Photo by: @EricEvansPhoto
A Bittersweet Swan Song For TBJ
12/29/18 | Football, @GoDucksMoseley
Oregon senior running back Tony Brooks-James has had an accomplished UO career across two sports, but an injury will cause him to miss Monday's Redbox Bowl (noon, FOX).
SAN FRANCISCO — His career included a team MVP award in football, and a national-title ring on the track. There was also a trip to the 2014 College Football Playoff, taking in Oregon's Rose Bowl win over Florida State to reach the national championship game.
No doubt, the story of the UO athletic career of Tony Brooks-James includes some epic chapters.
It's final pages won't read as Brooks-James would have written them. Still, Oregon's senior running back closes the book on his career with no regrets.
Brooks-James, an NCAA champion in track and field in 2015 and Oregon football's offensive MVP in 2016, will miss the final game of his UO career due to injury. He'll be on the sideline when the Ducks face Michigan State in the Redbox Bowl at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Monday (noon, FOX).
Brooks-James has spent this week in the Bay Area rehabbing a knee injury suffered in the Civil War, and coming to terms with the premature end to his college career.
"It's definitely not a positive mindset — but it's also not a negative mindset," said Brooks-James, a native of Gainesville, Fla. "No one wants to sit out the last game of their college career.
"But in the same aspect, I do also know why I'm sitting out. I know the goal I'm trying to get to. You gotta put that at the front, and push everything else to the back."
Brooks-James was injured against Oregon State in the role that became his primary contribution to the 2018 Ducks — returning kickoffs. In the wake of UO all-time leading rusher Royce Freeman graduating, Brooks-James started the first four games at running back this fall. But redshirt freshman CJ Verdell took over as the starter in late September, and true freshman Travis Dye started the final two games of the regular season.
Entering the postseason, Brooks-James is the Ducks' third-leading rusher behind the two freshmen, with 306 yards. He has 21 of Oregon's 31 kickoff returns this season, for 548 yards, an average of 26.1 yards per return.
Brooks-James won't have a chance to pad those stats in the Redbox Bowl. But the good news is, he's already running and cutting as he tries to get in shape for the NFL draft evaluation process — a speedy recovery process made possible when the knee injury didn't prove as serious as first feared.
"It was definitely a sense of relief," Brooks-James said. "I was like, OK, I can bounce back from this fairly quickly, and everything I want is still ahead of me — instead of going through surgery, and delaying it."
Still, there's been lots of down time for Brooks-James. He's looking forward as much as he can, to a future he hopes holds a pro career. But he's reflecting back as well, on a roller-coaster five years at Oregon.
"A lot of things come to mind when I think back on the career I had here," he said.
There's much on which to reflect.
There was his initial arrival in Eugene, which Brooks-James called "love at first sight." As a redshirt in 2014, he was named special teams scout-team player of the year, and traveled with the Ducks for their College Football Playoff experience; the next spring, Brooks-James ran the lead leg on Oregon's 4x100-relay at the NCAA outdoor championship meet, earning a ring when the Ducks went on to win the men's NCAA team title.
As a redshirt freshman in 2015, Brooks-James was a dynamic change of pace to Freeman, averaging 9.0 yards per carry. He thought he'd be in the same role as a sophomore; instead, Freeman had an injury ravaged season, and Brooks-James stepped up to rush for 771 yards. That earned him second-team all-Pac-12 honors from conference coaches and the UO offensive team MVP award in a vote of his teammates.
"You always hear a coach talk about, you never know when your number's going to be called," Brooks-James said. "Well, I didn't expect my number to be called then. But when it was called, I performed."
As a junior last season, Brooks-James got the 2017 campaign off to a rousing start by returning the opening kickoff of the season for a touchdown. That role ended up being his primary duty in 2018 as well, along with mentoring young backs like Verdell, Dye and Cyrus Habibi-Likio.
"I can honestly say since I've been here, I've played every role in college football there is," Brooks-James said. "This was a lot different, but I still enjoyed it. To me it couldn't have been any better — I had fun with it, I enjoyed it, I learned from it."
