FootballScoop is proud to announce that Shiel Wood and CJ Ah You (Texas Tech) are the 2025 FootballScoop Linebackers Coaches of the Year presented by Teamworks as selected by prior winners.
With all due respect to our other winners, it would be hard to argue there was a better positional unit in college football in 2025 than Texas Tech’s linebackers. The other units should not take that sentence personally, however. Tech’s linebackers would be the best unit in nearly any season, because they had Jacob Rodriguez and David Bailey.
Rodriguez, the mustachioed and married marvel, is a triumph of old-school development. He arrived to Texas Tech in 2022 and largely played special teams while transitioning to linebacker after one season as a utility player on offense at Virginia. A projected starter in 2023, Rodriguez’s season was lost in the season-opener at Wyoming. He was a full-time starter in 2024, and in 2025 blossomed into one of the best players in college football — who happened to play linebacker.
The Big 12’s second-leading tackler, Rodriguez’s 117 stops are on pace to set a single-season school record. He has topped the 10-tackle mark six times in 13 games to date, including a 14 in the landmark win over BYU, plus another 14 in a blowout of Kansas. Rodriguez collected 13 stops in the Big 12 Championship, plus 12 at Arizona State and 11 at Utah. His 117 tackles have included 11 tackles for loss. Of course, Rodriguez’s impact was best felt in the way he got his hands on the football. He has swiped four interceptions, the most among linebackers in college football, and forced a national-best seven fumbles…