Is this the real Jalen Brooks? Supporters say one-handed catch only the beginning
Syracuse cornerback Garrett Williams had just stepped out of his house the night of Sept. 18 when his phone buzzed with a text.
It was a video clip of his high school best friend making a circus catch on national TV.
The catch was inconsequential to the game. Up by 27 points late, No. 2 Georgia had already effectively defeated visiting South Carolina. Yet for everyone in Jalen Brooks’ circle — everyone privy to his unorthodox path to the Football Bowl Subdivision — that catch meant everything.
With a little more than five minutes left in the game, USC quarterback Luke Doty heaved a 36-yard missile down the right sideline of Sanford Stadium. The 6-foot-2 Brooks bent his body backward, reaching with his right arm for an acrobatic one-handed catch reminiscent of Odell Beckham Jr.
“One of my friends sent me the clip, and when I saw it, I lost my mind,” Williams told The State. “Me and (Brooks), we talked before the game. Me and him talk just about every day.
“We were talking about how big of a game that was for him. And for him to be able to make a play like that on a national scale, I was really happy for him because I know how hard he works and how much time he puts into his craft.”
Former teammates at Hickory Ridge High in Harrisburg, North Carolina, Williams and Brooks used to spar against each other day after day on the practice field. In the years since, Williams has blossomed into a shutdown corner on an NFL trajectory, earning freshman All-America honors from The Athletic last season.
Brooks, meanwhile, has bounced from Division II Wingate to Tarleton State in Texas to South Carolina. When he got to Columbia last season, the NCAA didn’t grant him eligibility until USC’s fifth game. Waiting in limbo, after a lifetime of waiting for a chance to play FBS, was crushing for Brooks.
Williams could tell in his conversations with Brooks just how sapped he was mentally. Brooks would later tell reporters he wasn’t in a great headspace last season. By the time Brooks saw the field, he could never quite get going. He made just 11 catches for 100 yards in six games, and a handful of dropped passes in key moments drew the ire of Gamecocks fans on social media.
“After the games sometimes I would feel numb,” Brooks said. “I felt like I was just out there to be out there. It didn’t really feel like I was truly playing in a game.”
The game feels different now. It’s not a stretch to say that Brooks’ one-handed catch at Georgia is his signature moment as a Gamecock. A week later, against Kentucky, Brooks scored his first career USC touchdown and led all USC receivers with four catches and 63 receiving yards.
Drops are still an issue — in the same Kentucky game Brooks dropped a crucial fourth-down pass in the fourth quarter. But there’s a sense that Brooks could be coming into his own as one of USC’s top two receivers, alongside Josh Vann.
From afar, Williams sees a difference in his friend. He sees the player that Brooks was in high school, the kid overlooked by college recruiters but beloved by his teammates, the kid who made acrobatic catches on a regular basis, who belonged in FBS all along.
“His senior year when I was a junior, that was like our best year at our school ... and it was frustrating because the whole season Jalen was just making play after play in big games, and he still just wasn’t getting any true recognition for it,” Williams said. “Me and him, we’d be going on visits together and still seeing coaches not truly showing him the attention that a guy like him should deserve was really frustrating in the moment.
“But I’m just happy to see everything work out. The truth will reveal itself over time.”
‘He’s done that before.’
When Jason Seidel saw the catch — that one-handed grab in Athens — he had flashbacks.
“Yep, he’s done that before,” Seidel thought. “We’ve seen that.”
Currently the head coach at Blythewood, Seidel coached Brooks and Williams at Hickory Ridge before making the move to South Carolina. He has maintained a close relationship with Brooks over the years, helping to guide him from school to school. Brooks even comes to visit the Seidel household from time to time; Seidel’s 6-year-old loves him.
The one-handed catch? That’s nothing new. Seidel has seen Brooks make those kinds of highlight-reel catches for years on the practice field and on Friday nights. Somewhat awkward and lanky as a high school junior, Brooks settled into his frame as a senior and had a dominant season, posting 771 yards and nine touchdowns. He showed top-end speed, size, contested-catch ability, yet Seidel couldn’t seem to sell him to college recruiters.
College coaches would inquire about Brooks’ teammate and close friend Jarett Garner, now a wide receiver at Duke, but hardly looked at Brooks.
“I think coaches had a tough time believing that we had two good receivers like that,” Seidel told The State. “ ... And it happens a lot. Kids fall through the cracks all the time.”
What Seidel loved most about Brooks was his attitude. He didn’t let the lack of FBS interest affect his confidence or bring him down. Rather, Brooks’ personable, genuine energy endeared him to his teammates and coaches, and his work ethic inspired. Seidel remembers seeing Brooks selling team fundraising cards in grocery store parking lots at 9 or 10 p.m. Most kids on the team would sell 20 cards a year. Brooks sold 80 to 100.
“His grades were always solid,” Seidel said. “That’s what was frustrating for us, because everything you preach to the kids — you got to have good grades, you got to have a good work ethic, good talent, this, this and this — he did everything right. And it still wasn’t enough.
