The linebacker position seems pretty easy considering the production of Jacob Rodriguez and Ben Roberts last year. Roberts finished with 107 tackles as a freshman and Rodriguez was healthy for only 5 games, but was 10th in overall tackles with 32. If these two are healthy, I think they get most of the time. And if you are curious about who else was part of the equation last year, Jesiah Pierre was 4th on the team with 66 tackles. It was largely the Roberts, Pierre, and Rodriguez Show last year at linebacker. The effect of anyone else was largely inconsequential.
Rodriguez appears to be the elder statesman as a redshirt junior and I think the other two players are walk-ons.
- Jacob Rodriguez (6-1/235) | R-JR
- Trent Low (6-1/220) | JR
- Gage Elder (5-11/225) | JR
Roberts is the freshman All-American that shined last year. Kana played in only 4 games and am thinking that was to preserve a redshirt year for him. Kana came into the program highly rated and would think that he gets more involved this year.
- Ben Roberts (6-3/230) | SO
- Wesley Smith (5-10/220) | R-SO
- Ty Kana (6-2/230) | SO
Dingle and Horne were the speedsters of the class that I think they will also see a lot of playing time moving forward. Dingle also played 4 games to preserve his redshirt. Curry is the local guy and am not sure how much he plays, but he was highly productive in high school (aren’t they all).
- Miquel Dingle (6-2/220) | R-FR
- Justin Horne (6-0/220) | R-FR
- John Curry (6-2/220) | R-FR
Ofili is a 4-star freshman from Sachse so he’s one of the defensive stars of the 2024 class. He was mainly an edge rusher at Sachse so I don’t know if he’ll be an edge outside linebacker or a your regular inside linebacker. With that frame, it would make sense he’ll turn into an edge, but we’ll see.
- Cheta Ofili (6-4/210) | FR