‘There’s honor amongst thieves’: What college football coaches say about legal and illlegal sign stealing
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Alex Scarborough
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Alex Scarborough
ESPN Staff Writer
- Covers the SEC.
- Joined ESPN in 2012.
- Graduate of Auburn University.
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Adam Rittenberg
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Adam Rittenberg
ESPN Senior Writer
- College football reporter.
- Joined ESPN.com in 2008.
- Graduate of Northwestern University.
BEFORE JAMIE GRANT entered the Florida House of Representatives, he was a former high school football player working on the equipment staff for the Auburn football team in the early 2000s. But his responsibilities extended beyond loading and unloading the bus.
He also assisted the coaches, helping run drills in practice. Somewhere along the way, a member of the staff approached him with an opportunity to be the third ball boy on the visiting side of the field during games.
Never mind that Grant didn’t know a single thing about the job. The staff was more interested in his knowledge of the game as a former player. The other two ball boys would handle the grunt work. He just needed to act the part, steer clear of the referees and keep his eyes and ears open.
“I was going to hold two footballs and my only job was to try and pick up intel,” he said.
When it comes to sign stealing in college football, a consensus among coaches about what is unequivocally wrong is hard to find. Grant said Auburn only tried to decipher signs in real time. Because of that he never felt like they were crossing the line.
But talk to enough coaches and you’ll find shades of gray when they search for a competitive advantage. Paranoia is rampant, rationalizing the kind of behavior American Football Coaches Association executive director Todd Berry said is, at the very least, unethical.
Ethics in college football. Imagine that.
“There’s honor amongst thieves,” a former SEC coach said. “Want to turn someone in? Fine. But you better make sure no one in your building is doing anything remotely resembling cheating.”
Last Thursday, the Big Ten confirmed that the NCAA is investigating Michigan for an alleged off-campus sign-stealing operation. Coach Jim Harbaugh denied any knowledge or involvement in plotting to steal opponents’ playcalling signals by sending representatives to their games. The supposed ringleader of the operation, an analyst named Connor Stalions with a military background, was suspended by Michigan with pay, pending the outcome of the investigation.
On Monday, ESPN reported that Stalions purchased more than 30 tickets to 11 different Big Ten venues over the past three years. Sources said the alleged sign-stealing operation includes both video evidence of electronics prohibited by the NCAA to steal signs and a significant paper trail.
Several Big Ten coaches noted to ESPN the difference between in-game signal scouting versus advance scouting, which ultimately launched the NCAA probe of Michigan. Coaches’ attitudes between the two are sharply different.
ESPN surveyed coaches in the aftermath of the news out of Michigan to see what they thought. Some were aghast at what Michigan is accused of doing. Others shrugged their shoulders. A Big Ten coach said, “If they were sending people to live-scout and film, that’s bulls—, then they should catch hell.”
But another coach with Big Ten and SEC experience asked what the big deal was in practical terms. Between the TV broadcast, coaches’ tape and what fans film with their phones and post online, the coach said there’s more than enough footage that’s accessible without ever leaving the office. “Anything that happens in the public eye hasn’t gone too far,” the coach said. “To be honest, I can watch TV copy [of] two to three games and get everything I need.”
Sign stealing, whether legal or illegal “is incredibly rampant in this business,” a longtime Power 5 assistant said. Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles told ESPN in December that he estimates 75% of teams do it in some form. NCAA rules don’t directly ban stealing signals, but they prohibit using electronic equipment to record signals and ban off-campus scouting of future opponents.
Berry, whose organization includes more than 10,000 members, has lectured coaches about stealing signs. “Quite honestly,” he said, “I don’t think it’s OK.” But he acknowledged that improvements in technology have made it so much easier to access information than in the past.
“I’m going to admit to this,” said Berry, who was last a head coach at Louisiana Monroe in 2015, “I would have fans that would go to opponents’ games and film their sidelines and film just on their phones, their smartphones and then send me that stuff.” But, he added, “I didn’t look at it because that was wrong.”
Berry said you can call coaches paranoid.
“But I will tell you this: Anybody that denies it and says, ‘Oh, nobody’s doing that,’ that is ridiculous. That’s silly to even think that.”
