With the baseball season coming to an end, we took a look at football and gave our predictions for who we think the Red Raiders tackle leader will be. Instead of doing the traditional Over/Under on this one, we decided to make it into a staff prediction.
Ben Golan
I think the obvious answer here is Krishon Merriweather. Merriweather put up 75 tackles his first year at Texas Tech before seeing his numbers slightly dip to 52 tackles in 2021. He now returns for his super senior season and should see his playing time and productivity increase under the new staff.
That said, don't sleep on former Wichita Falls quarterback-turned-linebacker Jacob Rodriguez. The Virginia transfer has been receiving a lot of attention for what he did during spring ball and he could be a sneaky pick to lead the team in tackles.
Chase Champlin
I’m definitely going with Dadrion Taylor-Demerson here. Taylor had a great season last season leading the Red Raiders fourth overall in tackles (72). Going into his senior season next season, I except Taylor to continue to improve his stock and be a important leader on the defense. With the other three tackle leaders on last year’s team headed pro, Taylor is bound to up his tackle number too.
Justin Apodaca
It is super hard to bet against Krishon Merriweather here, but I will go with the Vanderbilt transfer Dimitri Moore. Moore had received a ton of praise from the coaching staff throughout spring ball and throughout his career in Nashville he recorded 219 tackles in 31 games, leading the Commodores in total tackles in 2019.
Trevor Cobern
I'm going with Dadrion Taylor-Demerson here. I could easily see Merriweather at the top, but Taylor had a great 2021 season and finished fourth overall in total tackles for the Red Raiders.
All three players ahead of him (Colin Schooler, Eric Monroe, Riko Jeffers) have moved on, so the opportunity is definitely there for a huge season from Dadrion. He sounded particularly motivated during spring ball...
"I'm coming out to my fourth season. So you know, I've started to get into the leader role, you know, taking over my room with some of the older guys we got."
