Keanon Cooper

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go4fan

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Can we move him to safety??? Where is everyone that was hyping him to the NFL?? He hasn't done anything this year. I think he needs to be moved to his more natural position which is safety.
 

I was hyping him up, not for the nfl, but I really thought he played fast last year. I don't know what happened to him or the rest of our D, but I'm excited to see what happens next year under different leadership for this D. I still think there is plenty of ability on that side of the ball.
 

go4fan said:
Can we move him to safety??? Where is everyone that was hyping him to the NFL?? He hasn't done anything this year. I think he needs to be moved to his more natural position which is safety.
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He was already moved from safety to linebacker.
 

i know that, that was because we wanted speed at LB (which is understandable) but sacrificed size. He is a safety. I bet he would be a 10x better safety than an undersized OLB.
 

He lead the team in tackles against Ohio STate. Calm down people, he is not terrible. He is also a redshirt sophomore.
 


Might not be a bad idea, if they get something out of Beal or if Maresh ever comes back, they are going to have a decent LB corps going forward.
 

He is currently 225 pounds and played linebacker during his high school career. The safety talk came from the recruiting services projecting him there in college.
 

He hasn't made a lot of big plays but I haven't really noticed him being out of position a lot or making a lot of bad plays. It's hard to say for sure since none of us have broken down film.
 

I actually think he's good. Gets caught in the wash on running plays a little, but he's pretty effing far from the biggest problem on defense.
 



He is a strong safety, that is playing out of position. Stand next to him and Kyle Threat and then wonder why our safetys have trouble with 215 lb. backs. Kyle has heart but is tiny.
 

Gophers09 said:
He is currently 225 pounds and played linebacker during his high school career. The safety talk came from the recruiting services projecting him there in college.
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There is no way in hell that he is 225. I have met the guy before, and he MIGHT be 210.
 

go4fan said:
i know that, that was because we wanted speed at LB (which is understandable) but sacrificed size.
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No, it's not. If that was the case, why did the staff ever bother having him play safety?
 

I didn't think they ever played him at safety. I thought he was a LB from day 1. I also thought I heard that Brew wanted more speed at LB which is why he moved there. But I could be wrong.
 




FrothyGopher said:
I actually think he's good. Gets caught in the wash on running plays a little, but he's pretty effing far from the biggest problem on defense.
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Agreed. I've actually seen a few plays this year where I thought an offense was about to bust a big play on us when someone comes out of nowhere and snags the guy, I think to myself (or say) 'hey, who was that?!' and it's always Cooper. He's undersized, but the kid has wheels and can tackle. I think if he had a coach who knew where to put him, he could excel as a linebacker.
 

Just imagine if he were the strong safety

Better wheels than what we currently have back there and you could funnel tackles to him.
Give him the drops and a chance to react and close on a ball carrier in the hole instead of having to take on blocks all of the time. I like someone that can wheel and cover more ground from a distance at the strong safety spot. His forte is not pass rushing or taking on blocks head on it is running down people in space, shooting gaps and covering people. Cooper is out of position, the next coach will see that and move him back once they realize how fast he is.
 

I actually think Cooper will end up at safety next season. One of our bigger problems is that we seem to be undersize across the board, and a couple tweeks into next season's lineup and we are a much larger team. The problem is that if Cooper doesn't switch to safety, he might not be starting next season. I imagine that Beal will be our MLB next season and he will have Tinsley and Rallis Outside.

For me, it's not so much that I think Cooper is a terrible linebacker, I just think he is athletic enough to play in even more space and could do a decent job at SS (we are also much deeper at LB, especially next season).
 

Cooper is a better outside backer than Rallis, and it isn't close.
 

there is no doubt if all is healthy - it will be tinsley, rallis, and beal as the 3 LB's. I was expecting alot more out of Coop - he is not physical at all. Strong safety would be my vote. He is soft in the middle - we need physical LB's in the middle. Tinsley will go to WLB and Beal will take over MLB. I'm hoping Beal is 75% of his hype and we'll be in great shape in the middle.
 

Rosemountian said:
Cooper is a better outside backer than Rallis, and it isn't close.
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I think most people who watched them both play this season would disagree that it's not close. Like I said, I wasn't saying Cooper couldn't play LB, I just think he would be our best bet to be our starting SS next season. The OLB position is considerably more deep (Rallis, Reeves, Singleton, Hill, Grant, etc.).

I think almost everyone expects our LBs next season to be Tinsley - Beal - Rallis.
 

Unless I get my wish and we run a 3-4.
 

I expect Reeves is about ready to make his presence felt. You always need a lot of depth. Injuries happen. Like this year.
 



I like Cooper at LB when it is a passing down...love him at SS in run/short yardage/goal line situations.

He would be a beast in run support at strong safety and with recovery and closing speed for fakes and play action.

He is too small to play LB every down...IMO.
 

in a 3-3-5 Cooper would be a perfect SS/LB hybrid.
He could play strong safety if we were running a lot of cover 3 with the SS rolling down. I can't see him in a deep third or deep half.
 

Right now I want to see what will happen with a new, presumably better coaching staff myself.
 

go4fan said:
He hasn't done anything this year.
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I'm not going to say that he has played good or bad, but it takes 10 other guys out there to make the defense, and individuals on the defense, look good. If Greg Jones played behind our D-line he wouldn't look nearly as good.

Having said that, I haven't been able to watch a few of the games this year, and when I did I didn't focus on just one person to see how they did. IMO, we already moved him once so the coaches should just keep him at LB for this year. Let next years regime, who hopefully will be better at evaluating talent, handle position changes.
 

Rosemountian said:
in a 3-3-5 Cooper would be a perfect SS/LB hybrid.
He could play strong safety if we were running a lot of cover 3 with the SS rolling down. I can't see him in a deep third or deep half.
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This is actually exactly how I feel. I do think he will end up at SS next season because he will be good at SS in a lot of situations. He would be ok at covering TEs and RBs out of the backfield, would be good against the run (for a SS), would be really good in the box (for a SS). He would have some difficulty, i'd guess, transitioning to playing the ball in the air, whether that be in the Cover 2 or anything like that.

I'd guess he would have some difficulty being a traditional SS against the spread, but i'd imagine we'd be running a nickle in a lot of those situations anyway and the amount of times he'd have to be playing deep halves (not as concerned about deep 3rds), would be pretty low.

I can't imagine we'd have another player on our roster who would have more attributes that would make him succesful at SS than Cooper next season. I would actually like him to end up at SS even if we ended up playing a 3-4.
 

If the gophers recruited a solid Free Safety, they could play man free. He would be a great SS in a blitz heavy defense. That would also require the corners to have a pulse.
 

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