It may not have been the perfect script to his senior season. But his time on the sidelines the last few weeks has allowed Brooks-James to reflect in a way he might not have otherwise just yet.
"A lot of ebbs and flows," Brooks-James said. "But overall, a learning experience. And I wouldn't take it back for the world."
No doubt, the story of the UO athletic career of Tony Brooks-James includes some epic chapters.
It's final pages won't read as Brooks-James would have written them. Still, Oregon's senior running back closes the book on his career with no regrets.
Brooks-James, an NCAA champion in track and field in 2015 and Oregon football's offensive MVP in 2016, will miss the final game of his UO career due to injury. He'll be on the sideline when the Ducks face Michigan State in the Redbox Bowl at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Monday (noon, FOX).
Brooks-James has spent this week in the Bay Area rehabbing a knee injury suffered in the Civil War, and coming to terms with the premature end to his college career.
"It's definitely not a positive mindset — but it's also not a negative mindset," said Brooks-James, a native of Gainesville, Fla. "No one wants to sit out the last game of their college career.
"But in the same aspect, I do also know why I'm sitting out. I know the goal I'm trying to get to. You gotta put that at the front, and push everything else to the back."
Brooks-James was injured against Oregon State in the role that became his primary contribution to the 2018 Ducks — returning kickoffs. In the wake of UO all-time leading rusher Royce Freeman graduating, Brooks-James started the first four games at running back this fall. But redshirt freshman CJ Verdell took over as the starter in late September, and true freshman Travis Dye started the final two games of the regular season.
Entering the postseason, Brooks-James is the Ducks' third-leading rusher behind the two freshmen, with 306 yards. He has 21 of Oregon's 31 kickoff returns this season, for 548 yards, an average of 26.1 yards per return.
Brooks-James won't have a chance to pad those stats in the Redbox Bowl. But the good news is, he's already running and cutting as he tries to get in shape for the NFL draft evaluation process — a speedy recovery process made possible when the knee injury didn't prove as serious as first feared.
"It was definitely a sense of relief," Brooks-James said. "I was like, OK, I can bounce back from this fairly quickly, and everything I want is still ahead of me — instead of going through surgery, and delaying it."
Still, there's been lots of down time for Brooks-James. He's looking forward as much as he can, to a future he hopes holds a pro career. But he's reflecting back as well, on a roller-coaster five years at Oregon.
"A lot of things come to mind when I think back on the career I had here," he said.
There's much on which to reflect.
There was his initial arrival in Eugene, which Brooks-James called "love at first sight." As a redshirt in 2014, he was named special teams scout-team player of the year, and traveled with the Ducks for their College Football Playoff experience; the next spring, Brooks-James ran the lead leg on Oregon's 4x100-relay at the NCAA outdoor championship meet, earning a ring when the Ducks went on to win the men's NCAA team title.
As a redshirt freshman in 2015, Brooks-James was a dynamic change of pace to Freeman, averaging 9.0 yards per carry. He thought he'd be in the same role as a sophomore; instead, Freeman had an injury ravaged season, and Brooks-James stepped up to rush for 771 yards. That earned him second-team all-Pac-12 honors from conference coaches and the UO offensive team MVP award in a vote of his teammates.
"You always hear a coach talk about, you never know when your number's going to be called," Brooks-James said. "Well, I didn't expect my number to be called then. But when it was called, I performed."
As a junior last season, Brooks-James got the 2017 campaign off to a rousing start by returning the opening kickoff of the season for a touchdown. That role ended up being his primary duty in 2018 as well, along with mentoring young backs like Verdell, Dye and Cyrus Habibi-Likio.
"I can honestly say since I've been here, I've played every role in college football there is," Brooks-James said. "This was a lot different, but I still enjoyed it. To me it couldn't have been any better — I had fun with it, I enjoyed it, I learned from it."
It may not have been the perfect script to his senior season. But his time on the sidelines the last few weeks has allowed Brooks-James to reflect in a way he might not have otherwise just yet.
"A lot of ebbs and flows," Brooks-James said. "But overall, a learning experience. And I wouldn't take it back for the world."
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