Iowa State's Jeremiah Cooper continues to "show out" after switch to cornerback

AMES — Jeremiah Cooper circled the date and narrowed his eyes.

August 23.

It signified Iowa State’s “Week 0” season opener against Kansas State in Dublin, Ireland. The first stage of the star defensive back’s 2025 farewell tour in cardinal and gold — a five-year journey marked by several stratospheric highs and a handful sobering lows.

Sure, Cooper brimmed with excitement. Sure, playing overseas would be cool. But no, that’s not why the 6-foot, 190-pounder from El Paso, Texas, emphasized the No. 22 Cyclones’ matchup with the No. 17 Wildcats.

This is:

“Last year, K-State was probably the worst game of my whole career,” the sharply self-critical senior said in the wake of ISU’s hard-nosed, 24-21, triumph over Kansas State last Saturday at Aviva Stadium. “So just going out there and kind of getting my revenge on them and just taking out that anger on them, it just felt good.”

  Buy Photo

Call it catharsis, or redemption, or maybe an amalgam of both. Cooper’s latest “feel good” moment happened to coincide with his first ISU career start at cornerback — and start two comes Saturday at 2:30 p.m. (Fox) against FCS No. 5 South Dakota in the home opener at Jack Trice Stadium.

So how’d the first one turn out?

“I thought maybe one of the best games I've seen Jeremiah Cooper play in his career,” the Cyclones’ 10th-year head coach Matt Campbell said. “Physical at the point of attack. I thought he did a really good job in the passing game. And he’s just got a lot of confidence — and I think as any great player, you love to have position flexibility.”

Cooper possesses that highly versatile trait, so switching him from strong safety to corner to complement one of the Big 12’s best in Jontez Williams simply made sense. Campbell and his staff always talk about “putting the best 11” on the field on both sides of the ball, and Cooper’s switch allowed promising redshirt freshmen Kijohnn Cummings-Coleman and Carson Van Dinter to fill his vacated spot — where they both shined and struggled at times against the Wildcats.

“I’ve coached the secondary my whole life and six inches (off) could be a touchdown and that’s what a couple of them were,” said ISU veteran defensive coordinator Jon Heacock, who’s entering his 43rd season of coaching. “We were a hair off. They’re young guys. They’ll learn. It’s gonna happen. But I was really proud of them. They’ve got great resolve. Those guys are the first guys in here studying. And they’re tough — they’re mentally tough — and they’ll continue to get better and better.”

So will Cooper now that he’s fully installed at the corner position. He and the rest of ISU’s secondary will be tested by Coyotes’ sixth-year quarterback Aidan Bouman, who started his college carer with the Cyclones and threw 19 touchdown passes to just four interceptions last season.

“It's going to be a great challenge for us as a defense, especially in the back end, because they’ve got an amazing quarterback,” said Cooper, who notched three tackles and defended a pass in last Saturday’s win. “He used to play here. He's a very smart quarterback that will make a lot of plays.”

Cooper’s certainly made a lot of plays in his ISU career. He’ll make his defense-leading 34th career start against South Dakota and has earned all-Big 12 accolades in each of the past two seasons. Cooper needs one interception to crack the Cyclones’ top-10 in that category, and whether or not he’s able to snag one on Saturday, expect him to climb that chart as a freshly-minted cornerback, circling each game’s date the rest of the way.

“It’s just another opportunity for me,” said Cooper, who owns seven career interceptions. “Coach Campbell and (safeties coach Deon Broomfield) came to me probably a couple weeks ago with this opportunity, and I was 100 percent for it. It's just another way to show out my skill set and just show people that I can play corner and safety.”

Comments: robgray18@icloud.com