Shannon Brooks, a senior running back from Jasper (GA) Pickens who committed to Minnesota in September, rushed for 1696 yards and 16 touchdowns as a junior and caught 19 passes for 326 yards and four more scores.
Brooks is having an even bigger senior season and has led the team to their best start in recent memory with a huge game tonight.
Gopher Hole caught up with Brooks to learn the latest on his decision and strong senior season.
Gopher Hole: You are off to a really good start, 8-1 and have a big game Friday against Cartersville, who is also 8-1. What are you expecting out of this week’s game?
Shannon Brooks: It will definitely be a tough game for us because our secondary is really young and they have a lot of athletes. We will try to matchup as best as we can, but I think that it will be a good game. We are pretty good and if we are playing at a high level, we can play. I think that it will be a good game. I know that we can win. We just have to play like we know that we can play. This is for the championship, so it is a big one.
Gopher Hole: Your team has made improvement each year. How pleased are you with the 8-1 start?
Shannon Brooks: I am very pleased. We weren’t good my freshman year. We went 1-9 and we ran the Power I a lot and ran the ball probably 90% of the time. Coach Parker came in and we were 5-5 and 6-4 and now we are 8-1. We have been more of a spread team with zone running and that has worked better.
Gopher Hole: How about your own individual success? You are leading the state in rushing. How pleased are you with how well you have been running this year?
Shannon Brooks: I am excited.
Gopher Hole: You had a stretch of three games in the first three weeks in October where you had 811 yards and 14 touchdowns. Those are unreal numbers. What is it like to have that much success?
Shannon Brooks: It’s all good. The offensive line has worked hard up front and they have been really great.
Gopher Hole: Those numbers are amazing because you would think that teams would be scheming to shut you down or at least slow you down.
Shannon Brooks: Yes (Laughing). Our coach does a great job of trying to get me in space and it has been working. We have been doing great. We are 8-1 and the offensive line has been blocking good and allowing me to get yards.
Gopher Hole: You committed to Minnesota a little while ago. What was the main reason that Minnesota was where you wanted to play college football?
Shannon Brooks: The people, definitely. They were very welcoming and the coaches were great. Amazing and I liked them. I got to hang out with some of the players, too. I liked the atmosphere, the big city, but mostly, it was the people.
Gopher Hole: I know that Jalen Myrick was your host and he is also from Georgia. What was he able to tell you about Minnesota?
Shannon Brooks: He said that it is really different, which is a good thing. He is away from home, which can be really good and he said that the only thing that he had to get used to was the weather and he said that it wasn’t really that bad getting used to and he said that Minnesota is starting to do pretty big things and I saw their record and they are really starting off strong and Coach Kill is doing a really good job.
Gopher Hole: Had you ever been to Minnesota before your official visit?
Shannon Brooks: No, that was my first time.
Gopher Hole: What all did you get a chance to see and do when you were up here?
Shannon Brooks: I got to see some of the athletic places and that was really nice. The locker room was crazy. We got to watch them play Middle Tennessee State and they won that game. It was cool watching their running backs do great things. David Cobb had 200 and some rushing yards, I believe (220, actually). It was good to see the running game do really well that game. We got to go around the city and see the big city. It was pretty cool.
Gopher Hole: Have you had a chance to see the Gophers play much on TV this year?
Shannon Brooks: Yes. I watched them against Michigan. I watched the TCU game. I think that is about it. I don’t get a lot of their channels, but I got to catch a few.
Gopher Hole: They are off to a 6-2 start, so that has to make you feel pretty good about how they are doing?
Shannon Brooks: Oh, yes. They have been playing pretty good since Coach Kill got there. I don’t really remember them being really, really good, but each year they have progressed and gotten better and better. I am feeling good and their running game is really effective. They run the ball and it is Big Ten football. They are doing really well right now.
Gopher Hole: Does that kind of remind you of your high school team because you were 1-9 and now you are 8-1 and the Gophers have improved every year under Coach Kill?
Shannon Brooks: Yes. It is basically the same. We really weren’t good and Coach Parker came in and he changed the program a lot
Gopher Hole: For Minnesota fans who haven’t seen you play before, how would you describe yourself as a running back?
Shannon Brooks: A mixture between speed and power. My freshman and sophomore year and a little bit of my junior year, I was more of a speed back. I weighed about 180, 185. I wasn’t really big, big and now working out, we have a great strength training program and I weigh right around 200 right now and I still ran a 4.5 in a combine this summer.
Gopher Hole: Do you think that has helped you as a running back because you still have the speed, but now you can be a little more powerful and absorb some of hits that you could when you were 180 pounds?
Shannon Brooks: Yes. That definitely helps being bigger and faster is a really good thing for running backs. In college, you are going to have bigger players that are more athletic. Just more competition. You can’t just run over everybody, so having that size, I think is really important for a running back.
Gopher Hole: You mentioned David Cobb, who is not only one of the leading running back in the Big Ten, but in the country. What has your impressions of him been and how does get you even more excited about the way that they use their running backs?
Shannon Brooks: I have watched him play. David Cobb is a really good running back and they like to run the ball a lot, so that is great exposure if you are trying to play at the next level and it is also good football. They run the ball a lot from the zone and spread and that is basically what we do at our high school. We do a lot of zone running and spot sweeps and I see that they do a lot of that there and they spread the field, which I am experienced with. I think that is really great how they run the ball a lot out of the formations.
Gopher Hole: Have they talked to you much about what your role might be as a freshman?
Shannon Brooks: Not really, to be honest. We haven’t talked much about that, but Coach Kill said that I was their running back prospect right now. They said that David Cobb and Kirkwood were seniors and they need someone to come in who is big and fast and can run under the center.
Gopher Hole: Does that get you excited knowing that there is some playing time that you could get pretty quickly if you show that you are ready to play?
Shannon Brooks: Oh, yes. Definitely.
Gopher Hole: Do you play any other sports besides football?
Shannon Brooks: I play basketball. I’ll be a starter at shooting guard. I averaged 15 points. Basketball, I was an honorable all-state mention.
Gopher Hole: Has football always been your first love?
Shannon Brooks: Yes, definitely.
Gopher Hole: What will it mean to you to have the opportunity to play collegiate football?
Shannon Brooks: A lot. A lot. It has been my dream to play Division I football since I was little. To actually have it happen means a lot.