Alabama wide receiver Lotzeir Brooks starred in the team’s 34-24 win over No. 8 Oklahoma, hauling in five catches for 79 yards and two touchdowns.
Before Friday’s game, the true freshman had not yet scored a touchdown for Alabama. He got the Crimson Tide on the board with his first of the night and gave it the lead with his second score, which it never relinquished.
“He’s got twitch,” head coach Kalen DeBoer said of Brooks. “He’s got the ability to separate, and then he’s really good with the ball in his hands. I think you saw a little bit of all that happen, whether it would be on third down there in the first half or the touchdowns.”
Leading up to the team’s first scoring drive, Oklahoma had dominated the contest, outgaining the Crimson Tide 118-12 in the first quarter alone. A 29-yard reception from Brooks on third down with 9:58 remaining in the second quarter moved the chains in favor of Alabama for the first time all evening and seemingly kicked the offense into gear.
He later finished off the drive falling into the endzone on a fourth down conversion. From there, Alabama outscored Oklahoma 34-7.
“The drive that we scored the first time, that’s when the momentum shifted, and we knew we were in the game,” Brooks said.
Brooks has shown promise throughout the season, but had not yet shone to the level he did against the Sooners. He missed the team’s first matchup with Oklahoma due to illness, and was not called upon much in the team’s remaining regular-season games. He credited quarterback Ty Simpson for keeping him in good spirits.
“He just keeps telling me to keep my head in the game, stay humble, and the ball will find me in the right moments,” Brooks said of Simpson.
Simpson previously threw the ball Brooks’ way in a crucial spot on fourth down in the team’s 27-24 victory over Missouri, on which he made a leaping grab with a defender nearby to help seal a key SEC road win. Simpson again trusted Brooks — this time in the biggest game of the season — and the true freshman delivered again.
“Those guys have been doing it all year,” Simpson said of the wide receivers. “I expect them to make plays like that. Big time players make big time plays in big time games.”
No. 9 Alabama will travel to Pasadena, California, to face the No. 1 Indiana Hoosiers in the 112th annual Rose Bowl Game on Jan. 1. Kickoff is slated for 3 p.m. CT, and the game can be streamed on ESPN.
