MIAMI, Fla. – It was the summer of 2021 and most of the Washington State football staff was in Dallas for a mega camp at SMU. Marco Regalado, who was the Director of Recruiting at the time, was one of the few staff members left behind on campus in Pullman, Wash. and his job that day was to look up any of the players that the staff attending the camp in Dallas were impressed by. 

One of the calls he received that day was from then defensive coordinator Jake Dickert, who is now the head coach at Wake Forest. Dickert was impressed by one of the linebacker prospects he watched run a 40-yard dash and needed Regalado to find out more about him beyond what number he was wearing at the camp. Regalado didn’t need to look the player up; he knew him. And unfortunately for Dickert and the Cougars, he was off limits. 

The player’s name was Ben Roberts and he was a soon-to-be senior safety at Eaton High School in Haslet, Texas, which is about 25 minutes north of Fort Worth. Regalado was the running back coach and recruiting coordinator there during the 2020 season and the individual associated with a Prospect (IAWP) NCAA rule prohibits recruiting a player that you coached for at least two years. That prevented Dickert and Washington State from offering Roberts a scholarship. 

“I told (Dickert) all that and he asked, ‘Is it too late to fire you?'" Regalado remembered with a chuckle. 

Fortunately for Roberts, Washington State wasn’t the only program to notice his potential. Potential that Regalado himself was one of the first to convey to Roberts, who admits he’s his own harshest critic. He watched teammate Hunter Erb’s recruitment blow up early and was worried that college football wasn’t in his future. Roberts was a safety at Eaton and college coaches believed he was too slow to play at that position. 

Regalado agreed. He wasn’t trying to push Roberts as a safety. He knew his 6-foot-3, 190-pound prospect would grow into a Power Four linebacker. Texas Tech also saw his potential and Matt Wells offered him a full ride on Sept. 13, 2021. Roberts committed that same day. A wrench was thrown into his plans six weeks later when Wells was fired as the head coach, but he was replaced by Joey McGuire, who Roberts knew from a visit to Baylor that previous summer. 

“He already wanted me, at least that is what he says.” 

McGuire honored Roberts’ commitment and the two reunited in Lubbock ahead of 2022 when he redshirted as a true freshman as he transitioned to linebacker. Roberts made his first career start in 2023 in the Week 2 matchup against Oregon, the team Texas Tech faces in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1. The Red Raiders lost, but a star was born at linebacker when Roberts recorded 12 tackles. Not bad for a guy who admits that he didn’t know exactly what he was supposed to do for most of the outing. 

“Back then, I was just playing ball,” he said. “I knew how to read the QB’s eyes from my time playing safety so I just freelanced a lot and tried to be around the ball as much as possible. Going into this game is different because I actually know what is going on.” 

A harsh critic, indeed. Roberts would’ve had a hard time convincing anyone else that he didn’t know what was going on that season, his 107 stops marked the most tackles by a freshman dating to 1980. He registered double-digit tackles in four of his first five starts in conference play and ended the 2023 season as the Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year – the first Red Raider to win the award. 

Roberts’ transition to linebacker culminated in earning the Most Outstanding Player of the Game award in the Big 12 Championship win over BYU earlier in December after he recorded two interceptions and five tackles. He almost picked off a third pass, but he batted it down on fourth down to give the Red Raiders the ball back. He told people after the game that he did it on purpose. The truth is a bit murkier. 

“I was telling people I did because it was fourth down and they weren’t going to get the yards they needed so I just batted it down, but honestly, I thought, ‘there is no way he’s throwing it again,’” Roberts said. “It was a bullet, though, and I stuck my hand out there to see what would happen.”

Roberts’ evolution mirrored that of Texas Tech during his time in Lubbock. The college football community now views life as a Red Raider as glamorous and prosperous but that wasn’t always the case. The football team worked out of portables in 2024 as the facilities were upgraded. He didn’t sign with Texas Tech for an absurd amount of money. He was a three-star prospect who ranked as the No. 1,149th best player in America on the 247Sports Composite. 

That’s changed, obviously. Texas Tech now works in one of the best facilities in America and the perks off the field, and especially in the bank account, aren’t bad. To Roberts’ credit, he knows how good he and his teammates have it compared to former Red Raiders. 

“We’re living the best life you can be living,” he said. “All we do is work out, play football, go do a little bit of school, and make some money. Life is a lot better than it was in those portables, that’s for sure.”  

Roberts says he knew the 2025 version of the Red Raiders could achieve something special in spring practice when the portal additions put on pads for the first time. They had already dispelled his concerns about selfishness during offseason training. When he saw how hard they worked with pads on in the spring, he knew McGuire and GM James Blanchard not only added talented guys, but the right guys. 

But Roberts doesn’t see this as the finish line. Not the Orange Bowl in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff or the 2025 season in general. This is only the start for Texas Tech and he feels honored to be part of the group that turned potential into reality and set a new standard for college football success in West Texas. 

“I think we’re the start of a dynasty,” he said. “I think we can go far with Coach McGuire at the helm. Being part of a team that’s accomplished this much is cool, especially knowing the history behind Tech and the history we’re creating here. It means everything to this city and I only see us going up from here.”