Georgia Tech Football: Five Impact Players - SS LaMiles Brooks

Last season was the coming of a new age for Georgia Tech’s safeties. Prior to that, Juanyeh Thomas and Tariq Carpenter anchored the safety position. This season, Brooks and Jaylon King took the helm before King went down with a season-ending injury and was replaced by an equally-impressive Clayton Powell-Lee.

Coming out of high school, Brooks was rated as a four-star recruit by Rivals (5.9) and the 247 Sports Composite (0.9086). Originally as a cornerback, Brooks committed to Georgia Tech on March 24, 2019. He committed to Georgia Tech over some pretty impressive reported offers, including Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.

In his first two seasons, Brooks played sparingly as a reserve player before moving into a starting position this last season.

Brooks’ best game of the season came in Georgia Tech’s 16-9 loss to Virginia, wherein Brooks totaled 9 tackles, 1.5 TFL, and a pick-six.

For the season, he finished with 52 tackles, 3.5 TFL, 10 pass deflections, and three interceptions. The season garnered him a third-team All-ACC nod.

I truly think that Brooks is a special player. He brings a great combination of great coverage skills and strong run support skills. In the highlights above, I was particularly impressed with Brooks’ ability to close the gap quickly and hit the ballcarrier. Even though it looks like he’s barely getting a hand in there on some of these plays, he’s still coming in strong enough to bring down the ballcarrier.

With a year as a starter under his belt, I expect Brooks to continue to improve this season. The key thing to keep an eye on will be if he can get the same support from the rest of the defensive pass rush sans Keion White.

What are you expecting out of LaMiles Brooks this season?