The nation’s co-leader in interceptions, sophomore cornerback Jeremiah Cooper, reflected on his eye-popping start to the season, the growth since starting as a true freshman and his journey to Iowa State.
While the Cyclones are coming off a loss against their in-state rival Iowa Hawkeyes, which dropped them to 1-1 on the season, one young star on the defense has been a bright spot on an already stacked side of the ball.
Cooper ended last season without an interception over his nine appearances, including seven starts. To get on the field as a true freshman is impressive enough, let alone a defense that sat atop the Big 12 and has been praised over the past couple of seasons.
“Last year I learned a lot, so I’m just learning from all my mistakes and I’m just getting a better feel for the game so when I go out there I can execute what I already know,” Cooper said.
Whether it was just correcting some mistakes or being at his healthiest, Cooper has already turned some heads this season.
After just two games into his second season at the collegiate level, he has already snatched three interceptions, which is tied for the most among all Division I players.
In the season opener, Cooper essentially scored 10 points himself with a 58-yard pick-six on Northern Iowa’s first drive, followed by another pick that put the Cyclones in field goal position with only a few seconds left in the first half.
Cooper would earn Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against the Panthers. He talked about what that performance did for him confidence-wise and what it meant to him to make those plays for his team.
“It does a lot. When you go out there and get two interceptions, you gonna feel a type of way,” Cooper said. “It just continues to grow your confidence and continues to let you play your game.”
Cooper’s most recent interception came off of Iowa’s new man behind center, Cade McNamara, halfway through the second quarter. While it didn’t end up being a huge turning point for the Cyclones, it showed that his performance in the season opener wasn’t a fluke.
“Jeremiah has been playing the best football in the nation,” linebacker Jacob Ellis said. “He’s been dominating in the secondary and helping the whole team get the ball back, [and] that’s a key emphasis is getting takeaways.”
What stands out most isn’t when Cooper is making a play on the ball; it’s how he’s doing it.
His pick-six against UNI was a perfect read on the ball where he jumped the route to take it the other way. The second pick was a “right place at the right time” catch after the Panthers quarterback Theo Day sailed a ball over the middle.
The snag against Iowa came on an underthrown ball from McNamara where Cooper followed his receiver the whole way to make the catch.
Cooper talked about his versatility on the field and the way he approaches each game.
“Actions speak for itself. I can do a lot and I know that,” Cooper said. “At the end of the day, I just go out there and play. I don’t really think about it. I just go out there and make plays.”
Defensive Coordinator Jon Heacock talked about why Cooper has found success early on and his ability to cause turnovers from veteran quarterbacks.
“He understands football,” Heacock said. “He does a great job of the awareness of playing back in space, what’s going on around him and what the routes are. He doesn’t have to stare people down. He can feel what’s happening around, and I think that’s a sign of an excellent defensive back.”
Cooper dealt with a hamstring injury late last season, which caused him to miss the final three games of the season. Heacock praised his young corner for the work he put into the offseason to get him where he is today and the traits he possesses at the position.
“He’s very instinctive, he’s a natural and he has great ball skills,” Heacock said. “I think he’s been a guy that’s developed, got hurt a little bit last year obviously. He had a great spring and a great summer and is putting it all together.”
Along with sharpening his skills during the offseason, Cooper also made it a point to focus on staying on the field and controlling his availability.
He had never dealt with a serious injury during his prep career, so he was left wondering what to change.
After he learned that he would be sidelined for the remainder of the season, he stuck around his teammates to increase his knowledge of the game and got with the nutrition team to prepare his body and do everything he could to ensure this wouldn’t happen again.
“Once I got that injury I learned a lot, not just football-wise but also nutrition-wise, and I think it really helped me and built me to be a better player,” Cooper said. “Once the offseason hit, I just had to really focus on just preparing my body for this season, gaining weight and making sure all the little muscles were right.”
Before he joined the Cyclones last season, Cooper was a three-star, two-way prospect out of El Paso, Texas, and received offers from 26 other programs including a pair of power five schools close to home in Baylor and Texas Tech.
When asked to look back on his recruitment process, Cooper gave a lot of credit to Jeff Woodruff, his high school coach at Andress, for reaching out to coaches across the nation and using his connections from his previous jobs.
One of those connections was Jeff Mills, a senior quality control coach for defense at Iowa State. It was through that relationship that Cooper learned about the culture at Iowa State and his decision became clear.
“They [Mills and Woodruff] coached together at Washington, so they had a connection and he passed my name along to the staff here,” Cooper said. “The culture and everything was ran different around here, and that’s what I wanted to be a part of.”
The Cyclone’s defense has thrived on having multiple playmakers at each position, and with most offenses fearing veteran corners T.J. Tampa and Myles Purchase, Cooper has added himself to the list of players not to throw the ball toward.
