
45 tackles · S 139th (top 26%) · ACC 94th (top 13%) · National 756th (top 13%)

Season Ledger

Crawlable season-by-season stats

SeasonTeamGamesTacklesTFLSacksQB HurPDTDOverall
2021 PostseasonFresno State83-0-1037.6
2021 Regular SeasonFresno State81710-2037.6
2022 Regular SeasonFresno State103110-6035.4
2023 PostseasonSMU10420--050.2
2023 Regular SeasonSMU102520-6050.2
2024 PostseasonSMU122-01-061.6
2024 Regular SeasonSMU12436141061.6

Related Context

Cale Sanders Jr. played S for Fresno State and SMU. Across 4 tracked seasons, Cale Sanders Jr. recorded 125 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2024 with SMU.

Player insights

Lead takeaway

Best season by value score: 2024 Postseason

SMU paired 13 primary output with 26.5 efficiency.

Supporting note

2021 Postseason role shape

impact-led usage with 16.7 efficiency.

Supporting note

Career value stayed steady

2024 Regular Season tracked close to the prior stop by season value score.

Supporting note

Multi-stop career journey

Production spans 2 team stops, with role shifts visible across Fresno State, SMU.

Supporting note

Peak game by takeover score: New Mexico

Win with 1 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.

2021 Postseason · Fresno State

Games

8

Havoc Plays / G

0.6

Efficiency

16.7

Usage

4

Consistency

61.7

Best Game by takeover score

New Mexico

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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.

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Chronological game order.

Game by game trend chart. UTEP: 1. UConn: 1. Cal Poly: 0. Nevada: 0. San Diego State: 1. Boise State: 1. New Mexico: 1. San José State: 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. UTEP: 3 by 22.5. UConn: 2 by 18.3. Cal Poly: 3 by 12.5. Nevada: 2 by 8.3. San Diego State: 1 by 14.2. Boise State: 3 by 22.5. New Mexico: 2 by 18.3. San José State: 4 by 16.7

Split Comparison

Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.

Wins0.6 · Games = 7 · -0.4 vs Losses
Losses1 · Games = 1 · +0.4 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

New Mexico

Best efficiency game

22.5 vs UTEP

Result
Sat 12/18vs UTEPW 31-2433001
Thu 11/25@ San José StateW 40-944000
Sun 11/14vs New MexicoW 34-7220010
Sat 11/6vs Boise StateL 14-4033100
Sun 10/31@ San Diego StateW 30-2011001
Sat 10/23vs NevadaW 34-3220000
Sun 9/12vs Cal PolyW 63-1033000
Sat 8/28vs UConnW 45-022001

Player Story

Cale Sanders Jr. story

Cale Sanders Jr. built his college career from 2021 through 2024 as a safety from Porter, TX wearing No. 22, spending time with Fresno State and SMU. The clearest part of Cale Sanders Jr.'s career was his defensive production: 125 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 1 sack, and 2 interceptions across 40 career games in the available record. That gives Cale Sanders Jr.'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. 1

    Fresno State

    2021-2022

    Opening stop

  2. 2

    SMU

    2023-2024

    Final stop

Season Value Progression

2021202120222023202320242024
SeasonTeamPrimaryEfficiencyUsageDelta
2021 PostseasonFresno State516.74
2021 Regular SeasonFresno State516.740
2022 Regular SeasonFresno State719.93.32
2023 PostseasonSMU1123.14.94
2023 Regular SeasonSMU1123.14.90
2024 PostseasonSMU1326.56.42
2024 Regular SeasonSMU1326.56.40

Signature Performances

Top Games

#1 Featured game

vs New Mexico

Week 11 · W 34-7 · Conference game

Win with 1 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

1

Havoc Plays

72.8 takeover

1 disruption/tackle impact with 72.8 takeover score.

#2

@ Boston College

Week 1 · L 14-23 · Postseason

2

Havoc Plays

67.8 takeover

Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

2 disruption/tackle impact with 67.8 takeover score.

#3

@ Stanford

Week 8 · W 40-10 · Conference game

3

Havoc Plays

65 takeover

Win with 3 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

3 disruption/tackle impact with 65 takeover score.

#4

@ UNLV

Week 11 · W 37-30 · Conference game

2

Havoc Plays

64.4 takeover

Win with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

2 disruption/tackle impact with 64.4 takeover score.

#5

vs Charlotte

Week 5 · W 34-16 · Conference game

3

Havoc Plays

64.2 takeover

Win with 3 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.

3 disruption/tackle impact with 64.2 takeover score.

Top Seasons

#1 Season by Season Value

2024 Postseason · SMU

13 primary output · 26.5 efficiency · 6.4 usage

61.6

#2

2024 Regular Season · SMU

61.6

13 primary · 26.5 efficiency · 6.4 usage

#3

2023 Postseason · SMU

50.2

11 primary · 23.1 efficiency · 4.9 usage

Milestones

6

Impact games

8

Splash games

0

10+ tackle games