Safety Dalton Brooks enters senior year with clear goals for growth

Key notes from Dalton Brooks interview

• It goes fast. It doesn’t feel like it’s been four years. To have another opportunity to chase a national championship feels amazing.
   
• You want to always feel like that, and being in the smaller environment at Shiner, that’s how it is because all eyes are on you. They know the ball is coming to you. At Kyle Field, I was at the Alabama win as a recruit. That’s when I felt like I was back in Shiner. It helped me feel at home. Once I got the jitters out after those first few games, that’s when I realized this was it.
   
• If I weren’t a safety, I would’ve been a running back. I loved running back. That’s what I started doing, and at first, I didn’t even like playing defense. I started on offense, and that’s what I started doing. I learned to play defense, and now I love it.
   
• Terry Bussey would be more versatile as a running back than myself because he could throw it 60 yards in the air when you think he’s running it.
   
• My IQ has improved. Coming from a 2A school, you don’t get much ball knowledge. You get Cover 2 or Cover 1, and from there, there’s not much else you can do. I lacked that when I got here. My IQ of the game has grown a lot.
   
• You want to have older safeties, but you also want some younger guys who can go. We have that with our freshman guys coming in. You want the old guys to know the scheme because it trickles down to the young guys. We even still have Bravion Rogers. We have a number of good players sitting and waiting for their moment to shine.
   
• All the young guys in the safety room can play. Rogers is a freak of an athlete. He can jump out of the building. He’s going to take the steps he needs to take to help the team.
   
• I need to grow my leadership and not have those plays where I miss it because I was looking somewhere else. I need to grow my IQ and transition that into the field. That will be a big step I need to take if I want to be a top-five safety in the draft.
   
• You have Mario Craver coming back. TK Norman, Bussey and Ashton Bethel-Roman are back. You already know about those guys, but I love Isaiah Horton. He came in with the energy on Day 1. The young guys have energy. I love the energy our receivers are bringing to the entire team. I’m liking what I’m seeing.
   
• Taurean York gave me hell for not scoring. I got to get into the end zone. I thought I was going to get in there against South Carolina. York was right by me every time. He gave me hell and swears he caught up to me in the Missouri game. That’s what makes me want to get into the end zone.
   
• The hardest game was Notre Dame or South Carolina. That was a fun one because we had a terrible first half. We knew what we had to do, and we came out and did it. Arkansas was a rugged game. Those three were three of the games I enjoyed the most.
   
• Taylen Green is the main guy who stands out. Even when you have someone in third-and-long to where you can drop back, he can cut in an instant, and you have no idea how fast he’s moving. He could make noise in the league. Utah State’s scheme was different. They don’t run regular plays, and you didn’t know what you were going to get. They scored on one trick play, and it was something we had never seen.
   
• For me, I want to hold opponents to zero. That’s the only lesson for us from Miami because if you hold them to zero, you win the game. We have to learn from the points we gave up.
   
• Marcel Reed became a leader. He came out of his shell and became the leader the offense needed. As he continues to grow as a player, he’s growing his mind, his game and getting his body right. He’s invested in this team and this university. You’re going to see a big step from him.
   
• I love Lyle Hemphill’s aggression and his love for the game. He’s very passionate. He comes in every day with energy and fire. He just wants everybody to get better, know football and live, die and breath football this entire year.
   
• If they let me out of the pit of rehab, I’d love to do some coaching this spring.