Be better without Cooper? Before you laugh, read and consider these points and then answer that question. (photo Touchdown Alabama)
How Alabama Could be More Dangerous Without Amari Cooper
By: Larry Burton
You can’t say that Alabama will be better off without an MVP, a first round NFL draft choice and a player that caused every defensive coordinator that planned for him to have nightmares, like Amari Cooper did. But there is something to consider that many Alabama fans haven’t considered. Alabama could actually be more dangerous without him this year.
Say what?
Consider this, last season Blake Sims seemed locked in on Cooper to the point of overlooking better completion opportunities to his second or third reads. Also consider that even signal caller Lane Kiffin wanted to exploit Cooper to the extent that other options like the tight end, were often excluded.
Let’s face it, when one guy can put on the cape and play like Superman as Cooper did, you just seem to focus on him and maybe just a little too much.
Though Alabama may not have a man on their roster at the present who has all the attributes that made Cooper the “Go To” guy, there are a lot of guys on the roster that have many of them. As a result, maybe, just maybe Alabama’s offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin will design an offense around a host of receivers and not be intent on just trying to make one of them the “next Amari Cooper”.
Alabama has worked at it’s highest level when the team was just that, a team, not “Johnny Big Star” and company.
Last year the reliance on Cooper to pull out a big play may have kept others from having theirs. It was clear that many passes were forced toward Cooper when coverage was much more lax on other targets. Instead of a quarterback thinking his best option is always to look for Cooper and look too long at Cooper to make something happen.
Think this is dumb? Consider this, Cooper caught passes for 1727 yards, that was almost as many yards as the other 17 receivers combined. His 124 receptions placed him of course at number one in that stat too. Number two you ask? DeAndrew White with 40. Nobody else even had 20. Let’s face it, Alabama was locked in on Cooper to the point of overlooking everybody else. Not that this was always such a bad thing given the results Cooper was able to provide.
But let’s get back to guys on this team. They are good, some of them very good and some have a ton of raw ability that could blossom very quickly. They all have the ability to play at this level or they wouldn’t be here.
Now consider this: How much more of a nightmare would Alabama be to a defensive coordinator who instead of having one man catching most of the passes that a team has four men on the field at any given time that are equally dangerous and have about an equal number of catches? Who do you key on? Double covering one wouldn’t make a lot of sense.
Now see where the headline and the article was heading? As implausible as it first seems, a team without an Amari Cooper could actually be a more dangerous team. Maybe so, maybe not, but it’s surely something to consider.
Larry has been published in almost every media outlet for college sports and now primarily writes here for Touchdown Alabama. Follow Larry on Twitter for inside thoughts and game time comments at https://twitter.com/LBSportswriter
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