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BYU took its first stab to replace Tyler Allgeier as Cal grad transfer Christopher Brooks committed to BYU Wednesday morning.
Lets ride pic.twitter.com/KfvK6mk0Uj
— Christopher Brooks (@chris_br0oks26) January 5, 2022
I checked BYU’s student directory and Brooks is enrolled for Winter semester, meaning that he will be able to participate in Spring Ball. Brooks will be a senior in 2022, although he has his redshirt remaining if he were to get injured.
Formerly knows as Christopher Brown before the 2020 season, Brooks led Cal in rushing two of the last three seasons. He had 607 rushing yards in 2021 and a career high 914 rushing yards in 2019. For his career, Brooks has rushed for 1,734 yards and 14 TDs to go along 345 receiving yards on 50 receptions.
Brooks is a bruising running back at 6-foot-1, 235 pounds. For comparison, Allgeier is listed at 5-foot-11, 220 pounds. Injuries affected Brown in Cal’s shortened 2020 season and limited his carries at beginning of 2021, but he was Cal’s number one back the last three years. He had single digit carries the first 5 games of 2021 before he got healthier and had double digit carries the last 7 games. His best game of 2021 was when he rushed for 131 yards on 13 carries versus Stanford.
Brooks played in all 13 games as a sophomore in 2019 and had 914 yards and 8 TDs to go along with 166 receiving yards and 4 receiving touchdowns. He had three 100+ yard games that season, including 111 versus UCLA and 120 in Cal’s bowl win versus Illinois.
Brooks entered the transfer portal on December 6 and committed to Purdue in mid-December. He de-committed the last week of December and BYU coaches were on him shortly after.
Brooks is a power back with the ability to break long runs. He will likely step in right away as BYU’s top back and supplement carries with Lopini Katoa, Jackson McChesney and Miles Davis. He will run behind an experienced, deep, and talented offensive line and absolutely has the ability to run for over 1000 yards in 2022.
You can watch highlights from Brooks’ 2019 season below.