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LB Jonathon Cooper (2nd Team All American, Denver Broncos)

Jonathon Cooper Kept Positive Mindset on Road to Recovery

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Jonathon Cooper had big plans for his senior season. The Ohio State senior defensive end came to Ohio State with big expectations and he was focused on living up to every last one of them this year.

Late in fall camp during an inside drill, however, he had his right leg rolled up on.

Cooper walked it off and never actually went to the ground. By the time the doctors got ahold of him, however, they determined he had a high-ankle sprain and it that would require a “tight-rope surgery” in order to bring the tibia and fibula back together.

After missing the first four games of the season, Cooper finally made his debut for the Buckeyes last week in Nebraska. He recorded one tackle, but also had a pass rush that contributed to an interception.

It was a hard road to get to this point for Cooper, who is generally a happy-go-lucky guy. Returning from this injury, however, had him running through a range of emotions.

“It was a process. I don’t think people really understand what it’s like when a player goes down with an injury, but it’s hard,” he said. “It’s really hard physically and mentally. The rehab process. And especially getting hurt the week before my senior season starts. And knowing this is my last year, it’s been really tough and hard.

“So, I mean it meant everything to me. Being out there with my boys, that’s all I really wanted to do, I just wanted to play with them. I worked extremely hard in rehab just to be able to have a chance to go out there and do anything with them. It just meant a lot.”

No player wants to miss games due to injury, but the pain of missing games as a senior is even greater than the pain of the injury itself.

“It beat me up, man, I’m not gonna lie,” Cooper said. “It had me pretty low, pretty upset. Just because I knew where I was at. I felt myself. I was playing my best football. It is my last year here and I wanted to go out and show the nation what I could do. But things happen and the only thing you can control is what you can control.

“And that’s what my mindset was, just staying positive and just going out there and keeping a positive mindset. Doing everything I can for my team and just knowing that even though things happen, there’s a lot of things out there that are worse happening.”

Entire article: https://theozone.net/2019/10/jonathon-cooper-returns-buckeyes/
 
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JONATHON COOPER MORE MOTIVATED THAN EVER TO FINISH OHIO STATE CAREER STRONG AFTER MISSING FIRST FOUR GAMES WITH ANKLE INJURY

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In the months leading up to his final season at Ohio State, Jonathon Cooper made it clear that he wanted to go out with a bang.

The No. 33 overall prospect in the recruiting class of 2016 when he arrived at Ohio State, Cooper was a starting defensive end for the Buckeyes for the entire 2018 season, but he acknowledged that his career hadn’t quite lived up to expectations thus far – and he wanted to change that.

“Even though I came in with this high expectation or being a five-star recruit and everything, I always prided myself on how hard I work,” Cooper said at Big Ten Media Days in July. “I was never patient. It was just finding that confidence in myself and knowing that I am one of the best defensive ends in the nation, and I just need to play like it.”

Cooper’s senior season, however, hit a significant setback before it even began.

During a practice in late August, less than two weeks before the season, Cooper was participating in an inside drill when another player rolled up on the outside of his ankle. After meeting with a team doctor, Cooper learned he had suffered a high-ankle sprain and would need to undergo surgery.

“What’s crazy is I didn’t even fall,” Cooper recalled this week. “So I got hurt, and I’m like limping off or whatever, but I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m good, I’m good.’ I go see the doc, doc’s like, ‘Yeah, you’re gonna need surgery.’ So it was a shocking moment for me.”

Cooper’s recovery from that surgery forced the senior defensive end to miss the Buckeyes’ first four games of the season against FAU, Cincinnati, Indiana and Miami (Ohio). As he thought about the dwindling amount of time he has left in his Ohio State career, watching those games from the sidelines was tough for him to accept.

“It beat me up, man,” Cooper said. “I’m not gonna lie. It had me pretty low and pretty upset, just ‘cause I knew where I was at. I was playing my best football and it is my last year here and I wanted to go out and show the nation what I could do. But things happen. Things happen, and the only thing you control is what you can control.”

Entire article: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...-career-strong-after-missing-first-four-games
 
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JONATHON COOPER MORE MOTIVATED THAN EVER TO FINISH OHIO STATE CAREER STRONG AFTER MISSING FIRST FOUR GAMES WITH ANKLE INJURY

107456_h.jpg


In the months leading up to his final season at Ohio State, Jonathon Cooper made it clear that he wanted to go out with a bang.

The No. 33 overall prospect in the recruiting class of 2016 when he arrived at Ohio State, Cooper was a starting defensive end for the Buckeyes for the entire 2018 season, but he acknowledged that his career hadn’t quite lived up to expectations thus far – and he wanted to change that.