THE NCAA’S INVESTIGATION into Michigan did not generate much surprise around the Big Ten. Although signal stealing is somewhat common around the league, some coaches thought Michigan had been pushing the limits.
“No one’s that good,” a Big Ten coordinator said.
Stalions also had appeared on other teams’ radars. Big Ten coaches said they had seen him on the Michigan sideline in their games, often positioned next to the defensive coaching staff. They suspected what he was doing.
Another Big Ten coach added of Stalions: “Everybody knows he’s the guy.” But he and other coaches, both within and outside the conference, said any scouting operation involves more than one person.
A Big Ten coach said he and the staff decided to hold back what they did in their annual spring game, mindful of who could be in the stands. Another Big Ten coach said his program has kept film off of its internal server because of a potential hack.
A coach said he “didn’t feel good” about playing any game near Michigan’s campus because of who could be filming his sideline.
“We knew about it,” he said. “We started changing our signals.”
Said one Big Ten coach: “The game day [signal stealing] is just part of it. That’s why everybody [tries] to hide it. It’s just part of the deal. But sending people to games and doing it that way is flat-out wrong, which is why this has caused a pretty big stir. It’s not supposed to be that way.”
HOW FAR ARE coaches willing to go, exactly? There have been accusations of employing lip-readers and taking advantage of sympathetic referees. Coaches worry that their headsets have been hacked. Everyone on the sideline is subject to scrutiny.
The teams that have a reputation for pushing the boundaries are well known, as are the individual coaches and staff members who are considered gurus. A source rattled off the name of a Group of 5 linebackers coach and Power 5 offensive line coach who are well versed in the dark art of deciphering signals. Going into certain games, the source said he’ll warn coaches, “You need to be prepared for this.”
When LSU played Clemson in the 2020 College Football Playoff, sources say the staff suspected Clemson of sending people to scout them in the SEC championship game and Peach Bowl. Brent Venables, then Clemson’s defensive coordinator, has long been the focal point of sign-stealing speculation, according to multiple sources, though no one has publicly accused him of anything illegal. After LSU’s first three offensive drives ended with three punts and one first down, sources say a frustrated coach Ed Orgeron told offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger, “Change it up.” Upon changing signals, LSU scored touchdowns on five of its next six drives.
It was hardly the first championship game in which a team allegedly cracked an opponent’s code. During the 2013 BCS National Championship Game, Florida State receiver Kelvin Benjamin was heard in the TV broadcast telling quarterback Jameis Winston that Auburn assistant Dameyune Craig, who was on the Seminoles’ staff the previous year, was “calling all the plays” FSU was running. Coaches brought out towels to shield the signalers in the second half and went on to outscore Auburn 24-10 to come from behind and win. A victorious coach Jimbo Fisher acknowledged their signals were stolen — and couldn’t have cared less. “That’s our fault,” he said. “You’ve got to change them. … That’s part of the game.” Fisher re-hired Craig in 2017 and brought him to Texas A&M, where he remains on staff today.
Grant, the Auburn ball boy, said it usually took him about a quarter to figure out who was the dummy signaler and who was live. From there, it was as simple as matching signals to plays. He recalled a game against USC when he picked up on their naked boot call. “He’d kick his heel and tap his ankle,” Grant said, comparing it to an exaggerated cowboy gesture, spurs and all.
The only problem? The staff member he relayed the signal to either forgot or ignored him, because USC ran a naked boot and Matt Leinart hit the receiver for a big gain.
So, cracking the code doesn’t always yield results. Coaches need to act on the information and players have to execute. Even then, it’s not guaranteed success.
“Where’s the line?” Grant asked. “If it’s out in the open, I think it’s OK.”
A former SEC coach said there’s an expectation you’re being watched at all times, including opponents sending spies to spring games and open scrimmages.
Some teams push the boundaries more than others, but ultimately coaches say it’s not hard to tell when you’ve been skunked.
A former head coach said it’s simple. If a defense blows up your bubble screen three times in a row, chances are they have your number and you better switch things up and hope your players don’t get confused.
