THE FLATS – Senior Djimon Brooks (Sandersville, Ga./Washington County) was named a nominee for the 2020 Burlsworth Trophy, it was announced Tuesday.
Named in honor of former Arkansas All-American offensive lineman Brandon Burlsworth, the Burlsworth Trophy is given to the most outstanding football player in NCAA Division I FBS who began his career as a walk-on and has shown outstanding performance on the field.
En route to becoming one of Georgia Tech’s most respected student-athletes, Brooks came to The Flats as a true walk-on, trying out for the football team when school started in 2016 after not earning any Division I scholarship offers or even having a recruiting profile from any of college football’s prominent recruiting services.
After appearing in just one game over his first three seasons at Tech, the Sandersville, Ga. native broke through as a junior in 2019 under then-first-year head coach Geoff Collins. Brooks made four starts in 12 games at defensive tackle in 2019 and finished second among D-Linemen in tackles with 12. Brooks earned a scholarship ahead of his senior campaign and has continued to prove a team leader, playing in all nine games with eight starts and being named a team captain four times this season.
The first player in Georgia Tech history to wear No. 0 – a coveted single-digit number reserved for team leaders by Collins, as well as a tribute to the number of Division I offers he received out of high school – Brooks is once again second among Tech defensive linemen with 24 tackles, three tackles for loss and a sack through nine games this year.
Georgia Tech football returns for its final home game on Thursday, Dec. 10 when it hosts Pitt for Senior Day. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. and will be broadcast live on RSN.
Alexander-Tharpe Fund
The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Georgia Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of developing Georgia Tech’s Everyday Champions and helping the Yellow Jackets compete for championships at the highest levels of college athletics by supporting the A-T Fund’s Annual Athletic Scholarship Fund, which directly provides scholarships for Georgia Tech student-athletes, and the Support The Swarm Fund, created to give fans an opportunity to help Georgia Tech athletics maintain its recent momentum through the financial challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic! To learn more about supporting the Yellow Jackets, visit atfund.org.
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