Following the two seasons of really impressive running that DeAndre Washington brought to Lubbock, it took a few years for a Red Raider to once again get at least 1000 rushing yards in a single season. But, Tahj Brooks managed to put an end to that drought when he ran for a rather impressive 1538 yards and 10 touchdowns on 290 carries in 2023.
Brooks was a huge focal point for Texas Tech’s offense in 2023 and he performed well with that sort of role. During the 2023 season, Brooks managed to run for 100 or more yards in eight different games. He was a very reliable running back for TTU that season.
Let’s take a look at all that he accomplished that year and how the Red Raiders leaned on him to carry the offense.
Texas Tech football: In 2023, Tahj Brooks managed to run for over 1000 yards in a season, ending an eight year drought for the Red Raiders
Brooks deserves a ton of credit for driving the Texas Tech offense for the Red Raiders back in 2023. After a couple of underwhelming games against Wyoming and then Oregon, Brooks broke through in a huge way as he gained 158 yards on 19 carries against Tarleton State.
One week later, while on the road at West Virginia, Brooks ran for 149 yards on 25 carries. When facing the Houston Cougars, Brooks managed to run for 101 yards, but he picked up a couple of touchdowns in the 21 carries.
And then things really got impressive for Brooks as he got 31 carries on the road against the Baylor Bears. He found a way to pick up 170 yards and a touchdown with all of those carries. That’s pretty good. You don’t see running backs getting a ton of carries like that much anymore.
And he would later get 30 carries (or more) against the BYU Cougars (101 yards), the TCU Horned Frogs (146 yards), and the Kansas Jayhawks (133 yards). Yeah, definitely safe to say that Texas Tech relied heavily on Brooks.