“Look, we’re all trying to compete and everybody’s trying to find that advantage,” a source said. “And if the advantage is that the guy that’s on your sideline can watch their sidelines and pick it up … at some point in time, you got to be better at hiding your signals. That’s just all there is to it. I mean, if we’re going to live in a world where signals exist, you’ve got to hide them.”
BUT WHAT IF we don’t have to live in a world with signals?
Depending on what level of football you’re talking about, that world already exists.
“It’s 10:56 right now,” an industry source said. “They could call CoachComm” — which produces headsets for nearly all of the FBS — “and have this fixed by 11. They could overnight helmet speakers to every school by the end of the day.”
Berry’s frustration built slowly over the course of a half-hour conversation, starting with mild annoyance over coaches’ shenanigans and ending with outright anger over the NCAA’s inability to take up the solution staring them in the face.
“This is too easy a problem to solve,” he said.
You don’t want to use a speaker in the helmet like the NFL does with quarterbacks? Fine. Some coaches have suggested that it would put no-huddle offenses at a disadvantage because the quarterback would have to audibly relay the play call to teammates. Administrators, meanwhile, have expressed concerns about forcing every school to wear the same helmet.
Instead, Berry said, they could utilize a wearable technology independent of the helmet like PitchCom, which is currently used in professional and college baseball, that every player on the field would have access to. And he said that it wouldn’t necessarily allow offenses to go faster, which is what some defensive-minded coaches fear. “We’ve done all the testing on it,” Berry said, “and by the time that you punch in those things on your laptop on the sideline or your iPad or whatever you’re going to end up utilizing, it takes about the same amount of time [as signaling].”
As Berry pointed out, colleges already use both forms of technology in practice. High schools use it, too. So maybe the obvious excuses of cost and implementation don’t hold water.
“If you want to clean up what’s going on at Michigan and every other school, put a transmitter,” a longtime official said. “The NCAA talks about losing the warranties on the helmets. With the USFL, XFL, NFL, with transmitters, it does not lose the warranty. I don’t care what it costs, we want it. Clean up the game, make it more professional. It’s just technology.”
SEC coaches discussed utilizing in-helmet communication this spring, but it ultimately went nowhere, sources said, after two main points of contention were brought up: possibly voiding the warranty of helmets and not being able to use them in nonconference games. Big Ten coaches have discussed installing helmet communication, which several support. They were told cost, reissuing warranty and liability language on the helmets could be a stumbling block.
In recent conversations with Bill Carollo, the Big Ten’s longtime coordinator of football officials, he has strongly advocated for the use of helmet technology to limit signal stealing.
“We were able to play a COVID year, but we aren’t able to put transmitters in headsets?” a Power 5 coach said. “C’mon. You look at sideline technology, you go to high school football games, they all have sideline technology. They’re watching video in between series, they have it just like the NFL. We have none of that. Of all the games, we’re the worst right now. It’s weird. It really is weird.”
Berry said there’s ample support among coaches to make the change, and the NCAA committees he’s spoken to seem open to the idea as well. All they need is a demonstration of the technology, he said. But he’s been unable to get that accomplished, given the attention on name, image and likeness and transfer portal.
“We have so much crap going on — and you can quote me on that — that we can’t see the forest through the trees,” Berry said. “Every meeting I’m at, something takes all the oxygen out of the room. There are some things that are really, really simple like this one, boom-boom, it’s done.
“It’s been a problem for a long time. We need to resolve it.”
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Mark Schlabach
Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said he doesn’t have interest in other jobs.
DeBoer, who has a 19-6 cumulative record and is in his second season with the ninth-ranked Crimson Tide, had been linked to Penn State‘s coaching vacancy.
“We’re extremely happy at Alabama,” DeBoer said Thursday ahead of this weekend’s SEC championship game against No. 3 Georgia.
“We’re extremely happy here, love the challenge, love the grind, love this place. There’s never been any link, there’s never been any conversation, there’s never been any interest either way. So I’m glad we can put that to bed right now.”
The Nittany Lions’ coaching search is ongoing after they fired James Franklin on Oct. 12. Penn State, which had national title aspirations for this season, started 3-3.
Other coaches who were linked to Penn State’s search, including Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea, Louisville’s Jeff Brohm, Georgia Tech’s Brent Key and BYU’s Kalani Sitake, agreed to contract extensions with their current schools.
