Iowa State safety Jeremiah Cooper celebrates a big play during his team’s 30-9 win over Northern Iowa in the season opener. Photo courtesy Iowa State Athletics Communications.
AMES — Each trip Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell and his staff took during the recruitment of safety Jeremiah Cooper prompted the same set of quizzical queries from the folks in El Paso, Texas.
“Every time we went down there (it) was, ‘How the heck are you guys getting this guy?” Campbell recalled. “‘I can’t believe nobody knows about him.’”
They certainly know about him now. Cooper — a hard-hitting 6-0, 185-pound sophomore for the Cyclones — is one of two players nationally with as many as three interceptions this season. He’s also one of 31 FBS players to have strode into the end zone with a pick-six and it’s hoped that his ball-hawking mentality will rub off on his teammates during Saturday’s 11 a.m. (ESPNU) nonconference finale at Ohio.
“He’s very instinctive,” ISU defensive coordinator Jon Heacock said. “He’s a natural. Has great ball awareness, great ball skills. He came here with that to some extent, but I think he’s been a guy that’s developed.”
Cooper’s 58-yard interception return on the Cyclone defense’s opening drive of the season set the tone in a 30-9 win over Northern Iowa. His pick last week against Iowa didn’t conjure a similar game-changing effect, but that doesn’t negate its importance.
ISU (1-1) needs someone other than Cooper to scrape up a takeaway, though. The always-sturdy Cyclone defense ranked fourth nationally last season in yards allowed per game (273.5), but tied for 98th in terms of takeaways with 15. Cooper’s already reeled in his three, but others must join the turnover-producing trend, as well.
“There’s plenty of room for improvement,” Heacock said. “But I’ve liked our competitive spirit, our preparation (and) our want-to.”
Cooper — who eventually did draw the attention of other schools such as Baylor and Texas Tech during the recruiting process — shines in each of the areas Heacock highlighted above. He started his first seven games as a true freshman, instantly earning the trust of veteran teammates such as Anthony Johnson, who shifted from cornerback to safety his senior season and now is with the Green Bay Packers.
“‘Ant’ was probably the first leader I ever looked up to in this football world,” Cooper said. “(He) really taught me everything. He taught me how to carry myself on and off the field, and I just followed in his footsteps. I don’t think he realizes how much of an impact he made on my freshman year and on my life. He’s forever my brother.”
Cooper’s actual brother, Tristan, also served as an exemplar growing up. He played safety at Arizona from 2016-19 — and their sister, Hannah, averaged 20.3 points per game last season for Oral Roberts’ women’s basketball team. So athletic prowess runs in the family, starting with their father, Michael, who played football at North Texas.
“He’s been there,” Campbell said. “He had some tough experiences. I feel like he’s built his sons into how to be great, and I think Jeremiah’s thrived on it. He got to watch his brother through his own experience. He got to watch his sister play great basketball. So I feel like he was sitting in the wings, learning (through) all these experiences from all the people ahead of him and he was ready for his time.”
Cooper also navigated through the rehabilitation required after suffering a hamstring injury late last season, so he’s also turned tough experiences into a platform for self-reinvention.
“Me and the nutrition staff, we got together in the offseason just to make sure something like that, hopefully, does not happen again,” Cooper said. “It just built me as a player and it really opened up my mind, everything. It made me think a lot.”
That encounter with adversity also made Cooper even more adept at film study. It sharpened his focus in the weight room. It’s carried onto the field, where Cooper seeks to mirror the habits and skills of Johnson — who coincidentally notched his first career interception in last season’s 43-10 win over Ohio. After that seemingly monumental moment, Johnson almost eschewed postgame media availability. He said he wanted to study his mistakes, not his triumphs.
Cooper’s cut from the same cloth, but joked that he won’t take self-criticism to that extreme. He’s too busy making a name for himself on a defense that once again looks to be among the Big 12’s best.
“I really studied ‘Ant’ because he was a veteran,” Cooper said. “So when I got hurt, I really used that to my advantage. I studied him and try to kind of mimic my game off him.”
