After a season learning from two valuable mentors in Krishon Merriweather and Kosi Eldridge, Jacob Rodriguez was primed to take the reins and be the driving force for the Texas Tech linebackers. In the Red Raiders’ opening week game against Wyoming, Rodriguez recovered a fumble, but at the expense of a Wyoming player landing on him and injuring his foot. After the trials and tribulations of another rehabilitation process, Rodriguez was finally able to return to the field against TCU.

“It was very frustrating at first,” Rodriguez said Tuesday following Tech’s practice session. “Because the type of injury it was, you’re not allowed to do anything. Like the best thing for you is to literally do nothing. So that was, as a competitor, like that’s the most frustrating thing is to just sit around and do absolutely nothing. But once we got going, out of the cast and stuff, getting rolling, it felt a lot better. Definitely some hiccups here and there like every injury, but the guys in the training room really helped me out, even mentally. It was real good and so far it’s better and better.”

From the initial timeline of being out 4-6 weeks, that would have put Rodriguez returning sometime around the Kansas State game Oct. 14, or even BYU the week after. The coaching staff played his return out carefully, knowing they would not throw Rodriguez back onto the field if he was not 100 percent ready. It took Rodriguez a little more six weeks to start running again and trying to get back to full speed is still in the cards.

“It was still a half run type, just kind of getting back and trying to get strength back,” Rodriguez said. “Definitely probably gonna be working on it for a while, just getting back to full speed. It’s not necessarily like a hurt problem, it’s more like a strength problem, but that comes with running more. That’s the great part of trying to get back in shape is I need to run more anyways.”

With Rodriguez’s return to the field, and even before, the discussion raged on about the plans for Rodriguez regarding how many games he would actually play this season. Head coach Joey McGuire confirmed Monday that the plan at this point in time would be to play the Wichita Falls native in two more of the Red Raiders’ three games before potentially sitting him out the season finale at Texas. Rodriguez weighed in on the decision and what those conversations look like between him and the staff.

“Yeah it’s kind of game by game,” Rodriguez said. “Kind of if I’m hurting or if I’m ready to go, just trying to see if I can go. (McGuire) doesn’t want me to go out there and not be able to protect myself or go and give quality snaps. That’s just a week to week thing that we’re deciding. Still not even sure about this week but I’m going and practicing and stuff, it looks pretty good. Kind of a Thursday decision, every week just go in and focus on the week, if so then yes, if not then no.”

A position that had a lot of concerns heading into the year, the inside linebacker group had to find its footing rather quickly after Rodriguez went down. Bryce Ramirez moved into the room, Jesiah Pierre held strong and Ben Roberts emerged as a gem to become the team’s current tackle leader. With Rodriguez back in the fold, the linebackers will be one of Tech’s deepest positions.

“It was a great thing and coach (Josh) Bookbinder prepares everybody like they’re the starter, no matter who you are,” Rodriguez said about the growth of the group. “And being able and really buying in, it shows you how (Roberts) played, he came in and did his job. He got people aligned, he knew the assignment. He studied film well, just kind of helping him out and now playing alongside him. It’s great, it’s great to see… It always helps out giving my two cents a little bit, but now being back on the field it helps a lot too, being there.”

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