Former QB Jacob Rodriguez now All-America linebacker for playoff team Texas Tech

Jacob Rodriguez was sleeping on the floor of his brother’s apartment and learning how to really play defense when he joined Texas Tech for spring practice in 2022, right after a season as a quarterback at Virginia.

Suddenly a walk-on on the other side of the ball, Rodriguez even wondered if he might get cut by the Red Raiders.

“They’re trying to weed everybody out because it’s coach (Joey) McGuire’s first offseason,” he said. “So, I’m just out there trying to make the team and then focus on football. It was real weird, totally different position.”

QB-turned-linebacker Rodriguez is now an AP All-American for fourth-ranked Tech, which is in the College Football Playoff for the first time. The team captain with a distinctive mustache, whose wife flies Black Hawk helicopters in the U.S. Army, has a collection of trophies for national defensive player of the year awards, and was fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting. He is the first FBS player in 20 years with at least five forced fumbles (he has seven), two fumble recoveries and four interceptions in the same season.

“He’s just a man of consistency, a man of routine and he’s just a great leader overall,” said Tech senior edge rusher David Bailey, a first-year transfer and also an AP All-America first-teamer.

The Red Raiders (12-1), in McGuire’s fourth season, play No. 5 Oregon (12-1) in the CFP quarterfinal Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day. The first-time Big 12 Conference champions already have a school-record 12 wins.

Rodriguez won the Chuck Bednarik and Bronko Nagurski awards as the top defensive player, and the Dick Butkus Award as the top linebacker. He got the Lombardi Award that’s for exceptional performance while embodying character and discipline like the award’s namesake.

From QB to standout linebacker

Rodriguez played a little bit of safety in high school, but when he got to Tech he hadn’t been a linebacker since middle school, when the approach was much different.

“I had no clue what I was doing. I was just going see ball, hit ball,” he said. “You’re playing linebacker, but you don’t have to study film, and you don’t have to understand the position as much.”

As a prep starting quarterback, Rodriguez accounted for 10,136 total yards (7,085 passing, 3,051 rushing) and 106 touchdowns (68 passing, 38 rushing) as Wichita Falls Rider made the Texas Class 5A playoffs three years in a row. He was then an early enrollee at Virginia, which gave him a scholarship offer as a quarterback. He never threw a pass in his 12 games with the Cavaliers, but had 56 yards rushing and 65 receiving while used as a running back, receiver and tight end. He left there after a coaching change.

“It’s just really cool to see the way that his story has developed, and the kind of guy that he is,” said fifth-year Tech quarterback Behren Morton, a fellow Texan who was in some of the same camps as Rodriguez before college. “He’s probably put on close to 50 pounds, and just totally transformed his body to looking like a mean linebacker.”

Embracing defense

Rodriguez played special teams and some defensive packages during his Tech debut in 2022, when he had 29 tackles and began to embrace being on that side.

“Really just knowing that I can make an impact whatever position I play. I’ve done it on the offensive side of the ball, I’ve done it on the defensive side of a ball, and I’ve done it on special teams. I can really play with anybody,” he said. “That’s kind of when I figured I can do this. I saw myself progressing a lot on the defensive side of the ball, and week to week just getting better and better.”

He was limited to five games in 2023 after injuring his foot in the opener on a play that he forced and recovered a fumble. His 127 tackles last year were the most for a Tech player since Lawrence Flugence set an NCAA FBS record with 193 in 2002. He has 117 this season after Tech reportedly invested more than $7 million on transfers along the defensive front, including Bailey, second-team AP All-America interior lineman A.J. Holmes Jr., and third-teamer Lee Hunter.

Army wife

As tough as Rodriguez is, the 6-foot-1, 235-pound linebacker said there is no doubt that his wife Emma is even tougher.

The high school sweethearts got married in July 2023. Emma graduated from the United States Military Academy and is now based at Fort Riley in Kansas.

“She’s the best, and she does so much for me,” Jacob Rodriguez said. “It’s weird, I feel like to everybody else, that we do long distance and have done it. But I mean to us, it’s normal. It’s something that we’ve always done.”

No trip to New York

While disappointed he didn’t get an invitation to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony, Rodriguez was grateful and honored by the final results. His 17 first-place votes were nine more than Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin, the fourth-place finisher. Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza won the Heisman ahead of Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia and Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love.

“I’m just so appreciative to even be in that conversation,” Rodriguez said. “That kind of hit home, was people really cared about me and see what the work that’s been done this year.”

Rodriguez has scored three touchdowns this season. He returned a fumble for a score against Oklahoma, and had short rushing TDs on his only carries when taking a direct snap in each of the last two regular-season games.

“It was exciting and it was fun,” he said. “Those are the moments that I’ll never forget, where it’s just having fun playing football.”

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