LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – With two forced fumbles in Texas Tech\u2019s 43-20 win at Kansas State, Red Raider linebacker Jacob Rodriguez is once again this week\u2019s \u201cBig 12 Defensive Player of the Week\u201d. So far, it\u2019s been quite the breakout- or shall we say \u201cpunch out\u201d year for the defensive captain, who is already the FBS leader with seven forced fumbles this season.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, both of his forced fumbles lead to a Texas Tech touchdown. The first came with 5:22 left in the first half, when he punched the ball out of quarterback Avery Johnson\u2019s hands- and into the hands of DB Brice Pollock at the K-State 19. It led to a Cameron Dickey touchdown run, which gave Tech its first lead of the game. The Raiders would never trail after that point.<\/p>\n
The other turnover came when Rodriguez took the ball away from Wildcat tight end Garret Oakley, on what would\u2019ve otherwise been a K-State first down. The loose ball was recovered by safety Cole Wisniewski on the KSU 49. Three plays later, running back J\u2019Koby Williams broke free for a 41yd touchdown, which gave Tech the 19-7 lead.<\/p>\n
This is \u201cJ-Rod\u201d’s second time this year to earn the honor. The other one came after Tech\u2019s 34-10 win at Utah when he had one forced fumble and made a one-handed interception late in the game. Rodgriguez shares this week\u2019s honor with defensive back Fred Perry of West Virginia.<\/p>\n
Red Raider kicker Stone Harrington was also named the \u201cSpecial Teams Player of the Week\u201d after he went3-for-3 on field goal attempts, including one from 55 yards out to close out the half- and give Tech a 12-7 lead.<\/p>\n
Up next for No. 9 Texas Tech is a Saturday showdown with No. 8 BYU. Game is set to kick off 11 a.m.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – With two forced fumbles in Texas Tech\u2019s 43-20 win at Kansas State, Red Raider…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[315,2881,3785,21830,168,170,169,1769,874,415,873],"class_list":["post-34472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-big-12","tag-defensive-football","tag-jacob-rodriguez","tag-linebacker","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-texas-tech","tag-texas-tech-football","tag-texas-tech-red-raiders","tag-texas-tech-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}