Jacob Rodriguez just put up one of the best LB seasons in recent memory. Whether he reaches New York or not, his Heisman case is too big to ignore.
The 2025 Heisman Trophy race is supposed to be a quarterback coronation. Jacob Rodriguez is doing everything he can to crash the party anyway.
As ballots closed after championship weekend, the Texas Tech star linebacker had one last chance to scream his case at voters ... and he did, with a game-high 13 tackles in the Big 12 Championship as the Red Raiders suffocated BYU to seven points for the second time this season.
Now he waits to see if that was enough to drag a true off-ball linebacker into a club almost exclusively reserved for quarterbacks and stat-padding offensive stars.
On paper and on tape, the resume is absurd.
Rodriguez has already locked up Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and the Butkus Award as the nation's top linebacker. He finished 2025 with 114 tackles (second in the Big 12, 14th nationally), 11 tackles for loss, seven forced fumbles (No. 1 in the nation), four interceptions, two fumble recoveries, a defensive TD, a sack, six passes defended and 13 total takeaways forced or recovered
He even flashed his quarterback roots by punching in two goal-line rushing touchdowns to close the regular season.
That production helped fuel a Texas Tech defense that finished top five nationally in stop rate, scoring defense and rushing yards allowed, anchoring the best season in program history.
The path here makes the numbers even wilder. Rodriguez arrived in Lubbock in 2022 as a three-star quarterback and eventual walk-on after initially committing to Virginia. Now he's the beating heart of the nastiest defense in the country.
"Doing the work only gives you opportunity, it doesn't give you any right to win or to lose," Rodriguez said after the title game. "I'm just proud of myself for putting in the work, but I'm more proud of the people I've been around and people I've gotten to experience in that time."
The problem? History.
The Heisman has gone to a quarterback in 12 of the last 15 seasons. Only two defensive players have ever won it - Charles Woodson and Travis Hunter - and were both true two-way stars.
Just 12 defensive players have even been named finalists, and only two were pure off-ball linebackers in Manti Te'o (runner-up in 2012) and Brian Bosworth (fourth in 1986).
By comparison, Rodriguez outpaced Te'o in tackles, tackles for loss, forced fumbles and defensive scores.
Oddsmakers have noticed.
DraftKings currently lists Rodriguez tied for fourth in Heisman odds, trailing only Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza, Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia and Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love, while other books debate who rounds out the top four.
Texas Tech has never had an official Heisman finalist ... not even Graham Harrell or Michael Crabtree in 2008.
If Rodriguez breaks through that glass ceiling, he won't just be making history for linebackers. He'll be delivering the Red Raiders their first-ever ticket to New York, with a defensive season that belongs in every era’s conversation.