The people least surprised about Texas running back Jonathon Brooks’ success over the last month of the college football season are the high school head coaches he faced en route to an historic 2020 campaign that ended in the Class 3A Division I state title game. 

Brooks ran for a staggering 3,530 yards – the seventh-most all-time in a single season in Texas high school football – and 62 touchdowns as a senior at Hallettsville High School in 2020. His 70 total touchdowns that season ranks second in Texas high school history behind Aledo’s Johnathan Gray in 2011. Brooks was named Mr. Texas Football for the 2020 season.  

The zenith of Brooks’ powers as the bell cow for the Brahmas came in the state semifinal game against Llano when the three-star prospect who was already pledged to Texas ran for 304 yards and six touchdowns while also returning one of his two interceptions for a score in a 53-28 victory. 

“Jonathon Brooks was no joke. At the Class 3A level, it wasn’t fair,” Llano head coach Matt Green said this week. Green also coached against Texas high school legends – and Longhorns – Gray and Malcolm Brown. “I looked at it like, ‘I’ve coached against those guys and there is no way he is even in their league,’ and boy was I wrong. He was a different type of back than they were, but he was every bit as good.” 

The 2020 Class 3A Division I title game against Jim Ned was a rematch of a regular season game that ironically took place in Llano. Jim Ned head coach knew Brooks was a different breed on the first play of that regular season game. Brooks was also a starting cornerback for Hallettsville. 

“We threw a stop route on him. He ran up, picked up our receiver, took the ball from him, threw him to the ground, and then ran for a touchdown,” Matt Fanning remembered. “We looked at each on the sideline like, ‘woah.’ 

“You could see on film how fast he was and that he had great vision and lateral movement. You couldn’t judge how strong he was with the ball in his hands. That kid was stout.” 

Brooks ran for 206 yards and two touchdowns, while adding that famed interception return for a touchdown, in the regular season loss to Jim Need. He broke a Class 3A state championship record with 299 yards rushing in the 29-28 overtime loss to Jim Ned in the championship game. He won Offensive MVP despite the defeat. 

Brooks scored a go-ahead touchdown to start overtime before Jim Need marched in for a touchdown to seemingly tie the game and go into double overtime. Instead, Fanning went for a two-point conversion and Jim Ned converted to win the game. 

“Brooks was a huge factor in that decision,” Fanning said. “If we kick the extra point, we’re going to see him run the ball eight times to get 20 yards and we won’t stop him.” 

Hallettsville head coach Tommy Psencik knew 10 years earlier that Brooks was a generational talent. As a second grader, Brooks first captured Psencik’s attention before a varsity football game when the head coach was watching a group of young elementary school kids play some pickup football off to the side of the stadium. A scene that plays out at hundreds of varsity games across the Lone Star State every Friday night. 

“He was untouchable,” Psencik said of the second-grade version of Brooks. “I guess it was very similar to what we see now but in a smaller body. He’s always had the peripheral vision. He’s a natural.” 

Brooks cruised through a few junior varsity games as a freshman before Psencik and his assistants faced reality and moved Brooks to varsity after a few games. He had proven enough to his coaches, but Brooks still had doubters – the upperclassmen. The older, experienced players wanted to make an example of Brooks. Hallettsville held competition drills in warmups, including one where two combatants lay on their backs, rise, and then try to pin the other. Brooks stepped up against a junior and whooped him, Psencik remembered. 

“Jon pinned him twice in a row, no problem,” Psencik said. “He made sure to set the tone for his ability and showed his fight, and that he would fight.” 

Brooks wasn’t the star in his first two seasons on varsity. Sound familiar, Texas fans? 

He busted onto the scene as a third-year player when he rushed for 2,144 yards and 38 touchdowns in 14 games. In his final two seasons at Hallettsville, Brooks posted 5,674 yards and 100 touchdowns as a rusher alone. He also scored touchdowns as a receiver and defender. Brooks was even an accomplished punter. Psencik, who coached Shane Lechler at East Bernard, thought Brooks had Sunday potential with his leg. 

Brooks wasn’t a big-time recruit despite the Texas commitment. He wasn’t a four- or five-star prospect. He wasn’t invited to the national all-star showcase events. He didn’t receive much fanfare or attention. After all, Texas had star running backs in Bijan Robinson and Roschon Johnson. 

Brooks played his part and took advantage of the rare opportunity. He ran 21 times for 143 yards and one touchdown in four appearances as a freshman in 2021. He played in seven games as a redshirt freshman in 2022, scoring five touchdowns on 30 carries. His first big game was against Kansas when he rushed for over 100 yards, including a 70-yard score, in a blowout win. 

Carries were supposed to get easier for Brooks to find as a sophomore in the 2023 season with Robinson and Johnson off to the NFL. But at Texas, new players with pedigree are always entering the fray. The newest version was five-star running back C.J. Baxter, who arrived in the spring of 2023 and started for the Longhorns in the opener against Rice. 

Brooks didn’t sulk. Or quit. Or transfer. He put his head down and waited for an opportunity – and then he took it. Brooks iced the game against Alabama in Week 2. He followed that up with three consecutive 100-yard performances, including over 200 yards in the win over Kansas, ahead of a Week 6 clash against Oklahoma. He’s rushed for 597 yards and five touchdowns so far. He’s on pace to top 1,400 yards in the regular season. 

Most of us knew Brooks was good. Nobody thought Brooks was this good. Well, except for those high school coaches. Green and Fanning said that they’ve never faced someone as dominant as Brooks. He was an All-State Class 6A caliber player placed into 3A football because of where he grew up. Now, he’s making FBS defenders look like those guys from Llano and Jim Ned. 

“I thought that he was a Sunday player then and I feel even better about it now,” Fanning said of Brooks’ potential. “You didn’t stop him. You just tried to take advantage of it when he was tired.”