Kendell Brooks

Early life

Brooks was born on March 3, 2000, and grew up in Swansea, South Carolina. He attended Swansea High School and was an all-state selection. He began his college football career with the North Greenville Crusaders, posting 78 tackles (including 56 in 2019), two pass breakups and a fumble recovery while playing in 19 games across two seasons (2018–2019).

The 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and during that time Brooks worked for the family logging business, as a deliveryman at Pizza Hut, and as an employee at FedEx. He entered the transfer portal after the 2020 season and thought about joining FCS program Mercer before the FBS Michigan State Spartans called him. He accepted their offer, which included a scholarship.

In his first season with Michigan State, Brooks played mainly on special teams and posted nine tackles. He saw action on a total of 26 defensive snaps on the year. Entering the second game of the 2022 season, he was given a chance to start after an injury to Xavier Henderson and recorded seven tackles and a forced fumble against Akron. He ended up starting a total of 10 games in 2022, leading the team's secondary with 756 defensive snaps while tying for eighth in the FBS with three forced fumbles. He additionally totaled 100 tackles, which placed second on the team and was fifth-best in the conference.