Texas Tech football: Jordyn Brooks blowing up after fantastic start to season

No Texas Tech football player has had a better start to the season than Jordyn Brooks, who is seeing his stock sore after another dominant showing on Saturday.

Entering the season, few people outside of Lubbock were discussing Jordyn Brooks.  And even though the most astute of Texas Tech football fans were well aware of how important he is to this program, it is safe to say that no one thought he’d blow up the way he has through the first five games of the season.

After his unreal 19-tackle, 3-sack game in Saturday’s upset of No 21 Oklahoma State, the Houston native now sits atop the Big 12 leaderboard in regards to tackles with 60.  He leads TCU’s Garrett Wallow by five and OSU’s Malcolm Rodriguez by 11.

At 12.0 tackles per game, he’s on pace for 156 for the season (assuming his team reaches a bowl).  That number would tie him for the third-best single-season total in program history matching Lawrence Flugence’s 2000 season.  The only two Tech players with more tackles in a season were Flugence with 193 in 2002 and Brad Hastings with 171 in 1985.

Monday, it was announced that Brooks was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week as he joined Jett Duffey (Offensive Player of the Week) and Trey Wolff (Special Teams Player of the Week) in helping Texas Tech sweep the Big 12’s weekly awards.   What’s more, national praise has come flooding in Brook’s direction after his dominant start to his senior season.

He was named the Dave Campbell’s Texas Football cover boy this week, a distinction that goes to the player in Texas that had the best showing.   In the article, Shehan Jeyarajah points out that Brooks played with a chip on his shoulder following how poorly he thought his defense played against Oklahoma in the previous game.

Now, NFL experts are apparently taking notice of his work as well.  His stock is skyrocketing this year as he’s already risen from fringe draft prospect to one of the hottest names in the pro football scouting industry.

Our friend Sayre Bedinger over at FanSided’s NFL Mocks says that Brooks did more than any player last week to help his draft stock.

"“Although Brooks has been consistently productive for the Red Raiders over his first three seasons there (averaging 84 tackles per year),” he writes. “he’s having the best year of his career by far and is putting on a display weekly to NFL scouts.”"

Bedinger points to a note by Jim Nagy, Executive Director of the Reese’s Senior Bowl and ESPN NFL draft analyst as proof of Brook’s meteoric rise.  In a recent tweet, Nagy revealed that numerous NFL teams have indicated an interest in Brooks to the Senior Bowl Committee.

Back in January, no Red Raider was invited to the top scouting event in the country for college prospects.  Many believed that LB Dakota Allen would get an invite but he was left off the roster for the South team, one of the bigger snubs of the year.  Now, it appears Brooks has worked his way into a certain invite which will could help him valut his draft status.

It was a truly special day for Brooks on Saturday.  Though he came nowhere near matching Donald Harris’ program record of 30 tackles, established in 1988, he had arguably the most dominant performance of any Red Raider defensive player in the Big 12 era.

"“Tremendous performance by Jordan Brooks,” head coach Matt Wells said in his postgame press conference.  “Just individually, very, very heroic. I mean, all the TFLs and the sacks that he had, I thought he single-handedly just propelled our defense.”"

For his work, Brooks earned recognition on the Pro Football Focus Big 12 defensive team of the week.  He was joined by defensive linemen Tony Bradford Jr. and Jaylon Hutchings as well as defensive backs Zech McPhearson and Douglas Coleman.

Though Brooks’ focus right now is on helping the Red Raiders win as many games as possible, his NFL future is becoming a topic discussed around the nation.  This week, Eric Edholm of Yahoo Sports listed Brooks as one of the week’s biggest winners in terms of elevating his draft status.

"“The 6-1, 245-pound Brooks is stronger going forward than he is in reverse at this stage of his career, as these numbers would indicate,” Edholm notes.  “He’s a strong, wrap-up tackler and has some real skill as a blitzer. We also love Brooks’ strong hands to rip away the ball and think he shows some real pop when taking on ball carriers.”"

That observation indicates that the new attacking scheme of DC Keith Patterson has suited Brooks’ game perfectly.  He’s been used far more as a blitzer and disruptor than ever before and as a result, he’s having an impact on a weekly basis like we’ve not seen on his side of the ball in quite some time in Lubbock.

This week, Tech faces a high-powered Baylor offense in Waco meaning life will get no easier for the Red Raider defense.  But having one of the best linebackers in the nation and a rising star in the college game on your side is always a great way to begin designing your defensive attack.