By Will Vandervort.
By Will Vandervort
Playing tight end at Clemson is no big deal really. All the right candidate has to do is catch somewhere between 30 and 50 passes a year, score multiple touchdowns, open up gaping holes for running backs, protect the quarterback from time-to-time and out run a linebacker or safety every now and again.
Oh, and by the way, he also has to finish the year as a first-team All-ACC performer and be a social butterfly when it comes to talking to the media.
“This is one of my first interviews so I’ll try to live up to their standards,” said Sam Cooper, who is currently No. 1 on the Clemson depth chart at the tight end position.
Cooper, who is battling for the starting position with freshmen Jay Jay McCullough and Jordan Leggett, understands he has big shoes to fill when it comes to playing tight end at Clemson. Not only is it one of the more important positions in Chad Morris’ offense, but it has been one of the more productive ones too.
In the previous two seasons, former tight ends Dwayne Allen and Brandon Ford have combined for 104 catches, 1,244 yards and 18 touchdowns. Both earned First-Team All-ACC accolades in 2011 and 2012. Allen, who now plays for the Indianapolis Colts on Sundays, was also a first-team selection in 2010 and before him Michael Palmer, who now plays for the Atlanta Falcons, was a first-team selection in 2009.
In Dabo Swinney’s first four years as a head coach, the starting tight end position has averaged 41.5 catches, 489.5 yards and 5.3 touchdowns per season.
“It has been a very productive position for us,” Swinney said.
It’s a position the Tigers want to keep using as a consistent weapon, especially when defenses put too much focus on slowing down Sammy Watkins or their other big guns at wide receiver.
“I have to be a student of the game,” Cooper said. “I had two really great role models before in Brandon Ford and Dwayne Allen so getting in the film room and watching tape is the best way to go about it.”
Cooper says all the confidence and big plays Allen and Ford showed on the field came from preparation. He says both were students of the game and from what he heard they both picked up that trait from Palmer.
“Spending time in the film room really helps,” he said.
Cooper, who had 10 receptions for 93 yards and two touchdowns last season, has had a very productive spring thus far, though he admits he still has a lot to work to do, mostly his footwork. He wants to be more of a point of attack player, too.
“Obviously, I’m a bigger body guy and I have a pretty solid foundation in blocking you can say. That’s what I like to bring to the table,” he said. “But I’m trying to be as well rounded as I can.”
One thing Cooper knows he can’t do is get caught up in all the great things Allen and Ford or even Palmer has done over the years.
“I’m trying to make every play that I can for the team,” he said. “Whatever that number might be, I don’t want to make that assumption.”
Though he wants to be his own guy and not be compared to the three guys that came before him, Cooper does want to emulate the way Allen and Ford treated him while they were at Clemson. He said both guys were very helpful in his growth as a player and really helped him become a better player. He wants to offer the same kind of help to McCullough and Leggett, though they are all battling for the same position.
“It’s fun. You almost kind of mentor the younger guys, but at the same time they are helping me,” Cooper said. “It is a give-and-take relationship. We have a guy coming straight out of high school right now so helping him out helps me out at the same time.
“With the different blocking assignments, it makes me understand it better when I try to help him.”
Like Morris and Swinney who have been praising Leggett all camp, Cooper also can’t help but be impressed with what the freshman has been able to do this spring.
“He is a crazy right runner,” Cooper said. “To come straight out of high school and practice the way he is, it is really impressive. He is going to be a baller for sure.”