Ben Roberts has big shoes to fill, but it's an opportunity that he's already been making the most of.
LUBBOCK, Texas - Texas Tech will be without a large load of the stellar defensive production in 2026 that powered the 2025 Red Raiders to a historic season.
The void is left largest in the middle of the field, where do-everything linebacker Jacob Rodriguez turned in the best defensive campaign of any player in the country.
Rodriguez, now a second-round NFL draft pick of the Miami Dolphins, took home the Butkus, Bednarik, Nagurski and Lombardi Award as the nation's consensus top linebacker and overall defender. He was fifth in the final Heisman Trophy polling.
Those are big shoes to fill, but thankfully the ones who will fill in those snaps have played alongside Rodriguez and will be returning to Lubbock in the fall.
Among them is Ben Roberts, the senior from Haslet, Texas, who was an All-Big 12 Third Team selection last season.
He now steps into an opportunity to repeat Rodriguez's dominance and make a name for himself on the national stage.
ESPN names Roberts as the Red Raider most likely to take home an individual end-of-season award. He's pinned as a candidate for the Butkus Award, given annually to the best linebacker in the country.
"Back-to-back Butkus Award winners for Texas Tech?" writer Max Olson asks, "It's not impossible."
"Roberts put together a terrific junior season in his first year under defensive coordinator Shiel Wood with 90 tackles, four tackles for loss, four interceptions and two forced fumbles," Olson added.
The biggest highlights from Roberts' season were his two interceptions in the Big 12 Championship Game in Arlington, which guided Tech to its first conference title in nearly 50 years. Roberts' second pick was a one-hander where he bobbled the ball to himself and put the nail in the coffin in front of Red Raider Nation at AT&T Stadium.
The performance made him the Most Outstanding Player of the game.
Though Roberts returns eyeing vengeance for Texas Tech's rough showing in the CFP (albeit, on offense), he'll be joined by "potential All-Big 12 performers" in hometown kid John Curry and Kansas State transfer Austin Romaine.
"Just like last season," Olson says, "this defense will be tough to run on with elite line play creating easy playmaking opportunities for Roberts and his fellow linebackers."
And one of them could be holding hardware - individual hardware, that is - when it's all said and done.