Meanwhile, DeBoer said starting defensive end LT Overton and reserve defensive tackle Kelby Collins won’t be available to play against Georgia in Saturday’s contest (4 p.m. ET, ABC) at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
DeBoer wouldn’t specify their injuries, calling them “illnesses, medical conditions — whatever you want to call it.”
Overton, a senior from Milton, Georgia, was listed as out on the SEC’s first availability report Wednesday. Collins was not included.
“Just trying to get through these next couple days here and kind of see,” DeBoer said. “Obviously, Kelby’s just popped up, too. Just trying to get through this weekend and kind of see where that’s at. We’ll understand more details when that time comes.”
Overton has 33 tackles and four sacks this season. He had six tackles and a half-sack in the Tide’s 24-21 win at Georgia on Sept. 27, which ended the Bulldogs’ 33-game home winning streak.
DeBoer added that running back Jam Miller, tight end Josh Cuevas and guard Kam Dewberry remain questionable for Saturday’s game.
The Bulldogs will be without starting center Drew Bobo, who injured his left foot in last week’s 16-9 victory against Georgia Tech.
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Max Olson
LUBBOCK, Texas — In December 2021, Jacob Rodriguez felt lost.
The young quarterback had just ended his freshman season at Virginia. Coach Bronco Mendenhall had unexpectedly stepped down. Rodriguez decided to transfer but had minimal tape as a college passer and few options. He had a creeping doubt, too, that maybe it was time to give up his quarterback dreams.
Texas Tech was willing to take a chance on him under two conditions: It didn’t have a scholarship available, and it didn’t need a QB. If Rodriguez wanted to come home to Texas and play for new coach Joey McGuire, he would have to learn to play linebacker.
Rodriguez took out a student loan to pay for school. He couldn’t find an apartment when he arrived in January 2022 and moved in with his older brother at the University Pointe apartments. He slept on the floor of his brother’s bedroom, on a foam queen mattress topper folded in half for a little more cushion.
He started sixth on the linebacker depth chart. He lifted weights twice a day to bulk up and watched film to figure out a position he had never played in high school. Back then, Rodriguez wasn’t envisioning someday becoming the All-America performer he is today.
“My biggest concern was not really trying to get a scholarship,” he said. “I was just trying to make the team. I’m fighting to survive.”
Four years later, Rodriguez is the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and the best linebacker in college football. His No. 4 Red Raiders are about to play for a Big 12 championship. Then, they’ll advance to the College Football Playoff. Surreal doesn’t even begin to describe it.
The mustachioed, cowboy hat-wearing captain married to a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot is enjoying a historic senior season and experiencing a new level of fame this fall as Texas Tech pushes him for Heisman Trophy consideration. No other college defender over the past 20 years has put up the stats he has with more than 100 tackles, seven forced fumbles and four interceptions.
And Rodriguez is ready for more as the Red Raiders prepare for the program’s first Big 12 title game against No. 11 BYU on Saturday (noon ET, ABC).
“Man, it’s such a great story,” McGuire said. “In the age of all this money, which is great — I mean, I’m all for it, obviously — this is one of those great stories for college football.”
Rodriguez always had his believers as a record-setting quarterback coming out of Wichita Falls, Texas, but Heisman good? No, even those who know him best say this is getting ridiculous and see it as pure proof of his determination. If Rodriguez could tell his 19-year-old self where he’d be standing today after his humble beginnings?
“That was a long time ago,” Rodriguez said with a smile. “But I’m very proud of that. I think it’s something that I’ll hang my hat on for a long time.
“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be than here, doing what we’re doing.”
HIS CHILDHOOD DREAM was to become the starting quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings.
“Oh yeah, you betcha,” his brother Joshua Rodriguez said with a chuckle.
Jacob Rodriguez was born in Hastings, Minnesota, the youngest of five siblings in a family that competed in everything, from croquet to UNO to holiday pancake decorating. Joe and Ann Rodriguez signed up Jacob and his twin brothers Joshua and Jeremiah for wrestling at a young age because “we were breaking everything,” Joshua said.
