Scotty Cooper Forced to Give Up on Football
by DrB on Aug 24, 2010 7:57 AM EDT
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PrintCooper came in as a highly rated 4-star recruit from Lake City who had offers from Michigan, Penn State, LSU, SC, and Clemson among others. However in his first year or so he had two knee surgeries that essentially robbed him of his athleticism and speed, and has never lived up to his billing since.
Last year, it was expected he would get considerable snaps, but he didnt get over 200 as a Strongside Backer in Steele's system to spell Kevin Alexander, and finished with only 12 tackles for the season. He last got significant PT two years ago under Blackwell's horrible tutelage, but never finished with more than 33 tackles in VK's scheme. Cooper really doesn't possess the size to play SLB in Steele's scheme, nor the speed to play Weakside in coverage, so he was kinda stuck.
Cooper said that since the Maryland game last season he has had a neck (nerve) problem that causes him a lot of pain when he makes tackles, and it has gotten worse in camp, so much now that he has decided to give up football. He's going to remain as a student coach with J.K. Jay and Stanley Hunter. Hopefully he'll make a good coach and recruiter someday soon for us.
Clemson now has 7 recruited LBs on scholarship, and we need 10 for a full compliment. This puts Daniel Andrews at backup Sam and may force a move by Parker to strongside for depth. While I did not expect Cooper to get more than 150-200 snaps again this year, it does put us in a serious bind with numbers. The plan was to take 3 LBs in recruiting already, so Cooper doesn't affect that.
All that means is that Steele will play even more substituted nickel coverage this season.
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Yet more attrition at linebacker
We really should recruit 2x the LBs and OL we need because of the losses.
On the plus side, it is not a big loss since he has been a minor contributor. He may have increased his role if he had been able to keep playing. Conner certainly elevated his play in his final year.
And there will be more OL losses
Multiple rumors that David Smith and Mason Cloy will both give up their senior year of playing time.
If that happened we’d be screwed for 2011 altogether.
Cloy wants to join the military
as you know he went to ROTC camp this June, and his family is military. He wants to join up if he can’t play NFL.
David Smith got married, and knows the NFL is not in his future and will graduate in December. He is assumed to be leaning towards going, unless he projects to start in 2011 I see him going.
Wilson Norris is expected to be completely done with football as well, he won’t come back in 2011 for his last year of eligibility.
Wow! I can't believe that these guys would pass up a year of free college and even an outside shot at the NFL.
And even though I greatly admire Cloy for wanting to go into the military, doing so after getting more education, or even after a few years in the NFL would be great (in fact better) for the country, the military, his military career, his family, his future, his future family, etc. Many of the higher-ups in the military get graduate degrees in order to advance their careers. And the PR & leadership benefits of starting a military career after a full college football career and perhaps a partial NFL career would be huge. It just doesn’t make sense to me, but I respect him for his willingness to serve.
Good luck to Scotty.
That recruiting class has had problems with injuries. Looks like the coaches should consider moving Vic Beasley to OLB. At 6’2" and 212 lbs ; with lots of speed, seems his body type would fit defense better. I think Ard and TI had him at 6’5" 245 before he arrived at Clemson. Hard to block DEs and tackles at that size.
Depending on the formation of the offense
Would our best nickel formation have Meeks at SS and McDaniel at SAM?
Doubtful
When you run a Nickel out, you take out a LB and put in a corner or a guy who can play CB. Gilchrist plays the “Star” (nickelback) position best, so I suspect you’ll see Brewer out there and Gilchrist moved over.
McDaniel is also too instinctive a player to take him out of coverage, you’ll lose your ability to force turnovers in the secondary if you bring him up totally.
What VK ran schemewise is not what Steele runs when they both put out 5 DBs.
We have had a tough time with injuries to LB's.
Maybe we could move Buice or Beasley over, but would they be ready to play? I though Vic Beasley should have been a LB from the beginning, but the staff may have promised him a shot at TE to get him to come here.
There is something in these Hills!
It's not like we are stacked at the TE position either
Although you don’t need as many, and we definitely need the help at LB.
I wonder if Buice would even be willing to play LB, or if he would just transfer?...
If Bellamy and Lane stick with their commitments to Clemson, Buice might find it tough get playing time at RB, but he was a 3-star RB out of high school, so I wonder if he wouldn’t transfer somewhere to play RB rather than try to play LB.
I remember Clemson tried Rendrick Taylor at LB, but he just didn’t have that LB skill set, despite being a physically monstrous athlete.
RT probably wishes that, too. Should have used the redshirt year to learn to play LB.
There is something in these Hills!
by Tigerplowboy on Aug 26, 2010 5:12 PM EDT up reply actions
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