{"id":776822,"date":"2026-02-26T04:30:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T04:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/776822\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T04:30:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T04:30:36","slug":"jacob-rodriguez-reflects-on-most-gratifying-part-of-texas-tech-stint-amid-nfl-draft-prep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/776822\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacob Rodriguez reflects on \u2018most gratifying part\u2019 of Texas Tech stint amid NFL draft prep"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 It\u2019s no secret Texas Tech<\/a> has become a major player in the modern college football world thanks to a willing and able approach to name, image and likeness.<\/a> The defensive line this past season, with multiple talented transfers, was one example of the Red Raiders\u2019 successful spending. <\/p>\n

Linebacker Jacob Rodriguez<\/a> had a front-row seat to Texas Tech\u2019s dominant defensive front.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should\u2019ve paid them more, I guess,\u201d Rodriguez said on Wednesday when asked about the return on those investments. \u201cThey were as advertised and better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same could be said for Rodriguez, especially considering where he was earlier in his college career. <\/p>\n

Sports Roundup<\/p>\n

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This week\u2019s NFL combine has been a surreal experience in a year filled with them for Rodriguez.<\/a> The Texas Tech linebacker was a unanimous All-American and won nearly every award he possibly could. He even finished fifth in Heisman voting. Rodriguez had a humble moment of perspective when someone asked him on Wednesday from the combine if he\u2019s motivated by the fact that he wasn\u2019t one of the Heisman finalists invited to New York for the award ceremony. <\/p>\n

\u201cShoot, I was an off-ball linebacker that got first-place votes in the Heisman race. I don\u2019t know how much you can complain about that,\u201d said Rodriguez, who had a formal meeting with the Cowboys<\/a> in Indianapolis. \u201cI thought it was great. I wasn\u2019t there in New York, but I thought it was amazing for everybody who did vote for me and I feel great about it. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo extra motivation from that, but shoot, there\u2019s no need for extra motivation, being here at the combine and getting ready for the draft and this whole process. Last season was fun, and I\u2019m happy that I did as well as I did, but I\u2019m looking forward to starting my NFL career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodriguez also took a moment to look back at how far he\u2019s come during his college career. Rodriguez started his college career as a three-star quarterback recruit at Virginia. He spent one season there before the Wichita Falls native transferred back to Texas Tech.<\/a> Sure, Rodriguez had NIL opportunities this season, but his time in Lubbock didn\u2019t begin that way. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was just trying to make the team. I was just trying not to be cut,\u201d Rodriguez said about his first year at Texas Tech. \u201cI\u2019m in there doing two workouts sometimes. I\u2019m in there doing everything I can just to make the team. That was probably the hardest part, seeing where I was at a year ago to where I was at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Rodriguez is a potential Day 2 selection in the NFL draft. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think just doing the work and seeing it pay off is the most gratifying part,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody puts in the work, everybody works hard, but having the opportunity for that work to come to fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n

That means something to him.<\/p>\n

Find more Texas Tech coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 It\u2019s no secret Texas Tech has become a major player in the modern college football world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[2009,1554,230,229,257,2461,7,6,15,9,4721],"class_list":["post-776822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas-cowboys","tag-brief","tag-colleges","tag-cowboys","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-dallascowboys","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft","tag-sports","tag-texas-tech-red-raiders"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116135056176478589","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}