Maryland running backs coach elevates the team, one player at a time

Running Backs Coach Elijah Brooks has been with University of Maryland since 2019. (Maryland Athletics)

Elijah Brooks is like many football coaches: a tough leader who expects results. But his players say he gets them the right way, through discipline and hard work. No shortcuts taken.

Brooks is the running backs coach at the University of Maryland, College Park. Prior to his college tenure, he was the head football coach at DeMatha Catholic High School, where he coached future NFL players and won four consecutive Washington Catholic Athletic Conference championships. 

His former players said he pushed them to earn those victories.

“He was hard on us,” Jarriel Jordan said. Jordan was on the 2014 championship DeMatha team, knew Brooks several years prior and remains in contact today. 

“Workouts were tough. I still haven’t done anything to this day harder than a DeMatha workout. And we needed it,” Jordan said. 

When Brooks started as head coach in 2011, he took over for school legend Bill McGregor, who coached there more than 20 years and won 20 conference championships, according to the school website. 

“It was a lot [of pressure] on Brooks to succeed,” Jordan said, considering the success McGregor had before him. The team immediately slid from conference ranked second in 2010 under McGregor to fourth under Brooks in 2011, according to MaxPreps, a site that tracks prep school athletics. 

“But no, it was good,” Jordan said. “He was able to mature as a head coach and we all saw that. And we were able to mature as his players and understand him better.”

After a middling finish in 2011 and a championship defeat his second year, Brooks led the team to his first championship in 2014. Incremental improvements each year yielded results, a fact to which Austin Tuck, another former high school player of Brooks’, felt physically connected.  

“Brooks was one of the reasons I transitioned from [the] offensive line,” Tuck said. It was his senior year, and all his reps were at linemen to that point, the former player said. Brooks moved him to fullback.

Admittedly “undersized,” at 5 foot, 7 inches, Brooks did not give up on Tuck’s unique situation, but pushed something brand new out of him. “It was pretty challenging,” Tuck said. “I had to learn all the plays over in a different position.” 

Tuck’s first week after changing positions, he was thrust into the game. “He took care of how to take on the situation,” Tuck said. Brooks gave the right guidance “for me to take on the challenge and to be able to succeed at it.” 

Then, in a spotlight game on ESPN, Brooks’ faith in Tuck resulted in one of Tuck’s most memorable games. Brooks tasked Tuck with blocking a tough defender all night. 

“I was the reason for one or two touchdowns,” Tuck said. “I remember on ESPN, one of the commentators shouted me out [for a great block].”  Brooks having confidence in him improved his self-assurance for the remainder of the season, Tuck said. 

Fond memories of Brooks’ coaching mingle with how he also handled adversity, as he faced scandal and grief in his earliest time coaching at DeMatha. In February of 2012, senior offensive lineman, Rico Webb, died of a blood clot, according to the WJLA report of the incident. Webb was a recognizable and beloved figure at the school and was only  17 years old.

“I was cool with Rico,” Tuck said. “I was on o-line at the time and [his death] touched me.” The entire school gathered in convocation upon his death and Brooks spoke at the school’s memorial service. 

In September of the same year,  illicit actions on a game trip scandalized the football team. Some players paid prostitutes to visit their hotel room after a game in North Carolina, according to a parents’ report to the Washington Post. 

“We really felt like it was the bottom, the bottom of the bottom,” Jordan said. “Brooks was emotional…it was emotional for all of us.”

The five players responsible withdrew from the school according to the Post, and something changed for Brooks’ team, they rallied behind their coach. “We really had to back up our coach,” Jordan said. The players decided then they “wanted to win a championship…wanted Brooks to be successful.”

Jordan recalled that many doubted Brooks, especially following a remarkable tenure from McGregor. “As a Black head coach, as a new head coach…they didn’t believe he could do it,” Jordan said. And with the scandal, “we were proving them right.” 

However, Tuck and Jordan agree that it was that moment that brought the group together.

“After that, I feel like that’s when a lot of things changed for the better,” Jordan said. The team that suffered early playoff defeat in 2011, tragic loss and scandal in 2012, then went to the championship in 2013. 

And in 2014, Brooks and his players earned his first head coaching championship. “Everything did a complete 180 from Brooks’ first year to holding up that championship,” Jordan said.

Brooks’ time at DeMatha produced more than championships. He also coached remarkable athletes that play in the NFL: Washington Commanders defensive end Chase Young, New England Patriots linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley and Pittsburgh Steelers’ running back Anthony McFarland all hoisted championship trophies under Brooks’ at DeMatha, according to MaxPreps and Brooks’ Maryland bio. 

At this university, Brooks continued his push for discipline. Coach Brooks sets “a high standard for you as a player,” Challen Faamatau, a senior sociology major said. He is currently a running back for Maryland. 

Faamatau said players wouldn’t learn “off the field things,” like punctuality from football but a coach can instill those values.

“A great coach knows how to help on and off the field,” Faamatau said. 

On the field, Brooks teaches Faamatau to “never be complacent,” something the running back said he can apply to his everyday life. Brooks’ lessons are transferable for Faamatau because he came to the university as a walk-on and earned a scholarship with Brooks as his position coach. 

“It didn’t matter if I was a walk-on or not, he treated me the same as those who were on scholarship,” Faamatau said. “Just keep your head down, [and keep] going to work.” 

Brooks with Former Maryland RB and current Los Angeles Rams RB Jake Funk. (Maryland Athletics)

This university credited Brooks with running back Jake Funk’s success in his 2020 season, according to Brooks’ UMTerps bio. That season, Funk led the Football Bowl Subdivision in yards per carry and ranked second in rushing yards per game in the Big 10 conference. Funk went on the next year to win the Super Bowl in the NFL as a running back for the Los Angeles Rams. 

Brooks bases his running back knowledge from personal experience. He played the position in high school at DeMatha and in college, “racking up 3,025 rushing yards and 549 receiving yards at Kent State and William & Mary,” his university bio reads. 

Faamatau, Tuck, and Jordan all said that Brook’s coaching helped them beyond the football field. “Just having coach Brooks there, I learned new things,” Faamatau said. “I try to take that into how I act in the real world, and it helps me a lot.”