TAMPA, Fla. – Elijah Brooks was 27 years old when he took over for the man who was his coach at DeMatha Catholic, Bill McGregor. He thought his high school football head coaching future would last far longer than the eight seasons it did.
“I wanted to follow in the steps of Morgan Wootten and Bill McGregor and be a high school coach my whole life,” said Brooks, also referring to his Hall of Fame basketball coach who won more than 1,200 games and coached 13 future NBA players in 46 years at DeMatha. “God had a different plan. Let’s give it a shot in college, and I have enjoyed the journey.”
The journey has led to Brooks to USF where he coaches running backs on Brian Hartline’s staff. The former William & Mary running back left DeMatha, which is in Hyattsville, Md. and less than 10 miles outside the nation’s capital, in 2019 after compiling a 72-20 mark that included four straight Washington Catholic Association Conference titles. He spent the next four seasons at Maryland coaching running backs under Mike Locksley before moved to Virginia Tech where he spent three seasons in the same role on Brent Pry’s staff.
The dots that connected Brooks to USF ran through former Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Tyler Bowen, who was the running backs coach the past three seasons on Ryan Day’s staff at Ohio State. Hartline was the offensive coordinator…