Freak of the Week: Jonathon Brooks

SI All-American continues its latest football feature, Freak of the Week, highlighting the top high school football prospect performances nationally.

Freak is a term thrown around too much in the sports world but sometimes it's the first phrase that crowds the cranium when a gaudy athletic feat takes place.

What about an entire game's worth of head-turning and gasp?

SI All-American continues a salute to these dominant high school football players in a weekly feature, of course titled 'Freak of the Week.'

High school football is well underway in several states with the playoffs ongoing in a few and the wild, almost Fantasy sports-type statistical performances continue to pile in. FOTW candidates can be dominant in the trenches or beyond the numbers regardless of class, but a second consecutive senior running back from the Lone Star State forced our hand again this week.

Jonathon Brooks of Hallettsville (Texas) rushed 27 times for 501 yards and nine touchdowns in a Texas 3A playoff game vs. Lorena (Texas) last Friday night.

Again, Brooks rushed for more than half of a thousand yards and scored nine times. 

Not in a season. 

In a single game.

Committed to Texas, Brooks told AdvoSports of the Victoria Advocate after the game, "I just went in there and coach called the plays and our linemen really blocked their tails off, and it just unfolded perfectly, and I just made plays.” 

Brooks' Brahmas won the game 61-48.

damn my o-line is good https://t.co/U4B9djxVrq

— Jonathon Brooks (@2brookss) November 28, 2020

On the season, the future Longhorn has ran for 2,719 yards and 52 touchdowns on 210 carries to show he's the bell cow and volume runner for Hallettsville. 

SI All-American's Edwin Weathersby II studied the film from the record-setting night for Brooks, and stated, "Hallettsville worked mainly with man/gap scheme rushing concepts. This featured pin and seals with linemen wrapping into playside holes, counters and power concepts. Brooks did a good job of mentally processing information quickly on interior runs, working off his blocks and clearing traffic at level one with plus quickness and punch traits to get to level two quickly. He also ran with surprising lower-half strength, resulting in needed contact balance to acquire yards after contact."

"The Brahmas also worked Brooks on toss schemes with leads to pressure the edges, where he showed patience and before using elusiveness, wiggle and solid open-field creativity to produce chunk runs. In goal line situations, Brooks lined up as a Wildcat QB and executed gap-scheme run concepts to hit pay dirt," Weathersby added.

Hallettsville will take on Columbus (Texas) in the Texas 3A-D1 Regional Final on Friday.

Brandon Brown

 Submit FOTW nominations via Twitter @SIAllAmerican.

Freak of the Week - 11/24 - 2021 RB Jordan Jenkins

Freak of the Week - 11/17 - 2023 QB Arch Manning

Freak of the Week - 11/10 - 2024 RB Ronnie Royal

Freak of the Week - 10/28 - 2021 DE Patrick Payton

Freak of the Week - 10/21 - 2021 QB Jaxson Dart

Freak of the Week - 10/13 - 2021 RB Marquis Crosby

Freak of the Week - 10/6 - 2021 WR Liam Clifford

Freak of the Week - 9/29 - 2021 RB Josh Hough

Freak of the Week - 9/22 - 2023 DB Aaron Gates

Freak of the Week - 9/17 - 2021 RB Corey Kiner

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