Cal Football: Christopher Brooks Revs It Up As Bears' Run Game Purrs vs. Oregon State

Senior running back gets a season-high 20 carries, scores two TDs Cal's in 39-25 victory.

Christopher Brooks would rather run through an opposing defensive player than talk about it with reporters. The Cal senior running back probably has his priorities in order.

But while we don’t know what Brooks thought about his many contributions to the Bears’ 39-25 win over Oregon State on Saturday evening at Memorial Stadium, others were willing to shine a light on his performance.

The 6-foot-1, 235-pounder, who had carried the ball just 46 times in the Bears’ first seven games, did heavy lifting against the Beavers. He rushed 20 times for 83 yards — both season highs — caught touchdown passes of 38 and 2 yards, and ran in a two-point conversion.

No one enjoyed the view more than offensive tackle Valentino Daltoso.

“Everyone saw when he first got to Berkeley, he runs with a purpose,” Daltoso said in the video at the top of this story. “He’s not going down on the first hit. He creates contact while running.

“It’s really fun to come off your block and see Chris running by you, carrying three people. It kind of makes your job worth it.”

It was just two seasons ago when Brooks rushed for 914 yards for a Cal team that went 8-75 and beat Illinois in the Redbox Bowl. Brooks — who called himself Christopher Brown Jr. in those days — ran for 120 yards in the 35-20 rout of the Illini.

But he has battled injuries since then, and last year was limited to just 21 carries in the Bears’ pandemic-ravaged four-game schedule. Over the team’s first five games this season, Brooks took handoffs just 20 times, although he averaged more than six yards per carry.

Apparently feeling better, Brooks got the ball 14 times against Oregon, 12 times last week against Colorado and then 20 times against the Beavers. That’s 46 carries and 212 yards — most of them involving collisions with defensive players who would rather be doing anything else.

He ran the ball four times in a row — each of them for at least 4 yards — during a nine-play, 75-yard drive that was entirely on the ground and pushed the Bears into a 17-3 lead midway through the second quarter.

Brooks had 28 rushing yards on the Bears’ final scoring drive, which was capped by his 2-yard reception of Chase Garbers’ third touchdown pass of the game.

“He had some big runs and he had a couple key, tough runs, late in the game . . . and changed the complexion because the clock becomes a major factor at that point,” Cal coach Justin Wilcox said of Brooks.

Damien Moore, who began the season as Cal’s starter at running back, had a 111-yard performance that included a late 56-yard burst. The Bears ended up with 255 rushing yards, contributing to a 13-for-19 effort on third-down conversions.

With four regular-season games to play, starting next Saturday at winless but improving Arizona, the Bears are a more difficult team to stop when Brooks is on his game. Cal has other capable backs, but no one with the combination of power and burst that Brooks is showing again.

Garbers is happy to have him back doing his thing.

“That’s what we expect out of CB since he got here way back when,” Garbers said. “His size and his speed and his strength, it’s going to take more than one or two guys to take him down.

“You love that as an offense. You have a big powerful back that takes a lot of bodies to take down.”

Cover photo of Christopher Brooks by Kelley L. Cox, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo