Corey Cooper: Top 5 Senior Safeties

I didn't realize he was the leading tackler on our team last year. Thats great, but also gives you an idea of how porous the defense could be at time last year. Obviously, it wasn't as bad later in the year.

All negativity aside. I am glad Kiper put him there, it seems we have some better pieces in place than what we would have previously thought. Makes you wonder if someone as athletic as Gerry will explode as a safety in a couple years. If not this year. I really like our defense this year fellas. I really do.

 
Coach Power'T said:
I didn't realize he was the leading tackler on our team last year. Thats great, but also gives you an idea of how porous the defense could be at time last year. Obviously, it wasn't as bad later in the year.
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I think those stats are a little misleading. As I said, Cooper played more than everyone else. He had 91 tackles. Santos had 87 but played sparingly in 3-4 games. Rose played about half the time and ended up with 66. We just had such a rotation going at LB trying to find the right guys in the right spots that they didn't get nearly as many snaps.

Interesting stat: Andrew Green, LeRoy Alexander and Harvey Jackson had 41, 34 and 33 tackles, respectively which means the safety spot opposite Cooper made 108 tackles.

 
Mavric said:
Coach Power'T said:
I didn't realize he was the leading tackler on our team last year. Thats great, but also gives you an idea of how porous the defense could be at time last year. Obviously, it wasn't as bad later in the year.
Click to expand...
I think those stats are a little misleading. As I said, Cooper played more than everyone else. He had 91 tackles. Santos had 87 but played sparingly in 3-4 games. Rose played about half the time and ended up with 66. We just had such a rotation going at LB trying to find the right guys in the right spots that they didn't get nearly as many snaps.

Interesting stat: Andrew Green, LeRoy Alexander and Harvey Jackson had 41, 34 and 33 tackles, respectively which means the safety spot opposite Cooper made 108 tackles.
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How much more time did Cooper play than the other two? Because I remember seeing Green and Alexander out there a lot as well. He started all the games, as well as a few others on defense, but he wasn't out there for the majority of snaps. Your saying he played the most, I'd like to see how true this is.

As far as the comment about Santos having almost the same about of tackles with less playing time, your LBers are SUPPOSE to be your leading tacklers. For Cooper to have what he did, it shows his ability to get to the ball.

 
HuskerNationNick said:
How much more time did Cooper play than the other two? Because I remember seeing Green and Alexander out there a lot as well. He started all the games, as well as a few others on defense, but he wasn't out there for the majority of snaps. Your saying he played the most, I'd like to see how true this is.

As far as the comment about Santos having almost the same about of tackles with less playing time, your LBers are SUPPOSE to be your leading tacklers. For Cooper to have what he did, it shows his ability to get to the ball.
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The others were obviously out there a decent amount but not nearly as much as Cooper. HJax played quite a bit in the first half of the season but not very much in the second half. Alexander was the opposite. Green filled in as the third safety thoughout the year and played some Dime back but he didn't play half the snaps in any game (probably less than a third). There were times when Cooper wasn't out there but he played 80-90% of the snaps every game. The others rotated through the other spot.

I realize that the LBs are supposed to have more tackles. But less so in our defense than in most. Our safeties basically play as an extra LB against the run. My point was there were 3-4 games where Santos didn't play very much. The MIKE is the leading tackler on our defense. However, last year that role got split between at least two players so the total tackles didn't all go to the same guy.

 
I don't have numbers on snaps played, I just go by what I saw watching the games.

Tackles per game:

CC: 4-4-12-10-10-2-6-7-5-8-6-7-10

LA: 0-0-0-3-3-1-0-5-3-5-5-4-5

HJ: 4-7-5-7-3-4-3-0-0-0-0-0-0

AG: 3-0-2-2-4-4-1-5-5-2-1-6-6

You can plainly see that HJax and Alexander basically split the season as the Safety opposite Cooper. Cooper racked up tackles in some of the early games where our defense was struggling and the guys in front of him weren't doing their jobs. Credit to him for making the plays - as I said, he's a solid player - but him leading the team in tackles was a lot about him having the most opportunities.

 
IIRC, Smith and Stafford had 86 and 96 tackles respectively in 2012. Stafford had maybe 51 solo. Stafford was first team all B1G. Coop is right in line with those guys. IMO, he just seems to have more "upside" and more athletic ability than either one of them. Throw in a season where he has a much improved DL and LB corps and we might see the "potential" Kiper sees translate to damn, he can play...............

Again, if Coop can play consistent sound football, he has a definitive shot at the next level.

 
He is one of those players who you don't realize makes an impact until he either makes a big play or looking at the final stat sheet.

 
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