“But we knew as coaches, our whole staff knew, like, ‘Man, this kid’s really special.’ ”
Though it wasn’t the Division I school he was hoping for, Wingate provided Brooks an opportunity to play college football and hone his craft, with the hope to eventually transfer. After earning All-South Atlantic Conference honors as a sophomore, Brooks found his opportunity to leave. He relocated to Tarleton State for the spring semester in 2020 — before COVID-19 changed everything.
Brooks never played a snap at Tarleton State. He called Seidel one night and asked his former head coach what he thought about him entering the transfer portal a second time. Brooks was far away from home, had a family member who was sick and wanted to get back to the Carolinas.
Seidel threw his support behind Brooks, and initially the receiver seemed poised to go to North Carolina A&T.
“We kind of talked,” Seidel said, “and I said, ‘Do you want me to see if I can try to see if there’s something bigger out there?’ ”
Something bigger
Yes, the one-handed catch at Georgia was impressive. Of course Jarett Garner watched the clip. But much like Seidel, Garner wasn’t surprised in the slightest that Brooks came down with the ball. He’s seen it before.
Garner never understood why Brooks didn’t get the same kind of attention he did in high school — even though they played side by side and attended all the same recruiting camps.
When COVID-19 shut down the world and Brooks entered the portal, Garner invited his former teammate to train with him in Charlotte. The workouts were led by former Duke quarterback and current New York Giant Daniel Jones and included a mix of NFL players and college athletes.
Brooks made such an impression at the workouts that the Duke coaching staff started expressing interest in adding him to the team. Jones personally vouched for him. More interest followed suit.
“Once he kind of exploded at Wingate, people started asking me about him,” Garner told The State. “I would just tell them he was at every camp I pretty much went to, so it wasn’t like y’all didn’t see him. It’s not like y’all didn’t know about him. Y’all just wasn’t looking at him like that. Like, he’s been doing this.”
As Brooks and Duke engaged in conversations, Seidel poked around the South Carolina program. He knew the Gamecocks were in need of receivers, so he sent video of Brooks to then-receivers coach Joe Cox.
The very next day, Seidel was on a conference call with Cox, Will Muschamp and the entire offensive coaching staff. They liked him. Their biggest question was, “Why is he in the transfer portal twice?” Seidel assured them it had nothing to do with Brooks’ character.
Soon after, Seidel took Brooks on a visit around Columbia and the school. He ended the visit at the USC practice facility, parking right behind Muschamp’s car, and he texted Cox: “Hey, man, we’re here. We know you can’t talk to us. But I’m just telling you this kid’s serious. This is the real deal.”
Brooks and Seidel sat in that car for two or three hours, listening to music and the sounds of practice.
“We knew they were working out or doing something,” Seidel said. “And then all of a sudden he got a phone call from a number he didn’t know.
“It was Coach Muschamp. He said he had one scholarship left, and they gave it to him.”
Only the beginning
Every time the video clip surfaced in his social media feed, every time a friend or family member shared it, Brooks couldn’t help but watch it a few times. It’s only human nature to savor those kinds of moments.
“It’s pretty amazing to see,” Brooks said, cracking a wide smile a few days after the Georgia game, adding that he made a catch just like that one in practice earlier in the week.
The pains of last season — the uncertainty of COVID-19, the time spent in limbo — have largely dissipated. Brooks doesn’t feel that numbness anymore. His joy for the game has returned. Between the one-handed catch and his first USC touchdown, Brooks has played the best two-game stretch of his Gamecocks career, and his supporters think the best is still yet to come.
“I believe Jalen can be a No. 1 receiver in the SEC — and not just be a No. 1, but be a very dominant one,” Williams said. “Because Jalen, he has really good size, but he has really, really good movement for his size as well. And then you add the elite ball-tracking ability that people saw against Georgia, and I’ve been seeing him make catches like that for years.”
Brooks still has work to do, aspects of his game to polish, and he’s never been the type to rest on his laurels. But the mere fact he’s starting at wide receiver for an SEC team is an accomplishment in itself. Now coaching at Blythewood, Seidel shares Brooks’ journey with his players as an example of determination. Since moving to Columbia, Brooks has visited with the team often and served as a mentor figure.
“(I’m) just telling them to trust the process,” Brooks said. “You might not go Division I. But I mean, Division II, Division III and NAIA, there’s still opportunity for you to get somewhere.”
In the South Carolina locker room, where he’s more comfortable in Year 2, Brooks has played the same sort of leadership role. Quarterback Zeb Noland praised Brooks for the way he’s helped bring the team’s younger receivers along with his relentless positivity.
That’s the way Brooks has always been, the way he’s wired. It’s why his former teammates all rushed to celebrate his moment in the spotlight on that Saturday night in Athens.
“I just really think he’s a true standup guy that tries to put people first,” Williams said. “His biggest thing, he always wants to help people, especially with his journey he’s had to take, especially when it comes to football. He really prides himself on trying to help out the younger kids get to the next level, because he’s seen the hardest part of not being able to go D-1 when friends and teammates are be able to make it.
“So being able to lift people up like that — I feel like that’s one of his biggest attributes as a person. He’s somebody I know I can rely on.”
