Usage / Role
52%
Regular defensive contributor
lowfeatured
Player Dossier
2024-2025Illinois
Tanner Heckel
DB • 5'11" • 185 lbs • Lyndon, KS, USA
Ball-hunting defenderSplash play profile
Tanner Heckel shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 18.1 disruption score.
Impact Production
71
High-end production for a defensive back
lowelite
Reliability
100
Regular contributor with several takeover games
lowhigh
Star Power
56
Useful peak profile
limitedstar
Career Arc
Value trend by season
Best season by Season Value: 2025 Postseason · Illinois
242525
Snapshot
- Career Teams
- 1
- Unique Seasons
- 2
- Program Path
- Illinois
- Peak Game
- Peak game by takeover score: Duke
Player Story
Tanner Heckel built his college career from 2024 through 2025 as a defensive back from Lyndon, KS wearing No. 16, spending time with Illinois. The clearest part of Tanner Heckel's career was his defensive production:...
Read the story3★
- Committed To
- Illinois
- Commit Date
- Jan 1, 2024
Tanner Heckel, DB. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2025 Postseason · Illinois. Tanner Heckel shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 18.1 disruption score.
Stat Footprint
Career production snapshot
- Tackles
- 39
- TFL
- 3
- Sacks
- 1.5
- QB hurries
- 1
- Passes defended
- 2
Quick Answers
Tanner Heckel quick answers
- Latest team and position
- Illinois · DB
- Career Tackles
- 39
- Tracked sample
- 2 unique seasons · 3 entries · 16 games
- Best season
- 2025 Postseason · Illinois
- Top game
- Duke
- Recruit profile
- 3-star · Lyndon · Illinois
- High school pipeline
- Lyndon · 1 FBS recruit · 0 drafted players
- Latest roster
- No. 16 · Sophomore
- 2025 Tackles rank
- 36 tackles · DB 252nd (top 26%) · Big Ten 133rd (top 17%) · National 1,095th (top 18%)
Season Ledger
Crawlable season-by-season stats
| Season | Team | Games | Tackles | TFL | Sacks | QB Hur | PD | TD | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 Regular Season | Illinois | 3 | 3 | - | 0 | - | - | 0 | 37.1 |
| 2025 Postseason | Illinois | 13 | 3 | 0.5 | 0.5 | - | - | 0 | 42.1 |
| 2025 Regular Season | Illinois | 13 | 33 | 2.5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 42.1 |
Related Context
Keep exploring Tanner Heckel
Tanner Heckel played DB for Illinois. Across 2 tracked seasons, Tanner Heckel recorded 39 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2025 with Illinois.
Player insights
Lead takeaway
Best season by value score: 2025 Postseason
Illinois paired 8.5 primary output with 18.1 efficiency.
Supporting note
2025 Postseason role shape
impact-led usage with 18.1 efficiency.
Supporting note
Career value stayed steady
2025 Regular Season tracked close to the prior stop by season value score.
Supporting note
Peak game by takeover score: Duke
Win with 3 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 Postseason · Illinois
Games
13
Havoc Plays / G
0.7
Efficiency
18.1
Usage
4.5
Consistency
12.8
Best Game by takeover score
Duke
Hover a point or expand a game row to keep the active game context visible here.
Active game
Hover over a point
Hover or select a game to keep its context visible here without the page shifting around.
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. Tennessee: 1. Western Illinois: 1. Duke: 3. Western Michigan: 0. Indiana: 0. USC: 0. Purdue: 0. Ohio State: 0. Washington: 1. Rutgers: 0. Maryland: 0. Wisconsin: 2. Northwestern: 0.5
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. Tennessee: 3 by 22.5. Western Illinois: 0 by 10. Duke: 2 by 38.3. Western Michigan: 2 by 8.3. Indiana: 5 by 20.8. USC: 5 by 20.8. Purdue: 1 by 4.2. Ohio State: 2 by 8.3. Washington: 4 by 26.7. Rutgers: 3 by 12.5. Maryland: 4 by 16.7. Wisconsin: 2 by 28.3. Northwestern: 3 by 17.5
Split Comparison
Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.
