Texas Tech athletics personnel recently got school career rushing leader Byron Hanspard to narrate a two-minute video promoting Tahj Brooks , the 1996 Doak Walker Award winner touting a 2023 Doak Walker Award semifinalist .
Asleep when the video went live, Brooks awakened to his mother directing him to the clip on Facebook.
"It just brings chills," said Brooks, who knew a promo was in the works but hadn't seen it beforehand.
Brooks came back for a fifth season, in part to pursue Hanspard's Texas Tech football rushing record. Hanspard ran for 4,219 yards from 1994-96, second-place James Gray gained 4,066 yards from 1986-89 and Brooks is seventh on the Tech career rushing chart with 3,052 yards.
Notably, the NCAA excluded bowl statistics from career records before 2002, so Hanspard's 260-yard performance in the 1995 Copper Bowl and Gray's record-setting 280-yard game in the 1989 All American Bowl aren't reflected in their career numbers.
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The Red Raiders are happy Brooks came back to climb the chart just the same.
"I keep saying: He's the best running back in the country," Tech running backs coach Kenny Perry said. "To see what that man has done every game — from breaking tackles to running where there's no holes, pass protection, catching the ball — he's just a complete running back. And then you throw that out, he's one of the best kids I've ever been around."
There are Tahj Brooks fans, even among his opponents. Kansas running back Devin Neal is one. Brooks and Neal had the second- and fourth-highest rushing totals in the Big 12 last season, 1,538 yards by Brooks, 1,260 by Neal. After Brooks had a good game last season, Neal followed Brooks on social media and messaged a congratulatory text.
"I have a pretty good connection with a majority of running backs in the Big 12," Neal said, "and it's always love, it's always support, until we play each other, of course, right?
"I think it's unique. I think it's cool. I think, honestly, it brings more eyes to our conference and to each other because of how competitive it is. I think it's acknowledgement."
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The Big 12 had seven of the FBS' top 30 ground gainers last season. The top five stuck around for 2024, including Doak Walker Award winner Ollie Gordon of Oklahoma State and Walker Award semifinalist R.J. Harvey from Central Florida.
Brooks didn't think he would be returning near the end of last season. After the final regular-season home game, he said he'd probably played his last game at Jones AT&T Stadium and said he'd "left a good legacy here." A month later, he decided otherwise. Brooks said Thursday the feedback he received from an NFL pre-draft evaluation graded him in the range of fifth round to undrafted.
"I kind of (took) that as really ... not disrespect, but just looking over things, the guys we have on our staff, I feel like I can come back and be a better Tahj Brooks than I was last year," he said.
In the December video in which he announced his return to Tech, Brooks wore a T-shirt from the Matador Club, the donor collective that supports Tech athletes. Brooks said Thursday players' newfound opportunity to make money wasn't the main reason he's stayed in school.
"It's definitely a positive, a good add-on," he said. "But I wasn't in it for the payday. In this age now, a lot of guys are in it for the payday, and I'm not those guys. I'm a guy that loves my team. I'm going to come in every day. Doesn't matter if I'm getting paid two dollars or $20,000. ... I love working with my guys."
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This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football star Tahj Brooks says he 'wasn't in it for the payday'
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