Jacob got started at age 3 and won two youth state championships by the time he was 7, pinning every opponent he faced during his second title run.
“That’s one reason why he’s so good at tackling: all those single-leg and double-leg takedowns,” Joshua said.
When the family moved to Wichita Falls in 2010, the boys were eager to start playing tackle football. The twins would play linebacker at Rider High School. Jacob, a four-sport athlete, played varsity as a sophomore and went on to break school records with more than 10,000 career total yards and 106 touchdowns.
“He was the guy, the talk of the town,” Rider teammate Jed Castles said. “He was signing autographs when we went out to restaurants.”
Rider coach Marc Bindel occasionally let his star quarterback play safety, but Rodriguez was a QB first and foremost with a playing style that evoked Tim Tebow comparisons.
“We always called him Captain America,” Bindel said.
Rodriguez was an ESPN 300 recruit, but recruiters were split on his college projection: Should he play offense or defense? Then-Kansas State offensive coordinator Collin Klein gave him his first FBS offer in 2019 and saw his potential as an athletic quarterback.
But others saw something else. In a game against Canyon Randall during his junior year, Rodriguez made a fourth-and-1 play on defense they still talk about to this day. He burst through the line, grabbed the running back by his legs, lifted him in the air and slammed him on his back for the stop.
Bindel had a coach on his staff send the clip to then-Texas Tech defensive coordinator Keith Patterson. The next day, the Red Raiders offered Rodriguez a scholarship as a linebacker. Baylor would end up doing the same after McGuire became its outside linebackers coach in 2020. Rodriguez ultimately received more offers for defense than offense.
But Mendenhall and his Virginia coaches made Rodriguez a priority — and convinced him he could be their next Taysom Hill. His plans to fly out for a spring break official visit were canceled by COVID-19. Rodriguez still committed and enrolled without ever visiting campus.
“I think we all knew his best chance to make it big was going to be on defense,” Bindel said, “but in his heart, he wanted to play quarterback. And why would you not want to try to play quarterback in college?”
Virginia had an established starter in Brennan Armstrong, who broke single-season school records in 2021. But the Cavaliers also had a way to get Rodriguez on the field as a freshman. He agreed to back up Keytaon Thompson at their FBP (football player) position, a hybrid role in Robert Anae’s offense that could entail pretty much anything.
Rodriguez wore No. 98 and Thompson, a former quarterback at Mississippi State, wore No. 99. They lined up at slot receiver, outside receiver, tight end, running back or behind center. They would motion all over the field before the snap and throw blocks, run routes or take handoffs. It was intentional chaos, aimed at confusing opposing defenses.
“It was pure creativity,” Thompson said. “A lot of the stuff [Anae] came up with, I don’t even think he knew it would work. If it looked good, we’d go with it.”
It was an awful lot of running, so much so that Rodriguez said he went from 215 pounds to 185 during the season. He played 169 snaps but only four at quarterback. The rookie didn’t expect to become a Swiss Army knife on offense, but he embraced it.
“I was having a blast,” Rodriguez said. “I was just happy to be on the field.”
All these years later, Rodriguez believes he would’ve finished his college career at Virginia if Mendenhall hadn’t surprised everyone by resigning that December after a 6-6 season. Thompson called it a “totally unexpected curveball.”
“I loved it there and loved the people there,” Rodriguez said. “But I kind of went there to play for him.”
He made the 1,300-mile trek home to Wichita Falls, unsure what his future might hold. And his phone wasn’t ringing.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of buzz,” Bindel said.
TEXAS TECH ASSOCIATE head coach Kenny Perry excitedly called Bindel the morning after Red Raiders’ first spring practice in 2022.
“Jacob Rodriguez is a bad motherf—er,” Perry told him.
The high school coach’s reply?
“Yep, and he’s playing for free right now…”
After leaving Virginia, Rodriguez had asked a few people to reach out to McGuire on his behalf in the hopes he could join the Red Raiders. Two Rider teammates, Castles and E’Maurion “Dooda” Banks, played for Texas Tech. One of his former youth coaches, Dudley McAfee, is a Tech grad and knew McGuire well. All three vouched for Rodriguez to the new head coach.
“Dooda was like, ‘Coach, if we can get this guy on our team, we need to get him,'” McGuire said.