Wins0.6 · Games = 9 · -0.1 vs Losses
Losses0.8 · Games = 4 · +0.1 vs Wins
Game Log
Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.
13 games
Featured metric
Havoc Plays
Top game by takeover score
Duke
Best efficiency game
38.3 vs Duke
| Result | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tue 12/30 | vs Tennessee | W 30-28 | 3 | 2 | — | 0.50 | 0.50 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sun 11/30 | vs Northwestern | W 20-13 | 3 | 1 | — | 0.50 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sun 11/23 | @ WisconsinSplash game | L 10-27 | 2 | 2 | — | 1 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 11/15 | vs Maryland | W 24-6 | 4 | 3 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 11/1 | vs Rutgers | W 35-13 | 3 | 2 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/25 | @ Washington | L 25-42 | 4 | 3 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 1 | — | — |
| Sat 10/11 | vs Ohio State | L 16-34 | 2 | 2 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/4 | @ Purdue | W 43-27 | 1 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/27 | vs USC | W 34-32 | 5 | 3 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/20 | @ Indiana | L 10-63 | 5 | 4 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/13 | vs Western Michigan | W 38-0 | 2 | 2 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/6 | @ DukeSplash game | W 45-19 | 2 | 1 | — | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | — | — |
| Fri 8/29 | vs Western Illinois | W 52-3 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 1 | — | — |
Player Story
Tanner Heckel story
Tanner Heckel built his college career from 2024 through 2025 as a defensive back from Lyndon, KS wearing No. 16, spending time with Illinois. The clearest part of Tanner Heckel's career was his defensive production: 39 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, and 1 interception across 16 career games in the available record. That gives Tanner Heckel'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
Illinois
2024-2025
Opening stop
Season Value Progression
202420252025
| Season | Team | Primary | Efficiency | Usage | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 Regular Season | Illinois | 0 | 4.2 | 0.9 | — |
| 2025 Postseason | Illinois | 8.5 | 18.1 | 4.5 | 8.5 |
| 2025 Regular Season | Illinois | 8.5 | 18.1 | 4.5 | 0 |
Signature Performances
Top Games
#1 Featured game
@ No. 44 Duke
Week 2 · W 45-19
Win with 3 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
3
Havoc Plays
79.4 takeover
3 disruption/tackle impact with 79.4 takeover score.
#2
@ No. 85 Wisconsin
Week 13 · L 10-27 · Conference game
2
Havoc Plays
54.2 takeover
Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
2 disruption/tackle impact with 54.2 takeover score.
#3
vs No. 19 Tennessee
Week 1 · W 30-28 · Postseason · Ranked opponent
1
Havoc Plays
36.7 takeover
Win with 1 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
1 disruption/tackle impact with 36.7 takeover score.
#4
@ No. 13 Washington
Week 9 · L 25-42 · Conference game · Ranked opponent
1
Havoc Plays
29.4 takeover
Loss with 1 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
1 disruption/tackle impact with 29.4 takeover score.
#5
vs No. 51 Northwestern
Week 14 · W 20-13 · Conference game
0.5
Havoc Plays
25 takeover
Win with 0.5 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
0.5 disruption/tackle impact with 25 takeover score.
Top Seasons
#1 Season by Season Value
2025 Postseason · Illinois
8.5 primary output · 18.1 efficiency · 4.5 usage
42.1
#2
2025 Regular Season · Illinois
42.1
8.5 primary · 18.1 efficiency · 4.5 usage
#3
2024 Regular Season · Illinois
37.1
0 primary · 4.2 efficiency · 0.9 usage
Milestones
1
Impact games
2
Splash games
0
10+ tackle games
Next best actions
Keep exploring Tanner Heckel
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