Unstoppable: Amari Cooper Will Be the Baddest Man on the Field in the Sugar Bowl
NEW ORLEANS — LSU safety Rickey Jefferson watched Amari Cooper on film and then saw the Alabama wide receiver up close on Nov. 8, and Jefferson thought he was watching a slick point guard in action. All that was missing was a basketball. Cooper has moves, the football equivalent of between the legs, around the back, spin and crossover.
That's why Jefferson chuckles into the phone when the naive question comes. "Why don't you just hit him really hard at the line and keep him out of the route?"
You think Ohio State, on Thursday night in the national semifinals, is going to be the first to try that?
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
"He is freakish off the line with the moves," Jefferson said. "It's like basketball moves off the line without the ball. It's crazy.
"The thing is if you don't get your hands on him at the line, you are not going to have a chance. It's not the speed he wins with; it's the quickness. We wanted to hold him under 100 yards here at DBU, and we did, but he got us for a touchdown."
| Aug. 30 | West Virginia | 12 | 130 | 0 |
| Sept. 6 | Florida Atlantic | 13 | 189 | 1 |
| Sept. 13 | Southern Miss | 8 | 135 | 1 |
| Sept. 20 | Florida | 10 | 201 | 3 |
| Oct. 4 | Mississippi | 9 | 91 | 0 |
| Oct. 11 | Arkansas | 2 | 22 | 0 |
| Oct. 18 | Texas A&M | 8 | 140 | 2 |
| Oct. 25 | Tennessee | 9 | 224 | 2 |
| Nov. 8 | LSU | 8 | 83 | 1 |
| Nov. 15 | Mississippi St. | 8 | 88 | 1 |
| Nov. 22 | Western Carolina | 3 | 46 | 0 |
| Nov. 29 | Auburn | 13 | 224 | 3 |
| Dec. 6 | Missouri | 12 | 83 | 0 |
The touchdown against LSU, Defensive Back U., was vintage Cooper. A corner was rolled up in his face at the LSU 23-yard line. Split right, Cooper escaped the pressure, took a dart from quarterback Blake Sims on a slant, used a block in the middle of the field and scored. Cooper had 83 yards receiving in the Crimson Tide's 20-13 overtime win.
Cooper caught 115 passes this season. He averaged 127 yards a game, 14 yards per reception. He catches flash passes in a stack of receivers to the right. He catches passes over the middle. He catches passes motioning from one side to the other.
There are no easy remedies. This isn't a game where you say, "He is going to get his," because "his" can be a 175-yard receiving game and three touchdowns. When you factor in the production of Alabama's run game and other receivers, the Tide can go for 40 points if Cooper gets his, and you're doomed.
"One of the things I ask myself is who and what could cause us to lose, unless we took specific measures beyond the realm of the normal scheme," said Al Groh, former head coach at Virginia, defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech and NFL head coach. "He answers that first question. That guy can cause you to lose on his individual skill and performance.
"So you have to rig your defense, whatever the price is, whatever we have to do to keep this player, who we do not match up with well, from beating us."
You won't slow Cooper down with one man. You don't have a football player as good as him. Ohio State doesn't have a football player as good as Cooper.
"He's got a talent and skill level that exceeds that of almost everybody he is going to play against," Groh said. "Who on your team is going to match up with him? Any type of single matchup, man-to-man or zone coverage, in which he gets into an opening in zone and he is one-on-one, is going to put you at a great disadvantage."
The obvious tactic Thursday night is for Ohio State to go high-low. It can use cornerback Doran Grant, its best cover corner, to get in Cooper's face on the line and try to disrupt the Alabama All-American. Grant can shade inside and bump and take away the inside stuff as part of a bracket. A safety plays high and has the fade or the go, the back-shoulder, throw-the-guy-open routes.
There are problems with the double-team. Jim Bates, a defensive coach in the NFL and at the college level for 37 years, said the safety that has watch over the top better keep an eye on the Alabama run game. The player matched up with Cooper can stay tight, but the second man better remember he is part of the 10-man run defense.
"Earlier in the year, Alabama didn't run the ball as well as they are now," Bates said. "Their offensive line is getting better and run game has been improving. When you have a running game like Alabama and put two guys on Cooper, it really limits you in run defense."
Groh and Bates marvel at the production Alabama gets from its wide receiver. There is explosiveness on vertical routes. Catch-after-run. Lateral quickness to escape the jam.
Then there is this: Alabama is not going to let you take that away easily.
"Amari Cooper has a whole coaching staff in the press box and on the sideline who are not willing to allow me to say, 'Hey, I'm eliminating your best guy,'" Groh said. "Also, he is a three-year player. This won't be the first game where the approach has been to take him out of the game. He'll make adjustments; he'll tell the sideline what's going on, too."
Groh said the Buckeyes need to come into the game with three schemes for Cooper. One of those schemes needs to be kept in their back pocket for the second half so Alabama has no pre-thought. Halftime in college, Groh said, is much longer than the NFL, so a staff like 'Bama's is going to get things figured out. Have an ace, something you practiced over and over for the three weeks leading up to the bowl game.
"In 2003, we played Pittsburgh in a bowl game and had to deal with Larry Fitzgerald. We had so many practice reps at it, the players felt like it was a coverage we had run all year long," Groh said.
"He caught maybe three or four passes, and the player on the other side caught nine. If the guy on the other side can beat you, well, that's the way it goes. But at least you addressed the principle problem, and the other guy did not offset the loss of production from Fitzgerald.
"I want them to work on that problem the whole game. I'm going to switch up coverage calls dealing with Amari Cooper, and then I'm going to save one to the second half."
At one point during Sugar Bowl media day, the interview table for the second option in the 'Bama passing game, DeAndrew White, was empty except for DeAndrew White. Should White get more attention, if not from the media, then Ohio State?
White came off a pick route at the 6-yard line against LSU and caught a touchdown pass from Sims for the winning score in overtime in the Nov. 8 game. He has been hurt this season with a shoulder injury, turf toe and hamstring. The senior from Houston, Texas, said he feels "ready" for Thursday, which gives Ohio State something else to think about.
"A good player," said LSU's Jefferson. "He has some skills."
Bates said Ohio State will have the best chance if its defensive front is able to create some chaos, which is actually a pretty fair possibility. The strength of the Buckeyes defense is along the line with defensive end Joey Bosa, tackle Adolphus Washington and defensive tackle Michael Bennett.
"Ohio State, being physical up front, may say we are going to get our guys up front to take care of the run," Bates said. "We're not going to let Cooper beat us on the big home run, so we're not going to commit another guy to the run. We're going to see how physical we can be up front shedding blocks.
"But if you commit another guy down in the box to the run with Cooper out there, you better hang on."
Ray Glier covers college football for Bleacher Report.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
