Losing the all-time leading rusher in school history would normally make fans hesitate about the upcoming season.
But as much as Tulsa will miss recently graduated D’Angelo Brewer, just knowing that Shamari Brooks is ready to become the lead rusher makes Golden Hurricane fans excited about the season opener against Central Arkansas.
Before the season starts, Brooks wants to make it clear about how much he appreciates Brewer, who holds the Tulsa career rushing record at 3,917 yards.
“I learned a lot from D Brew,” Brooks said. “Little things that he did. I paid attention to all of that and just tried to take some of his game and make it mine.”
Brooks burst onto the scene straight from Union High School and had a remarkable freshmen season. He appeared headed to top the 1,000-yard mark until a broken collarbone above his left shoulder cut his season short in week nine at SMU. Still, he finished with 687 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns.
Amazingly, Brooks had been hurt earlier in a scoring drive where he scored on a 4-yard run.
“I didn’t think that it was broke, I just thought maybe it was an AC joint,” said Brooks, who emphasized he is 100 percent healed. “It was a tragic thing to happen. It was just one of those normal hits.”
Although Brooks’ running style displays a lot of physicality and breaking tackles, he doesn’t consider those qualities to be at the top of his strengths.
“My strengths are vision, quickness and cutting,” Brooks described.
And even if it doesn’t look like he has any weaknesses, Brooks knows he has to work on some areas.
“Slowing down a little bit, not being so aggressive to a hole, and waiting for a hole to open,” Brooks said were his weaknesses.
Coming out of Union, Brooks had received a lot of hype after a senior season where he rushed for 2,018 yards and 28 touchdowns, including 232 yards and three touchdowns on 32 carries while leading Union to the state championship at H.A. Chapman Stadium.
As impressive as those numbers were, they could have been even greater if Union hadn’t had to pull him early from many games due to so many lopsided victories.
An early commit to TU, the 5-foot-9. 193-pound Brooks never wavered when schools like Texas Tech, Baylor, California and North Texas tried hard to sway him.
Besides liking TU and being able to play in front of family and friends, Brooks made it clear about his feelings for the Hurricane coaches.
“I like the coaches and Monty,” he said of TU coach Philip Montgomery and his staff. “My high school offense and Tulsa’s offense kind of just went hand in hand. It would be easy to adjust to.”
With Brewer and Corey Taylor ahead of Brooks on the depth chart, it looked like it might take a while for Brooks to get significant playing time. Especially after Taylor rushed for 111 yards on 20 carries in the season opener at OSU.
But when Taylor got hurt in the second game against Louisiana, Brooks got his chance, and he ran with it. It was a chance he certainly didn't expect to come that quickly.
“I didn’t at all. Not that early,” Brooks said about his playing time as a freshman. “I was able to do what I could do and just help my team out.”
With Brooks and Taylor back, and with the coaches having confidence in junior Javon Thomas, true freshman T.K. Wilkerson and redshirt freshman Reed Martin, it looks like the Golden Hurricane running game will be strong again as it has been in all three previous years under Montgomery.
Brooks isn’t focused on personal goals. Instead, he is concentrating on getting Tulsa to rebound from its frustrating 2017 record of 2-10.
"Not really any individual goals. Just winning,” Brooks said. “I know if we win, the individual accolades will come.
“Last year we had a lot of close losses. After halftime and in the fourth quarter, just finishing games off. Try to make it so where it isn’t too close where you have to fight for those shootout games.”
