Usage / Role
60%
Regular defensive contributor
lowfeatured
Player Dossier
2021-2025Michigan State
Wayne Matthews III
LB • 6'2" • 230 lbs • Largo, MD, USA
Ball-hunting defenderSplash play profile
Wayne Matthews III shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 30.8 disruption score.
Impact Production
67
Solid production for a linebacker
lowelite
Reliability
67
Reliable weekly contributor
lowhigh
Star Power
78
High-upside career profile
limitedstar
Career Arc
Value trend by season
Best season by Season Value: 2023 Postseason · Old Dominion
212223232425
Snapshot
- Career Teams
- 2
- Unique Seasons
- 5
- Program Path
- Old Dominion • Michigan State
- Peak Game
- Peak game by takeover score: Western Kentucky
Player Story
Wayne Matthews III built his college career from 2021 through 2025 as a linebacker from Largo, MD wearing No. 10, spending time with Michigan State and Old Dominion. The clearest part of Wayne Matthews III's career...
Read the story3★
- Committed To
- Old Dominion
- Commit Date
- Jan 1, 2021
Wayne Matthews III, LB. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2023 Postseason · Old Dominion. Wayne Matthews III shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 30.8 disruption score.
Stat Footprint
Career production snapshot
- Tackles
- 255
- TFL
- 14
- Sacks
- 4.5
- Passes defended
- 4
Quick Answers
Wayne Matthews III quick answers
- Latest team and position
- Michigan State · LB
- Career Tackles
- 255
- Tracked sample
- 5 unique seasons · 6 entries · 41 games
- Best season
- 2023 Postseason · Old Dominion
- Top game
- Western Kentucky
- Recruit profile
- 3-star · Charles Herbert Flowers · Old Dominion
- High school pipeline
- Charles Herbert Flowers · 16 FBS recruits · 1 drafted player
- Latest roster
- No. 10 · Senior
- 2025 Tackles rank
- 73 tackles · LB 152nd (top 12%) · Big Ten 32nd (top 5%) · National 239th (top 4%)
Season Ledger
Crawlable season-by-season stats
| Season | Team | Games | Tackles | TFL | Sacks | QB Hur | PD | TD | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 Regular Season | Old Dominion | 1 | 1 | - | 0 | - | - | 0 | 36.4 |
| 2022 Regular Season | Old Dominion | 6 | 13 | - | 1 | - | - | 0 | 10.7 |
| 2023 Postseason | Old Dominion | 13 | 14 | 1 | 1 | - | 1 | 0 | 74.7 |
| 2023 Regular Season | Old Dominion | 13 | 121 | 8.5 | 2.5 | - | 2 | 0 | 74.7 |
| 2024 Regular Season | Michigan State | 9 | 33 | - | 0 | - | - | 0 | 47.2 |
| 2025 Regular Season | Michigan State | 12 | 73 | 4.5 | 0 | - | 1 | 0 | 40.3 |
Related Context
Keep exploring Wayne Matthews III
Transfer Portal History
Matched portal movement
| Season | Path | Movement | Value | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Old Dominion to Michigan State | G5/FCS to P4 | 86.3 | Dec 29, 2023 |
Wayne Matthews III played LB for Old Dominion and Michigan State. Across 5 tracked seasons, Wayne Matthews III recorded 255 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2023 with Old Dominion.
Player insights
Lead takeaway
Best season by value score: 2023 Postseason
Old Dominion paired 16 primary output with 52.4 efficiency.
Supporting note
2025 Regular Season role shape
impact-led usage with 30.8 efficiency.
Supporting note
Career value cooled off
2025 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 Old Dominion, Michigan State.
Supporting note
Peak game by takeover score: Penn State
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.
2025 Regular Season · Michigan State
Games
12
Havoc Plays / G
0.5
Efficiency
30.8
Usage
6.9
Consistency
32.1
Best Game by takeover score
Penn State
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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. Western Michigan: 1.5. Boston College: 0.5. Youngstown State: 0. USC: 0. Nebraska: 1. UCLA: 0. Indiana: 0. Michigan: 0.5. Minnesota: 0. Penn State: 2. Iowa: 1. Maryland: 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. Western Michigan: 6 by 40. Boston College: 8 by 38.3. Youngstown State: 10 by 41.7. USC: 2 by 8.3. Nebraska: 5 by 30.8. UCLA: 5 by 20.8. Indiana: 5 by 20.8. Michigan: 5 by 25.8. Minnesota: 4 by 16.7. Penn State: 8 by 53.3. Iowa: 9 by 47.5. Maryland: 6 by 25
Split Comparison
Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.
