Rodriguez Weighs About 55-Pounds More Than When He Arrived

ARLINGTON, Texas – I was standing around some of the other Big 12 radio guys like Baylor play-by-play voice John Morris, TCU’s main voice Brian Estridge, and the Voice of the West Virginia Mountaineers Tony Caridi and they were asking which players were coming with Mike Gundy for Big 12 Football Media Days. Spencer Sanders they all knew and could visualize but Malcolm Rodriguez, as good as he is at linebacker, still needs some extended explanation.

I tried to tell the guys the physical manifestation that Rodriguez has gone through in Stillwater since he came in and played as a safety his freshman season.  Now he’s besting heads with offensive linemen and playing as a real force at linebacker. He’s been doing it the last three seasons. He will do it for a fourth, fifth college season overall. He has lifted and trained his way each season to getting bigger.

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Rodriguez, shirtless, running stadium steps this summer.

“He’s a special young man, you know this, he was a four-sport guy out of Wagoner (Okla.) and I’m guessing he was about a buck eighty, maybe 175 (pounds) when he came in,” Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy said of the former high school quarterback, safety, shortstop, and wrestling state champion. “He’s 220-pounds now and he could probably go out and start modeling if he wanted to.”

“235, keep that on the low,” Rodriguez whispered into the microphone in Arlington as if that was going to limit the information. “Coach Glass keeps putting more weight on me.”

Rodriguez helps a lot by following the instructions of Glass and his staff. Rodriguez is also a maniacal participant in the weight room and conditioning drills. He will bring a career 279 tackles, 19 tackles-for-loss, and 4.5 sacks into his COVID-19 bonus college season. Having never red-shirted, he will still be playing out his Cowboy career with most of his class.

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Rob Glass and Rodriguez at one of the workouts this summer.

“There’s no doubt that Rob Glass is the best strength coach in the county,” Gundy said matter-of-fact. “I’ve said that for 17 years, and he was the first person that I called when I got the head coaching job. I wasn’t very smart, but I knew that the most important piece to the puzzle was the guy that has them year-round and at times when the coaches can’t coach. Rob Glass is awesome.”

“Like I said, Coach Glass does a good job of putting weight on us, and he’s doing that with everybody and trying to get everybody to the next level,” Rodriguez expanded. “You want to come here, and Coach Glass is that guy that can put weight on you and get you to the next level.”

The next level, the NFL. That might have been a long shot a couple of years ago when Rodriguez changed from a safety to a smallish, but very active linebacker. I thought he might end up being a special teams dynamo. Now, he is linebacker size for the modern NFL that faces spread offenses like the ones you see in college. Rodriguez is big and physical enough to take on power backs like you see in the NFL. Guys like former Cowboy Chris Carson at Seattle.

“He’s just a perfect example of what you can do and if you buy in,” Gundy said of Rodriguez. “He’s been awesome, and when you buy into the program then that is what you end of looking like.”

Rodriguez plays like an old school-type player and has some of that in him. I asked what else he has to do and he even used the old school term “film” in his explanation.

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Big stop at the end of the bowl game.

“Reading the small keys, the little keys, watching a lot of film,” Rodriguez answered. “Reading the plays before they happen. That is what you have to pick up on.”

I’ve picked up on a little extra weight, while it may not look good on me, can look really good on a safety turned big-time college linebacker working toward the NFL and that Rob Glass is the right man to pack that weight on.