Transfer talk behind him, Cooper is now the starting running back


By Larry Williams
Morris News Service

Last spring, Michael Cooper entered Mark Richt's office unsure of what the next 30 minutes would bring.
Cooper asked for a meeting with his head coach a few days after Georgia's G-Day game, in which Cooper carried the ball just one time for 3 yards. After Richt redshirted him last fall, being an afterthought in the Bulldogs' spring game didn't fit Cooper's vision of himself or his role with the program.
He said publicly that he was considering ending his career in Athens before it even began, maybe moving closer to home and attending Georgia Southern.
Looking back on that day, the 19-year-old Cooper now realizes that he just wanted to feel wanted. He left the meeting feeling better after Richt assured him he would get an opportunity to deliver on the promise he brought to college from a decorated career at Screven County High.
Cooper's opportunity will come Saturday, and the nation will be watching. He is expected to start at tailback for the first time when the No. 8 Bulldogs play host to No. 25 South Carolina.
"He just needed us to say, 'Coop, we believe in you. Don't get down. You need to stay.' " Richt said earlier this week. "I think that's all he really needed to hear. Just some reassurance that we still loved him."
The 6-foot, 223-pound Cooper has come a long way since running with the scout team offense last season. Standing on the sidelines during Georgia's Sugar Bowl victory over Florida State, it was easy for him to wonder how long it would be before he became a priority.
Tailback Musa Smith, a 1,000-yard rusher last season, was only a junior. Behind him were Tony Milton, then Tyson Browning, Ronnie Powell and Mike Gilliam.
Even after Smith announced he would skip his final year and head to the NFL, there was reason for Cooper to be worried. Highly touted Kregg Lumpkin signed with the Bulldogs, and Milton was entrenched as the team's top tailback. Browning and Powell also figured to be in the mix, making it difficult for Cooper to get noticed during spring practice.
"I guess it wasn't moving as quickly as he wanted it to move, and he was getting concerned about everything," Richt said.
Cooper's future became a bit brighter after the offseason suspensions of several players who violated team rules. Browning was suspended for the first three games, and Richt told Cooper during their meeting that he would get his chance to shine with Browning out.
"He just let me know that this season we were going to have so many losses offensively," Cooper said. "He let me know that I was going to be a part of it no matter what."
In Georgia's 30-0 domination of Clemson in the opener, Cooper had to wait his turn. Milton started and Powell was No. 2, and the two combined for 107 yards on 31 carries.
Cooper didn't make it in until late in the fourth quarter, with the game no longer in doubt. He took his first carry around left end for a 25-yard gain, and his next tote went 37 yards for a touchdown but was nullified because of holding.
Cooper finished with 45 yards on four carries that day, but his real emergence came in last week's 29-10 win over Middle Tennessee State. With Milton slowed by an injury in his lower left leg, Cooper rushed for 90 yards on 12 carries, including touchdown runs of 8 and 3 yards.
This week, Richt said Milton's injury could keep him out for the rest of the season. Don't think Cooper doesn't realize the opportunity in front of him.
"I've been doing pretty good so far these first two games," he said. "But to me, I really haven't showed anybody anything yet. The real season is going to start this Saturday."
Not many people doubt Cooper has the talent to carry on a storied tailback tradition at Georgia that has included the likes of Herschel Walker, Garrison Hearst, Rodney Hampton and Lars Tate.
The question lately - one Cooper thinks is ridiculous - is whether he has the endurance. It was revealed in mid-August that he has a sickle cell trait, a condition that affects endurance by lowering the blood's ability to carry oxygen.
Georgia's coaching staff devised a different set of exercises for Cooper during the team's rigorous off-season mat drills. Cooper said too much was made of his condition, calling concerns about his endurance "totally overblown."
"You get a whiff of it and everybody's hopping on it, writing on it," he said. "There's nothing wrong with me."
Richt agreed, saying Cooper was fine during preseason drills.
"I can't think of a time in this camp where he got to the point where we needed to pull him out or anything," he said.
Cooper bristles when his sickle cell trait is brought up, mainly because he believes it fosters the perception that he's got it easy and doesn't have to work as hard as his teammates.
"People try to say, 'Oh, he's a great running back, but he's got sickle cell, so he can't do this and do that,' " he said. "I was kind of ticked off at that. ... But I showed people this past Saturday that it wasn't anything."
When Cooper arrived on campus last summer, he was considered one of the jewels in a sparkling recruiting class. He was named the 2001 AAA state player of the year by the Georgia Sportswriters Association after rushing for 2,352 yards and 38 touchdowns, and he expected to make an immediate impact in Athens.
Richt didn't discount the notion that summer, saying Cooper would play right away. So it was something of a shock in late September when Cooper was told he would be redshirted.
Cooper knew he wasn't picking things up as quickly as he hoped, and he knew Smith and Milton were established at tailback. But the reality of being on the scout team hit hard.
"When you're the state player of the year and are getting all the accolades, it's tough not being noticed and being at the bottom of the lineup," said Mark Daniel, Cooper's coach at Screven County. "Going from being a star to being on the scout team, it's difficult for teen-agers to get used to that. A lot of them usually quit."
Cooper didn't quit, and he didn't leave when he and Richt had their differences last spring.
Now, Cooper has the chance to make the difference he believed he could make all along.
"It feels pretty good, because they always say patience is a virtue," Cooper said. "I tried to rush things too much with the decision of just, 'Oh, I want to leave because I ain't playing.' It does really come into play when they say if you work hard and stick with it, things will start to unfold for you."

UP NEXT
South Carolina at Georgia
3:30 p.m., Saturday
TV: CBS
Radio: 960-AM/106.1-FM/1340-AM


Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Friday, September 12, 2003.