Defensive players face an uphill battle in the race for college football’s highest honor: the Heisman Trophy.
Amid Texas Tech’s incredible season, coach Joey McGuire knows that and he’s taking matters into his own hands. Star senior linebacker Jacob Rodriguez has a legitimate Heisman case solely on the defensive side of the ball. With an award dominated by skill position players, and quarterbacks in particular, McGuire began to put his star defender in on offense to prove his point.
“Everybody is talking about quarterbacks for Heisman,” the Red Raiders coach said two weeks ago after a win over UCF. “So we put [Rodriguez] in at quarterback today.”
Against UCF, Rodriguez scored the first offensive touchdown of his career. On Saturday, McGuire went right back to the strategy in Texas Tech’s final regular-season game against West Virginia. Rodriguez punched the ball into the end zone for a one-yard score on the Red Raiders’ first touchdown of the day.
oh look at that it's ANOTHER rushing TD for @TexasTechFB linebacker Jacob Rodriguez 👀#Big12FB | 📺 ESPN pic.twitter.com/4ppPrawEoe
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) November 29, 2025
Texas Tech made it to the 1-yard line again toward the end of the first half, which now means Rodriguez time for the Red Raiders. This time didn’t work out so well, though, as McGuire drew up a passing play where the linebacker took the snap and threw a jump pass into the end zone that was picked off by West Virginia linebacker Ben Cutter.
Heading into Saturday, Rodriguez has seven forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, six pass deflections and four interceptions on the year. The rushing score against the Mountaineers was his third touchdown of the season, finding the end zone once on the defensive side, too.
The Red Raiders are about to improve to 11–1 in a rout over West Virginia on Saturday. The only blemish on their record came at the hands of Arizona State in a 26-22 loss on Oct. 18. Texas Tech took down then-undefeated BYU earlier this month. The two squads will meet once more in the Big 12 championship game.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Texas Tech Went All Out to Make LB Jacob Rodriguez's Heisman Case.