McGuire vowed he would put Rodriguez on scholarship as soon as one became available. These were the early days of NIL before collectives helped take care of walk-ons. Tech could provide him two meals a day, but he would need to take out a student loan to cover his classes and books.
“It was kind of one of those deals where, well, I got to go somewhere,” Rodriguez said.
More importantly, Rodriguez had to accept his future was on defense. Texas Tech already had three starter-caliber quarterbacks in future second-round pick Tyler Shough, Behren Morton and Donovan Smith.
Bindel has no doubt Rodriguez could’ve made it as a tough dual-threat QB such as Georgia Tech‘s Haynes King had he found the right opportunity. Rodriguez doesn’t fault other coaches for missing on him during his month in the portal, especially given his role with the Cavaliers.
“I really didn’t have any quarterback film,” he said. “I just had a whole bunch of other stuff.”
Ann Rodriguez suspects if he hadn’t gone to Virginia to play quarterback, he would’ve regretted never trying. He had received plenty of advice that linebacker was his best path to the NFL. It still wasn’t easy to give up his childhood dream.
“There were a lot of tears shed and a real thought process about it,” his mother said. “It took a lot of him really looking inward and deciding, ‘You know what? I’m going to do whatever it takes.'”
It was Joshua’s idea for Jacob to move in and save money. The brothers lived in a four-bedroom apartment with three random roommates they initially didn’t know. The bedroom was certainly tight quarters — the brothers had to share a bathroom and closet — and Jacob would sleep near the foot of Joshua’s bed. Eventually, they squeezed in a twin-sized mattress for him.
“To be honest, I wouldn’t even know if those guys would be able to say, ‘Yeah, I lived with Jacob Rodriguez,'” Joshua said. “He was never there. He’d go to workouts at 5 a.m. and was gone before they woke up. He’d come back at 9 p.m. after classes and film.”
Rodriguez said he’d go in for the 8 a.m. lifting session and come back at 2 p.m. for another while working to get back to 220 pounds for spring practice. His offensive knowledge helped, but learning to play his new position was a completely different challenge. Former Texas Tech inside linebackers coach Josh Bookbinder said Rodriguez had all the right traits coming out of high school to be a great linebacker — he just hadn’t played the position.
The hardest part early on was the physicality of Texas Tech practices. Quarterbacks never get touched in these settings. Rodriguez had to get the hang of hitting and getting hit day after day. “I’m like, ‘Dude, how can I sustain this?'” he said. If he were to queue up his 2022 practice film today, Rodriguez expects it would probably look “awful.” He barely had a clue.
“The one thing he showed really early was his effort was nonnegotiable,” Bookbinder said. “He may not have known exactly what he was doing at linebacker, but he was running his ass to the ball.”
Texas Tech coaches loved the potential they saw in the spring of 2022. When McGuire called Rodriguez into his office before August preseason camp, the linebacker genuinely didn’t know why. The head coach asked him to call his parents and let them know he was on scholarship.
“There was a lot to learn, but Jacob is a football dude,” McGuire said. “He was raw, but he picked up stuff so fast because he’s really intelligent. Football makes sense to him.”
All the little details — his footwork, hand use, the angles he took in tackling, how he struck ball carriers — came with reps and time as he graduated from playing on instincts to processing and better understanding formations, sets and situations. After playing backup snaps as a sophomore, Rodriguez’s development accelerated throughout his second offseason in Lubbock to earning a starting job entering 2023, but a foot injury sustained in the season opener sidelined him for most of the season.
“It’s like you had all the ingredients on the counter,” said Bookbinder, who’s now coaching at TCU. “You just had to mix them up and let it cook for a little bit.”
The Jacob Rodriguez who returned in 2024 was finally ready to put it all together with an All-Big 12 season, finishing second among all Power 4 defenders with 127 tackles. And the one who returned for his senior year in 2025?
“He’s the best player in college football,” Perry said.
SESI VAILAHI TOOK the handoff and ran up the middle. Rodriguez met the Oklahoma State running back in the hole and stood him up. But this wasn’t your typical tackle for loss.
