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.