Ranking Every Big 12 LB Room Heading Into 2026
If the receiver room rankings were about the transfer portal reshuffling skill talent, this one’s about something a little different: Texas Tech didn’t just out-spend the conference on offense, they went and strip-mined it on defense too. Here’s where every linebacker room in the Big 12 stands.
Tier 1: Loaded
Texas Tech - Three linebackers made some form of the 2026 preseason all-conference team, which tells you almost everything. Ben Roberts is a lock for first-team honors after 90-101 tackles (depending on the source) and multiple takeaways a season ago, and he’s finally stepping out of teammate Jacob Rodriguez’s shadow now that Rodriguez (last year’s Defensive Player of the Year) is off to the NFL. Austin Romaine joins him after himself transferring in from Kansas State (you good, K-State?), where he led the Wildcats in tackles. And if that weren’t enough, Texas Tech also added Corey Platt Jr., who led Houston’s (you good, Coogs?) linebacker room in run stuffs a year ago. Reminder: this is the same program that already bought the deepest receiver room in the conference. Apparently the plan is to buy the linebacker room, as well.
BYU - Cade Uluave transferred in from Cal and immediately profiled as the best linebacker available in the entire portal cycle, racking up 97 tackles a season ago and an elite blend of speed and power. Paired with Isaiah Glasker, a legitimate All-American-caliber player when healthy, this is a top-tier duo on paper. The catch is real, though: Glasker battled injuries for stretches of last season and enters 2026 with his health status still a real question mark, which is exactly the kind of uncertainty that could turn a top-tier duo into just a very good one-man show.
Tier 2: Quality, Real Playmakers
Colorado - Gideon Lampron is legitimately one of the best individual linebackers in the conference regardless of the team around him, racking up 123 tackles and 18.5 tackles for loss a season ago. Whatever else is uncertain about Colorado this year, Lampron himself isn’t part of the question.
Kansas - Trey Lathan, a West Virginia transfer, was an instant-impact addition last season, leading the Jayhawks in tackles (86) while adding 7 tackles for loss, a sack and a half, two fumble recoveries and an interception. A genuinely underrated player on a team that doesn’t get much national attention.
Arizona State - Owen Long, a Colorado State transfer, joins returning pieces Martell Hughes and Zyrus Fiaseu to give the Sun Devils a solid, if not flashy, linebacker corps; one of the few units on this roster that isn’t in full reset mode.
Arizona - Brings back a genuinely experienced linebacker corps, headlined by Taye Brown, who posted a career-high 93 tackles in his second season as a starter, and Chase Kennedy, a converted edge rusher who combined for 96 tackles and two forced fumbles in Danny Gonzales’s hybrid 3-3-5 scheme. Between Brown, Kennedy, and depth pieces Myron Robinson and Jabari Mann, this group logged over 1,500 combined defensive snaps a year ago; continuity that most of the conference simply doesn’t have at the position.
Utah - Leaning hard on one proven anchor to carry a room in transition. Johnathan Hall, who led the Utes in tackles a year ago and has taken over as the self-described “quarterback of the defense,” returns as the unquestioned centerpiece, but longtime starters Lander Barton (now with the NFL’s Chargers) and Levani Damuni are both gone, handing a full-time starting job to Trey Reynolds, who has just four career starts. One proven star, one real question mark next to him.
Baylor - Banking on a redemption story at linebacker. Travion Barnes arrived last year as the reigning Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year, expected to anchor the room, then suffered a season-ending ankle injury just four games in, on top of what he’s described as a genuinely difficult year personally. He’s back healthy for a final season, now the clear leader of a trio with Kyland Reed (who started nine games as his injury replacement) and sophomore Kaleb Burns, playing under new defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman. On paper, a fully healthy Barnes gives Baylor one of the better linebacker cores in this tier; the question is simply whether “on paper” finally translates to the field.
Cincinnati - Leans on one of the few holdovers from before Scott Satterfield's tenure: Jonathan Thompson, a fifth-year starter who took over the job midway through last season and finished with 73 tackles, now steps into the room's clear leadership role. Simeon Coleman, a freshman All-American two years ago, returns alongside him, but the room is otherwise thin; Cincinnati lost linebacker Jake Golday to the NFL and brought in a new position coach as part of a broader defensive overhaul under first-year coordinator Nate Woody. Thompson gives the room a proven, experienced anchor; everything else around him is a projection.
Tier 3: Real Question Marks
Kansas State - The Wildcats didn’t just lose production, they watched their best linebacker walk to a division rival: Austin Romaine left for Texas Tech. That’s the second straight offseason section in this newsletter where Kansas State shows up on the wrong end of a Texas Tech transaction (Ouch!).
Houston - Same story as Kansas State, different name: Corey Platt Jr., a legitimately disruptive run-stuffer, is now wearing Texas Tech red and black instead of Houston red. The Cougars have real talent elsewhere on the roster, but the linebacker room takes a real hit here.
TCU - Both starters from last season, Caleb Lamsour and Namdi Obiazor, are gone, so this is a real changing of the guard. Max Carroll, a four-star signee who got extended reps due to injuries the last couple of seasons, steps into a featured role, joined by Virginia Tech transfer Michael Short. It's a green group by experience, but Sonny Dykes has called this the deepest overall roster he's had at TCU, and six of seven defensive linemen return in front of them, which should make life easier for a linebacker corps that's mostly unproven at this level.
Tier 4: Tackle Optional
West Virginia - This is a legitimately unusual situation: nine of West Virginia's ten scholarship linebackers heading into 2026 are either true freshmen or transfers; only a handful of players in the room have any real West Virginia game experience at all. Colorado State transfer Chase Wilson is the headliner, having racked up 205 tackles across his last two seasons before arriving in Morgantown, and Reid Carrico is one of the few returning starters, with real breakout potential in Zac Alley's defense. Still, a room this dependent on new faces meshing quickly is as much of a projection as anything else on this list. DC Alley says he's confident, but "confident" and "proven" are different things in August.
Iowa State - The conference's one true ground-zero rebuild; none of the three projected starting linebackers (Montreze Smith, Sullivan Schlimgen, Carson Willich) played for the Cyclones last season, and Smith arrives straight from FCS Austin Peay. The silver lining is new head coach Jimmy Rogers and defensive coordinator Jesse Bobbit, who built a Washington State defense that ranked 15th nationally in yards allowed a year ago, and brought pieces of that system with them to Ames. This isn't a room lacking talent so much as a room with zero shared history; whether that scheme can make a brand-new trio functional by September is the real question.
Oklahoma State - One linebacker room caught in the middle of the program’s total roster overhaul. Trip White returns as the lone piece with real starting experience, surrounded by a wave of transfers (Tate Romney from Arizona State, Ethan Wesloski from North Texas, Dallas Winner-Johnson from Tulane, among others) brought in to rebuild the position almost from scratch. Same story as the rest of this roster: talent imported in bulk, chemistry still to be determined.
UCF - Actually has a real building block here, more than the “incomplete” label suggests: Lewis Carter, an Oklahoma transfer, led the Knights in tackles (92, with 52 solo) in his first season in Orlando and earned All-Big 12 Honorable Mention production that reads like a hint of a bigger breakout still coming, not a ceiling. The rest of the room is thinner, but Carter alone gives UCF a legitimate answer at the position most of this tier doesn’t have.