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Texas Tech football: Arizona transfer LB Colin Schooler joins Red Raiders

By Matthew Conner

LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 04: Linebacker Colin Schooler (7) of the Arizona Wildcats warms up before the game against the USC Trojans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on November 4, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 04: Linebacker Colin Schooler (7) of the Arizona Wildcats warms up before the game against the USC Trojans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on November 4, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images) /
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The Texas Tech football team picked up an immediate impact addition on Sunday when Arizona LB Colin Schooler officially joined Matt Wells’ program.

In the world of college football, the last week of August is normally when programs are preparing for their first game of the year, not adding impact players to the roster.  But 2020 is no normal year.  And on Sunday, the Texas Tech football program announced that it has added a player who is no normal linebacker.

Arizona grad transfer Colin Schooler, one of the nation’s most productive middle linebackers is now a Red Raider.  The decision to leave Tucson comes just weeks after the PAC 12 decided to indefinitely postpone its football season, likely until at least the spring.

Schooler is a bonified NFL prospect who expects to be taken in next year’s draft.  Thus, had he played a spring season in the PAC 12, it would have interfered with his draft preparation.  So now Arizona’s loss is Texas Tech’s gain.

The 6-foot-1, 230-pounder is a three-time All-PAC 12 honoree.  In 2017, he was the conference Freshman Defensive Player of the Year.  After registering 96 tackles that season, he also picked up three Freshman All-American nods.

A year later, he racked up an impressive 119 stops.  That included 21.5 for loss as he earned first-team All-PAC 12 recognition.

In 2019, he picked up honorable mention all-conference honors as he amassed 98 tackles.  For his career, he’s been credited with 312 stops, which would be just 26 behind Ryan Aycock for 10th all-time on the Texas Tech career tackles list.

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The California native has also been rather active in the turnover department.  He has four career picks, including one that he returned for a TD, and he has forced three fumbles and recovered three more.

This addition likely means that either senior Riko Jeffers or JUCO transfer Krishon Merriweather will move from the inside LB positions they have been manning during fall camp and head to outside LB where they will be asked to be more a part of the pass rush.  Being as Jeffers played that role last season and Merriweather is still learning the system, expect Jeffers to be the player that moves outside.

It is interesting that Tech went after another presumed starter at a position group that was already considered one of the team’s deepest.  But that is an indication of just how talented Schooler is that a program already stocked with talent at LB would welcome him and offer an opportunity to slide right into the starting lineup (as he wouldn’t transfer to a program that did not give him the opportunity to be on the field enough to impress NFL franchises).

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This is a massive pickup for the Red Raider defense.  Not only does it bring a prolific tackler to Lubbock but it frees up one of the roster’s best defenders (Jeffers) to be more versatile and potentially more disruptive. Certainly, Schooler has the type of talent that could take the Red Raider defense to another level.

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