Vailahi staggered backward, attempting to break free. Except the veteran linebacker wasn’t going for a takedown. No, he was thinking theft. Rodriguez ripped the football right out of Vailahi’s grip and ran the other way for a 69-yard touchdown.
Literally took it away and took it to the house.
Best defender in the country.
📺 @ESPNU | https://t.co/G56N3v07Kv https://t.co/SKua435dYH pic.twitter.com/1FGuLyRaEt
— Texas Tech Football (@TexasTechFB) October 25, 2025
He has been filling up the Heisman highlight reel week after week. Like the two Kansas State fumbles he punched out. The one-handed interception at Utah. The pick he deflected to himself against BYU, or the screen pass he jumped in front of against UCF.
“Every time you look up, he’s at the ball,” Morton said. “The way he can cause and flip momentum in a game, there’s not another player in the country who can do that.”
Rodriguez has created seven turnovers by himself. His FBS-leading seven forced fumbles are more than 53 teams have all season, including Georgia, Ole Miss and Notre Dame, and he’s four away from breaking Khalil Mack’s FBS career record of 16.
McGuire has plenty of respect for Indiana‘s Fernando Mendoza, Vanderbilt‘s Diego Pavia and Ohio State‘s Julian Sayin, the trio of quarterbacks currently leading the Heisman race with one week to go. But he’s not going to relent in campaigning for Rodriguez.
“The thing for me is there’s nobody at the quarterback position that is having a year that we haven’t seen before,” McGuire said. “He’s having a year at the linebacker position that we haven’t seen.”
For comparison: Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o finished with 113 tackles and seven interceptions but zero forced fumbles during his Heisman runner-up season in 2012. Te’o was the unquestioned top player on the No. 1 team in the country.
Rodriguez points to Texas Tech pass rusher David Bailey, their projected first-round pick with 12.5 sacks, as the best player they’ve got. His answers in news conferences offer praise toward teammates and coaches. But among his peers, there’s no question.
“This is a talented football team,” Morton said, “and it’s led by Jacob.”
McGuire shook up Texas Tech’s defense after an 8-5 finish in 2024. He brought in defensive coordinator Shiel Wood from Houston, splurged in the portal with a rebuilt defensive line that cost more than $7 million and inked arguably the top transfer class in the country.
Rodriguez considered going pro at the end of last season and went through senior day ceremonies before the home finale. But he put his trust in McGuire and watched as his coach and general manager James Blanchard assembled the kind of roster that could finally compete for a Big 12 championship.
“You could tell as soon as we put pads on for spring ball: Hey, we’re going to be a special group,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve never had this much fun playing football ever.”
Texas Tech’s determined efforts to make Rodriguez a Heisman finalist took a creative turn two weeks ago. Ahead of its home finale against UCF, McGuire texted Joe Rodriguez to break the news: Offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich was working on a Wildcat package to utilize Jacob at quarterback.
“I said, ‘Coach, that’s so freaking awesome,'” his dad said. “I’ve been pushing that for four years. I told him, ‘Be careful, because you’re going to let that beast out.'”
Joe did not warn his wife that this was in the works. Jacob’s wife, Emma, was the one who told her inside Jones AT&T Stadium, a few plays before the moment arrived in the first quarter. She asked her to try to stay calm. Texas Tech running back Cameron Dickey said he got goosebumps when he overheard Leftwich ask, “Is J-Rod ready?”
“He goes out there,” Ann said, “and we both immediately started crying.”
The home crowd got so loud that Rodriguez worried he might mess up the snap cadence. But his offensive line paved a wide-open lane for an easy 2-yard score. He got to go in and do it again Saturday at West Virginia.
Linebacker Jacob Rodriguez with his FIRST CAREER OFFENSIVE TD for @TexasTechFB ‼️
And he hit the Heisman as his celebration 👀 pic.twitter.com/zzOWSXR1Qr
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 15, 2025
“Just like old times, man,” said Thompson, his former Virginia teammate.
It was all so cathartic for those who know Rodriguez best, who watched how relentlessly he worked to turn into the linebacker he is today and know what he gave up getting here. The dream had to change along the way, but he wouldn’t change a thing now.
“We couldn’t have dreamt this up,” Ann Rodriguez said.
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