Florida State Football: Top 15 players in program history

5. Derrick Brooks

Before Derrick Brooks made the Pro Bowl for 11 years in his NFL career, before he won Super Bowl XXXVII as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and before the same Bucs retired his No. 55 jersey, he was a student-athlete at Florida State University.

Brooks is one of FSU’s most decorated NFL players and his career as a Seminole wasn’t much different. He was a ‘Nole from 1991-94 and finished his college career with a record of 44-5-1 under legendary coach Bobby Bowden.

The defensive star signed with the 1991 recruiting class as a defensive back but moved to weakside linebacker for the 1992 season. Over his career, Brooks became a three-time All-ACC player and was a pivotal part of the 1993 National Championship team.

At Florida State, Brooks never put up eye-popping stats because teams ran away from him and he was utilized so much in the pass coverage schemes that Mickey Andrews liked to use at the time.

Over a 14-year NFL career Brooks logged 1,715 career tackles and 13.5 sacks with 25 interceptions. The Buccaneers defensive success and Florida State’s for that matter was in the hands of the undersized linebacker from Pensacola, Fla. By 2000, Brooks was inducted into the FSU Hall of Fame and was a first ballot NFL Hall of Fame inductee.