Tuesday August 24, 2010

Cooper

Cooper
When I saw junior film of Scotty Cooper I thought he looked a lot like Stanley Hunter, another Clemson commitment at the time. I had already seen Hunter play several times at Byrnes High School in Duncan, SC and even though they played different positions in high school, they physically looked very similar.

The first time I saw Cooper play in person was at the Shrine Bowl practice in his senior season and again he looked like a spitting image of Hunter.

That practice session was where Rich Rodriguez, who was at West Virginia at the time, was trying to talk Cooper out of his commitment to Clemson but like Hunter, Cooper stayed true to his word.

I can remember a conversation I had with former Clemson linebacker coach David Blackwell about Hunter and Cooper. He said the staff really liked both Hunter and Cooper and thought both had nice futures. However, he told me that he doubted they could both play together at the same time because the staff did not want to get two smaller linebackers on the field at the same time.

Now, neither will be on the field this season.

Yesterday we got the news that like Hunter, Cooper’s football career is over because of a medical reason.

Cooper hurt his neck last year in the Maryland game and he has not been the same since. In fact, his entire career at Clemson was marred by injury. Unfortunately for Cooper, his neck condition was similar to J.K. Jay’s decision about his back in that they both had to chose to end their careers instead of risking serious injury.

Injuries were the biggest factor in Cooper not reaching the potential the staff originally saw in him. He was a highly thought of prospect coming out of high school and had major offers. In fact, LSU was also a major player for his signature but Cooper decided to stay in the state of South Carolina and sign with Clemson.

His freshman year gave Cooper a lot of hope when he recorded 33 tackles including 10 against Auburn in the Chic-fil-a Bowl. He even started two games in that freshman season.

As a sophomore, Cooper doubled his starts with four and had a solid season and last season he played in 12 games but was hobbled with a knee injury and later a neck injury.

On the field the Tigers will miss his experience but he will probably be missed more on special teams. Cooper will be missed due to a red-shirt freshman taking over the position. Quandon Christian is the starter at the SAM linebacker with Daniel Andrews moving up to be the back up.

Linebacker coach and defensive coordinator Kevin Steele has the option of moving a linebacker to the SAM spot to help with depth. Justin Parker might be a candidate. The true freshman has been working at the MIKE position but Corico Hawkins and Spencer Shuey are ahead of him at MIKE. The two WILL linebackers, Brandon Maye and Tig Willard are two other candidates to move if necessary.

Moving from MIKE to WILL or vice-versa is a little easier than moving from either MIKE or WILL to the SAM position but Parker may be the best bet to move.

Another option would be for the Tigers to move a big safety to linebacker. I doubt DeAndre McDaniel or Rashard Hall would move but a reserve safety may get the call.

You could see Steel move a smaller defensive end to SAM like he did last year when Kevin Alexander played the position at times. Kourtnei Brown would be a candidate but there is little depth at defensive end as well.

Someone from offense could be moved to the other side of the ball. Player that comes to mind are current tight end Vic Beasley or running backs Demont Buice and D.J. Howard.

A final option would be for Steele to play more Nickel packages. The Tigers have more safety bodies than they do linebackers at this point.

Those options only become more of an issue if the Tigers suffer another injury at the SAM linebacker. If Christian stays healthy he should be fine and the position should be in good shape. If Andrews stays healthy he should be a capable back up.

The most important thing at this point is that Cooper made the right decision and made it before it was too late. Hopefully he will enjoy a full, healthy life.

We don’t ever want to get the news like we have had with Stanley Hunter, J.K. Jay, Jake Nicolopolus and now Scotty Cooper but it does help us get our priorities back in order. It just reminds us where football should rank in our lives.

The Brad Hughes All-State Insurance Agency

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We have started a prayer list on the blog. Here are the guidelines:
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Those who need our prayers include:
Finn Brookover, RTG-Pawsitive Tiger, Mary-Louise Pawlowski (John's daughter), Jo Ann Bachman, Kenneth Bryant, Pruitt Martin, Got igers and his family, David Rowland, Leonard, Gillespie and his family, Jim S, Christine Hepfer, Daniel Rosborough, Amy Murphey, The Huffman family, Nancy Winkler, John Reeve, Ethel Southard, Vinnie Brock, Kaitlyn L, Susan Miller, Joyce Harley, Steve Proveaux, Jeffrey Greene, the Hutto family, Sherl Drawdy, Caleb Kennedy, Teresa O'Connor, Matt Jacobs,Perrin Seigler, Carole White Begley, Candee Massee, Lindsey Jordan, Sam Catoe, Tyler Felch, Steve Cato, the Nicolopulos family, Cason Palmer, Scott Jackson, "the Jacksonville, FL guys", Kim Sims, the Coyle familty, Ryleigh Tedder, Steve Lee, Richard Crawford, Kelly Trakas, Jimmy Moore, Steve Williams Jr, Steve Williams III, Kim Thomas, Reid Thomas, Sam Thomas, Linda Wiggs, Emily Claire Young, Dr. Wallace Honeycutt, Stacy Fowler, Kitty Bowers,Julie and Austin Locke.