2 Texas Tech Red Raiders earn spots on preseason All-American teams entering 2025

The recognition keeps coming for the Texas Tech Red Raiders as more and more players are earning spots on preseason award watch lists and the like. We’ve seen a dozen Texas Tech Red Raiders get picked for Phil Steele’s preseason All-Big 12 teams.

Now we’re seeing a couple of Texas Tech football players make it onto Steele’s All-American teams.

That’s something for Texas Tech football fans to celebrate and be proud of. That’s an incredible recognition and it is clear that people are seeing something interesting happening in Lubbock, Texas right now. 

As we get closer to this season starting, there will be more and more opportunities to talk about how the Red Raiders can have a big year. But this, folks, this is a big one for Texas Tech to embrace and enjoy.

Texas Tech places two Red Raiders on Phil Steele’s preseason All-American teams ahead of 2025 college football season

On these 2025 preseason All-American teams from Phil Steele, for Texas Tech, we’ve got Jacob Rodriguez at linebacker making it onto the second team and Lee Hunter on the defensive line getting onto the fourth team.

And there’s certainly plenty to be proud of for both Rodriguez and Hunter heading into the 2025 season.

Let’s start with Hunter first. 

Hunter made his way to Lubbock via the transfer portal this past offseason and he’s seen plenty of significant playing time in the Big 12 over the past couple seasons. So far in his career, Hunter has managed to rack up a combined total of 131 tackles, an impressive 22 tackles for loss, and five sacks. He made a difference for UCF’s defensive front. 

Now Jacob Rodriguez, a player that Texas Tech fans are very familiar with. Rodriguez also ended up at Texas Tech thanks to the transfer portal, but that happened a few seasons ago. He’s heading into his fourth year with the Red Raiders and has managed to rack up 188 tackles, 15 tackles for loss, five sacks, and two interceptions so far for Texas Tech.