Senior linebacker Jamal Brooks announced via Twitter on Monday that he is leaving the Missouri football program.

“It is with an open heart and teary eyes that I have made the decision to graduate this May and with great ambition enter my name into the transfer portal,” Brooks wrote.

Brooks committed to MU at 16 and will join his next program as a graduate transfer. He had 41 total tackles for the Tigers, with half of those coming during the 2019 season when he played seven games.

At the close of the 2020 season, Brooks was listed as second string behind redshirt sophomore Chad Bailey. He participated in Missouri’s spring training camp during February and March.

In high school, Brooks received offers from Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Pittsburgh and Wake Forest, among others. He was a three-star prospect and one of the top-50 outside linebackers in the nation according to ESPN. Brooks is originally from Bessemer, Alabama.

As part of his announcement, Brooks thanked the family of Aaron O’Neal, the MU linebacker who died in 2005 when he collapsed during an offseason team workout. Missouri established a $250,000 endowed scholarship in O’Neal’s name as part of a March 2009 settlement.

“To the O’Neal family: Without your son, there would be nothing to honor,” Brooks wrote.

The Tigers now have 13 rostered linebackers for the 2021 season, three of whom are new to the program.