So, you’re an undrafted National Football League rookie free agent and you’re willing to make an NFL roster by whatever means necessary ?: Start out with special teams and take from there.
If all else ‘fails’ as it were, that’s not a bad position to be in for Philadelphia Eagles receiver and Hazelwood West High graduate Darius Cooper. He’s at training camp with the reigning Super Bowl-champion Eagles, who already tout two bona fide star receivers in their pass-catching corps in A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith, as well as a couple of veteran backups. So despite the fact that Cooper will bring a college resume full of accolades as a receiver himself: He hauled in 76 passes for 1,450 yards and 14 touchdowns, garnering All-American honors at Tarleton State University, the second-tier classifications of Division 1 programs, known as Football Championship Subdivision.
“He’s just got to make sure his spirit is fortified and he’s got to prepared to make it as a special teams player,” said Hazelwood West coach Rory Seals of Cooper to the Argus, adding in half-jest : “He’s got to be prepared to bend those knees.” (In special teams play, bending your knees is helpful on multiple levels to generate more power from your legs, help gain leverage to fight off tackles and blocks and to be in better position to explode off your stance to get to the ball carrier.)
Below: left to right top photos of Darius Cooper working out in camp with the Philadelphia Eagles and bottom row, left to right as a member of Tarleton State University in Texas, where he was an All-American at wide receiver for the Texans. Photos courtesy of the Eagles and Tarleton State.
But Cooper, a 6-foot- 190-pound athlete who was actually the star quarterback at Hazelwood West, has no qualms in reinventing himself again for the good of the team. especially on the team , which trounced the defending two-time championship Kansas City 40-22. after leading at one point 34-0.
“What can I do for the team? That’s what I want people to know about me,” said Cooper in an interview with Texan News Service. “I’m not a selfish receiver or anything like that. I want to do whatever I need to do for us to win, so special teams is no big deal for me. I would love being a part of special teams. Whatever you need me at, I’m going to give you my all. It’s about we not me.”
But let the proverbial record show that Cooper has been a huge success as a quarterback-turned receiver. He started all 14 games for the Tarleton Texans who went 10-4 and finished 13th ranked . He pulled down 76 receptions, a single-season school mark for 1,450 yards and 14 touchdowns. For good measure, Cooper, a kinesiology major, was also an FCS Academic All-American. To even be eligible for that distinction the student-athlete must have at least a 3.50 cumulative grade-point average and played or started 66 percent of the college’s games.
“I had a really good feeling that he was a really high-character young man,” said Tarleton head coach Todd Whitten to the Texan News Service. “He had a wonderful mother who was with him on the (recruiting) trip. He had very good parenting. So I knew, I just knew he was a real quality person and that meant a lot.”
Coming out of Hazelwood West High, Cooper was a star, multi-purpose quarterback for the Wildcats. He passed for a modest 1,275 yards and 15 touchdowns, but rushed for 870 yards and 11 touchdowns, in helping lead the club to an 8-2 record. As an undersized quarterback he wasn’t recruited by major colleges at that position. But he had a breakout sophomore season, when he had 54 receptions and nine touchdowns, at which point several big-time Power Four conferences schools would have lured him away, if he had merely put his name in the transfer portal.
“Coming off that (great sophomore) season (2022) I wanted to make sure I was playing,” he said. “I needed to be on the field. That was part of the reason why I stayed because I knew I had spot, and I knew we were growing as a university, so that’s exposure in itself.”
The old sports adage that professional scouts will find great prospects no matter where they might be was the case here as well. Furthermore, Cooper, a devout Christian, whom Seals said led the team prayer at Hazelwood West and has been active in church activities, relied on his faith as well.
“So really just knowing that it’s up to God-it didn’t matter where you go,” said Cooper, who married his girlfriend Kennady Carter while in college..” If you have the talent, the league is going to find you and that’s kind of what I led on.”
Fortunately for him, he also saved some of his best collegiate performances for last. He had 11 catches for 190 yards in a 43-29 first-round FCS playoff win over Drake University. Then he had nine catches for 161 yards and three touchdowns in a 42-31 defeat to highly-regarded University of South Dakota. Not bad at all for a college-made receiver.
On transitioning to quarterback from receiver, he said being the signal-caller make it easier for him to recognize pass coverages from a defense, once he settled in as a pass catcher.
“You see the whole field as a quarterback,” he explained. “So when I moved to receiver…it was kind of easy to gauge and see different coverages and see how people disguise things. I was so used to seeing it all at quarterback. I think it even slowed the game down for me even more.”
Now Cooper is ready to speed his professional development up.
“They are getting a great kid, a high-character kid with a great work ethic and great attitude,” remarked Seals. “That was a senior dominated team at Hazelwood West We had talent, size. It’s not that DC (Darius Cooper) was the only college-level player. There were a lot of guys with potential to go to the next level based on their size and talent. He was just one of those players who had the tools athletically, academically, work ethic. He had leadership skills. He led the team prayer. He was an honor roll student. He was raised by great parents (Jose and Veronica) and took advantage of his opportunities.”
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