Before the Idaho State football season began, head coach Cody Hawkins made a prediction: junior running back Dason Brooks was going to be an All-Big Sky Conference performer this season.
It certainly looked like Hawkins knew what he was talking about when the 5-foot-11-inch, 228-pound junior ran for 132 yards and two touchdowns in the season-opening loss to FBS UNLV.
But a leg injury suffered in that first game sidelined Brooks for the next two games against Southern Utah and New Mexico. It continued to impact his explosiveness even after he returned to the starting lineup and the season progressed.
Compelled by the loss of three other running backs to injuries either before the season started, or as it evolved, Hawkins was forced to rely heavily on Brooks despite his being less than 100% physically once he returned to the lineup.
But after two bye weeks and with the passage of time, Brooks started to look like the guy of whom Hawkins says, “If you’re just talking about pure talent with the ball in his hands, I think Dason is the best ball carrier in the conference.”
ISU running game coordinator Jake Thomas could see it coming too, and he wasn’t surprised when Brooks exploded for a career-high 219 yards and two touchdowns in ISU’s 38-36 upset of sixth-ranked UC-Davis on Saturday.
“He had a great week of prep and we knew he was hitting his stride just health-wise and execution-wise, vs. NAU,” said Thomas. “So we know that part of the game plan, and the recipe to win was to give him the ball.”
It didn’t take long for Brooks to reward that strategy. On ISU’s first possession of the game, Brooks broke a 57-yard run for a touchdown to ignite a productive offensive performance for the Bengals.
“I got an amazing pull by (center Alex Ramirez),” recalled Brooks. “He pulled through and I just read off his block, and I had one more cutback. And I got (ISU receiver) Mike Shulikov blocking downfield. It was just all set up for me and I just had to finish off the drive.”
Brooks scored again on a 15-yard run in the second quarter, and then kept grinding out yards under a hot Central California sun on 24 carries, while on his way to the sixth-most yards gained in a single game in ISU history.
“I remember feeling really good,” said Brooks of what he acknowledged was his best day in his three-year Bengal career. “I’m from Arizona, from a warmer place, so being in a warmer climate felt absolutely amazing.
“I remember feeling really confident scheme-wise,” he added. “And I remember talking to the linemen, just the way we communicated, it felt really seamless. I really felt confident in our entire play.”
The effort Saturday earned Brooks his second Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week Award (his other came after the UNLV game). It moved him into second in the conference rushing statistics, behind Montana’s Eli Gilmore, with 763 yards on 105 carries, an average of 7.3 yards per carry, 95.8 yards per game, and eight touchdowns.
Spearheaded largely by Brooks’ productivity, the Bengals lead the Big Sky Conference with an average of 5.7 yards per carry.
That is the kind of “balance” Hawkins and his staff have been looking for ever since he took over the program three seasons ago, all the while re-establishing the “Throwin’ Idahoans” identity of Bengal programs from years gone by.
“I think having a healthy Dason definitely helps promote balance,” said Hawkins. “When he has been healthy, we’ve been able to run the ball well. It’s not because the plays are better. Coaches matter, but players make a big deal out of things. Guys gotta be able to go out and execute. When you hand it to Dason Brooks vs. hand it to Cody Hawkins, the result is dramatically different.”
The story has been told before, but it bears repeating. Brooks arrived from Chandler, Ariz. having been recruited as a linebacker. He spent the 2023 season largely on special teams, and because of the demands of his software engineering major, had to miss a good deal of practice time.
But Brooks, who is an absolute workout warrior and pushes around more weight than most of his teammates, saw an opportunity in the largely bare running backs room that Hawkins inherited when he took over the program. So he approached Hawkins with a pitch that he move back to the position he starred at in high school.
“He said, ‘Oh yeah, I got you,’ ” Brooks said of Hawkins’ response. “He was just trying to pacify me.”
But ISU Strength and Conditioning Coach Jeff Pitman also saw the logic behind Brooks’ suggestion and he endorsed it to Hawkins.
“I guess Coach Pit brought it up, and when Coach Pit talks, people listen,” Brooks said. “So they tried me out and now I’m there.”
Running gane coordinator Thomas wouldn’t have him anywhere else.
“Really from day one, probably his first day at running back — no offense to his linebacker play — he was better as a running back than he was as a linebacker,” said Thomas. “From day one, he was a stud.”
When he evaluates what makes Brooks so good at this craft, Thomas sees a combination of factors, both physical and mental.
“It’s his prep — he’s very prepared,” Thomas said. “Assignment-wise, he’s nails. He’s got really good contact balance and feel. He’s got fricken size 14 feet, so you hit him, he’s going to stay balanced, he’s going to stay on his feet. He’s got a ton of yards after contact. I think a lot of it is just natural feel — he comes from a family of football players and running backs. So I think a lot of it is just ingrained by how he grew up with his older brother being a really good running back.”
One talent that didn’t come naturally to Brooks was pass-blocking. In a single-back offense that throws the ball 35 to 40 times a game, that back has to be able to protect the quarterback.
“Naturally, he wasn’t very good at it,” Thomas said of Brooks’ pass-blocking skills. “But he’s asked to block more than any running back in the nation — just in our offense, how much he plays. He’s executed at a really high level. Some running backs don’t necessarily make it an important detail, where he takes pride in it. And every day he’s getting better at it.”
Idaho State has given up only three sacks all season, and most of the credit for that stat goes to the offensive line and the quarterbacks who are getting the ball out quickly. But you can’t ignore Brooks’ role in that facet of the offense, either.
“He took a huge leadership role in the offseason,” Hawkins said of Brooks’ work to improve his pass protection abilities. “He’s learned it and worked on it. He’s our best pass protector too right now. It’s not just something where hey, you can hand him the ball. He’s the best at both.”
With three games remaining in the season, Brooks’ goal is to reach the 1,000- yard rushing mark, help the team win out and then figure out what the future holds with one more year of eligibility remaining.
“I definitely want to use my extra year,” he said. “I’m planning on coming back, but it’s like I’m just trying to get through the season. And I want to really get to 1 K (a thousand yards) — I want to really bad. I just want to achieve my goals and see what I can get from there.”
No matter what the future holds for Brooks, Thomas has thoroughly enjoyed his interactions with the running back.
“He’s one of one,” said Thomas. “He’s a little bit quirky, a little bit of a nerd, a great human being. A kind person, a great human being and one of the hardest workers. Then obviously, he’s got God-given talents that he’s been using.”