Wins0.5 · Games = 4 · -0.1 vs Losses
Losses0.6 · Games = 8 · +0.1 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
Penn State
Best efficiency game
53.3 vs Penn State
| Result | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun 11/30 | vs Maryland | W 38-28 | 6 | 3 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 11/22 | @ Iowa | L 17-20 | 9 | 7 | — | 1 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 11/15 | vs Penn StateSplash game | L 10-28 | 8 | 3 | — | 1 | 0 | — | 1 | — | — |
| Sat 11/1 | @ Minnesota | L 20-23 | 4 | 3 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/25 | vs Michigan | L 20-31 | 5 | 1 | — | 0.50 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/18 | @ Indiana | L 13-38 | 5 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/11 | vs UCLA | L 13-38 | 5 | 3 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/4 | @ Nebraska | L 27-38 | 5 | 2 | — | 1 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sun 9/21 | @ USC | L 31-45 | 2 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/13 | vs Youngstown State10+ tackles | W 41-24 | 10 | 4 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/6 | vs Boston College | W 42-40 | 8 | 5 | — | 0.50 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Fri 8/29 | vs Western Michigan | W 23-6 | 6 | 1 | — | 0.50 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | — |
Player Story
Wayne Matthews III story
Wayne Matthews III built his college career from 2021 through 2025 as a linebacker from Largo, MD wearing No. 10, spending time with Michigan State and Old Dominion. The clearest part of Wayne Matthews III's career was his defensive production: 255 tackles, 14 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, and 1 interception across 41 career games in the available record. That gives Wayne Matthews III'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
Old Dominion
2021-2023
Opening stop
- 2
Michigan State
2024-2025
Final stop
Season Value Progression
202120222023202320242025
| Season | Team | Primary | Efficiency | Usage | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 Regular Season | Old Dominion | 0 | 4.2 | 0.6 | — |
| 2022 Regular Season | Old Dominion | 1 | 10.7 | 2.4 | 1 |
| 2023 Postseason | Old Dominion | 16 | 52.4 | 11.4 | 15 |
| 2023 Regular Season | Old Dominion | 16 | 52.4 | 11.4 | 0 |
| 2024 Regular Season | Michigan State | 0 | 15.3 | 3.2 | -16 |
| 2025 Regular Season | Michigan State | 6.5 | 30.8 | 6.9 | 6.5 |
Signature Performances
Top Games
#1 Featured game
vs Western Kentucky
Week 1 · L 35-38 · Postseason
Loss with 3 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
3
Havoc Plays
93.3 takeover
3 disruption/tackle impact with 93.3 takeover score.
#2
@ Georgia Southern
Week 12 · W 20-17 · Conference game
3
Havoc Plays
86.4 takeover
Win with 3 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
3 disruption/tackle impact with 86.4 takeover score.
#3
vs No. 15 Penn State
Week 12 · L 10-28 · Conference game · Ranked opponent
2
Havoc Plays
81.1 takeover
Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
2 disruption/tackle impact with 81.1 takeover score.
#4
vs Georgia State
Week 13 · W 25-24 · Conference game
2
Havoc Plays
78.9 takeover
Win with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
2 disruption/tackle impact with 78.9 takeover score.
#5
vs East Texas A&M
Week 4 · W 10-9
2.5
Havoc Plays
77.5 takeover
Win with 2.5 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
2.5 disruption/tackle impact with 77.5 takeover score.
Top Seasons
#1 Season by Season Value
2023 Postseason · Old Dominion
16 primary output · 52.4 efficiency · 11.4 usage
74.7
#2
2023 Regular Season · Old Dominion
74.7
16 primary · 52.4 efficiency · 11.4 usage
#3
2024 Regular Season · Michigan State
47.2
0 primary · 15.3 efficiency · 3.2 usage
Milestones
9
Impact games
5
Splash games
9
10+ tackle games
Next best actions
Keep exploring Wayne Matthews III
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