Greg Brooks Hoping to Help Reignite Spark in LSU Secondary
When Greg Brooks put his name in the portal, the first phone call he got from an interested school was area code 225.
The Louisiana native who always had dreams of one day going to LSU was ecstatic and for the hometown team to come calling first, it wasn't a very hard decision for Brooks to make.
"It's being home. The day I committed I came on my visit and I had my whole family, everybody was smiling," Brooks said. "Everybody was there, seeing them smile, being 45 minutes from home, it made me pull that trigger."
While at Arkansas, he missed his family back home, missed the food and being around people he grew up with and helped mold him into the player he knew he could be. But what also swayed Brooks back home was the presence of a fellow teammate and New Orleans native also coming from the Razorbacks.
Brooks had familiar company on the move to Baton Rouge as fellow Arkansas safety Joe Foucha also signed with the Tigers as a transfer. The two have been close friends since the early days with the Razorbacks, rooming with one another the last three years and both enjoying successful 2021 seasons in the Razorbacks secondary.
There were of course conversations between the two about the allure of going back home to finish out their college careers but as they saw LSU lose most of its starting secondary during the early days of the new coaching regime, it made the decision all the more easier.
"We knew we was gonna do it together," Brooks said. "We do everything together. You see me, you'll see him. We're always with each other."
Brooks and Foucha walk into a secondary undergoing plenty of change this offseason, losing most of its starting cornerback rotation from the 2021 season. Because of all the new faces, it's taken some time for the chemistry to build while the team also tries out players at different spots on the field.
In Brooks' case for example, he's spent the majority of his time at nickel covering the middle of the field but will soon start working at the outside cornerback position. LSU is light on depth at boundary corner, particularly with Jarrick Bernard-Converse out the spring with a Jones fracture in his foot.
Transfer Mekhi Garner has been consistent on the outside but it's been a revolving door of trial and error so far, which is why Brian Kelly was comfortable saying cornerback might be a position LSU watches in the transfer portal after the spring session. In the meantime, Brooks has been a standout on the field, creating turnovers left and right for a defense that's looking very physical and tough in the first handful of practices.
"I challenge myself to create a turnover everyday. Turnovers change the game, that's what we harp on so we try to create turnovers everyday," Brooks said.
"The guys, they all embraced me as soon as I got here, especially being from here. They knew I knew about LSU and I feel like I'm doing real well with handling everything. I need to become more vocal, start leading with my voice."
It's not just new players but a new coaching staff that Brooks and the secondary are having to get used to. The first several weeks Brooks primarily worked with safeties coach Kerry Cooks but when he makes the switch to outside corner later this spring, he'll get some added time with cornerbacks coach Robert Steeples.
Part of the allure to coming to LSU from a football perspective was getting to work with defensive coordinator Matt House, who Brooks really likes because of that winning NFL background House brings from Kansas City. Being versatile as not only a nickel but an outside corner and safety as well will only increase Brooks' professional opportunities and he's embracing every part of being back home to cap off his college career the right way.
"I like it a lot, he comes from the NFL so he has that mindset. He doesn't let us take plays off and that's gonna help us build a great defense," Brooks said.
"I feel like as a whole team, with the new staff, we're trying to change LSU. The last two years isn't the way LSU is known for so I feel like we need to get back to that."
