ARKANSAS FOOTBALL

Brooks Ellis gets ahead in classroom so he can focus on football

Arkansas linebacker Brooks Ellis tackles Texas Tech receiver Jakeem Sullins during a game Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015, at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Brooks Ellis prepared himself for a big senior season at linebacker for the Arkansas Razorbacks by getting ahead in the classroom.

Ellis needs to knock out only six hours this fall to wrap up his degree requirements in pre-professional exercise science -- a pre-med track that he hopes will lead to a career in orthopedics.

Brooks Ellis

at a glance

POSITION Middle linebacker

HEIGHT/WEIGHT 6-2, 245

HOMETOWN Fayetteville

PARENTS Kelly and Shelly Ellis

NOTEWORTHY Second-team preseason All-SEC choice by coaches and SEC media … Has made 26 career starts, including 18 in a row. … Had team-high 102 tackles in 2015 to rank tied for ninth in the SEC … One of two SEC players to log two 15-plus tackles games last season. … Is a legacy Razorback, as his late grandfather David Lashley earned letters from 1951-53. … On preseason watch lists for the Butkus Award and Wuerffel Trophy. … Second-team Academic All-American last year. Majoring in pre-professional exercise science with a minor in biology and hopes to be an orthopedic specialist.

The extra classroom work early in his career will allow him to devote more time to studying tape and helping in the linebacker room this fall.

"I'll be focused on football mostly, so it should be a great season," Ellis said at SEC media days.

Ellis, who was voted by teammates as a defensive captain for the second year in a row on Wednesday, has the credentials to back up such respect.

"He's very smart, very intelligent, a very cool person to be around," said end Deatrich Wise, who will share defensive captain duties with Ellis. "He doesn't say a whole lot, but when he does talk, he has a lot of knowledge to share. He's real cool."

Ellis started 11 of 13 games at middle linebacker in 2014, and he was preparing to take over the weakside linebacker spot, which is where the action is funneled to in the Hogs' defense.

Instead, with the Razorbacks still needing help at middle linebacker again, Ellis returned to the "mike" spot and led the team with 102 tackles, which tied for ninth in the SEC.

Coach Bret Bielema talked Ellis up to the media gathering at SEC media days in July.

"Brooks made a lot of tackles, did a lot of good things," Bielema said. "He probably at one point didn't think he would be as good of a player as he is today. A guy that's up for the most elite awards for linebacker play, a four-year starter, but he's also a pre-med student."

Linebackers coach Vernon Hargreaves said Ellis, who played every important snap on defense last season, has improved on his game heading into 2016.

"Obviously the longer you play the better you get at it," Hargreaves said. "He's using his knowledge more than he has in the past in terms of knowing where the ball can go and when it's probably coming out as opposed to just reacting.

"He's done this so long that he has a pretty good idea of what it is and where it is that he needs to be. That's the key. You watch those Hall of Fame guys and any one of them will tell you that as you start to understand the game, what's going to happen and when its going to happen, you talk about the game slowing down ... and that's happening for him."

Ellis had a summer unlike any of his teammates. He and some other UA biology students traveled to the Central American country Belize to study abroad. Ellis is accustomed to hard work and the sweat that comes with it, but he wasn't braced for the heat of Belize.

"I stepped off the plane and didn't stop sweating the entire time," Ellis said. "Three nights I had no AC, and that was probably the worst nights of my life."

Ellis said the trip was a blast, aside from those nights without air conditioning.

"We learned about plants and animals and stuff like that," he said. "Me and a couple of buddies went there together and it was part of my Bio minor. We took lots of great trips over there. We went all around the country. Lots of poverty over there, so it was just interesting to see that part of it as well as all the nature side. It was just a really good experience."

Ellis said he and fellow linebacker Dre Greenlaw are hoping a second year of continuity with the same defensive coordinator (Robb Smith) and linebackers coach (Hargreaves) will pay dividends.

"We have high expectations for ourselves this season," Ellis said. "We have so many people coming back with experience. Lots of leadership they bring to the table. Just knowing what to do in different situations, through adversity, through tough times, just knowing how to handle that and push through it. That's going to be huge for our defense and our team."

Ellis said he wants to attend medical school, but he's hoping that's a few years down the road after his football playing days are done.

"I'm going with football for however long I can ride it, then med school," he said. "I like orthopedics, the joints and knees and shoulders, so I can stay around sports. That would be really cool to do."

Sports on 08/27/2016