“Even though I came in with this high expectation or being a five-star recruit and everything, I always prided myself on how hard I work,” Cooper said at Big Ten Media Days in July. “I was never patient. It was just finding that confidence in myself and knowing that I am one of the best defensive ends in the nation, and I just need to play like it.”

Cooper’s senior season, however, hit a significant setback before it even began.

During a practice in late August, less than two weeks before the season, Cooper was participating in an inside drill when another player rolled up on the outside of his ankle. After meeting with a team doctor, Cooper learned he had suffered a high-ankle sprain and would need to undergo surgery.

“What’s crazy is I didn’t even fall,” Cooper recalled this week. “So I got hurt, and I’m like limping off or whatever, but I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m good, I’m good.’ I go see the doc, doc’s like, ‘Yeah, you’re gonna need surgery.’ So it was a shocking moment for me.”

Cooper’s recovery from that surgery forced the senior defensive end to miss the Buckeyes’ first four games of the season against FAU, Cincinnati, Indiana and Miami (Ohio). As he thought about the dwindling amount of time he has left in his Ohio State career, watching those games from the sidelines was tough for him to accept.

“It beat me up, man,” Cooper said. “I’m not gonna lie. It had me pretty low and pretty upset, just ‘cause I knew where I was at. I was playing my best football and it is my last year here and I wanted to go out and show the nation what I could do. But things happen. Things happen, and the only thing you control is what you can control.”

Entire article: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...-career-strong-after-missing-first-four-games

Love this quote from Cooper:

treated gameday as if it was a game for me,” Cooper said. “When one of my players got a tackle, I felt like it was me out there. Watching the offensive linemen, watching the offense, they come off the field, I’m coaching them up, I’m cheering them on, I’m all up into this thing like I’m playing. I’m still that leader and that guy. As soon as game time starts, I was a different person. I didn’t think about my injury, didn’t think about anything, I thought ‘How could I help my team in any single way to help them win?’”
 
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Love this quote from Cooper:

treated gameday as if it was a game for me,” Cooper said. “When one of my players got a tackle, I felt like it was me out there. Watching the offensive linemen, watching the offense, they come off the field, I’m coaching them up, I’m cheering them on, I’m all up into this thing like I’m playing. I’m still that leader and that guy. As soon as game time starts, I was a different person. I didn’t think about my injury, didn’t think about anything, I thought ‘How could I help my team in any single way to help them win?’”

Love hearing a kid like this focusing on the mental reps when they aren’t on the field. I just wished that I could get some of the younger kids I coach to understand how important this is.

Good on him.
 
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Cooper was healthy enough to go through some warmup drills with Ohio State’s defensive linemen before the game, but was not in uniform for the game after his coaches made the decision not to play him. Cooper, who missed the first four games of this season with an ankle injury, had tape on the back of his thigh and did not appear to be moving at full speed in warmups.



https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...ts-chase-young-linebacker-urban-meyer-returns
 
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Is Jonathan Cooper going to play again?

I was thinking the same thing earlier this week. I recall reading something about Hilliard possibly getting a medical RS/hardship waiver for this season in order to play next year. Wondering if this is potentially a similar case?

Year......... games played
2016..............6
2017.............14
2018.............13
2019..............3
https://ohiostatebuckeyes.com/roster/jonathon-cooper/

Medical Hardship Requirements
To be eligible for a medical hardship waiver, a student-athlete has to meet the following criteria:
  • The student-athlete must suffer the injury during one of their four seasons of college competition or during the senior year of high school.
  • The injury must be incapacitating. That means it must be a season-ending injury.
  • The injury must occur prior to the start of the second half of the season.
  • The student-athlete must not have competed in more than 30% of the season or three contests, whichever is greater.
https://www.athleticscholarships.net/2012/07/17/how-get-medical-redshirt.htm

I don't think he meets the requirement of a "medical hardship" and if he plays in 2 more games this year a red-shirt for this season is out of the question too.
 
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Year......... games played
2016..............6
2017.............14
2018.............13
2019..............3
https://ohiostatebuckeyes.com/roster/jonathon-cooper/

Medical Hardship Requirements
To be eligible for a medical hardship waiver, a student-athlete has to meet the following criteria:
  • The student-athlete must suffer the injury during one of their four seasons of college competition or during the senior year of high school.
  • The injury must be incapacitating. That means it must be a season-ending injury.
  • The injury must occur prior to the start of the second half of the season.
  • The student-athlete must not have competed in more than 30% of the season or three contests, whichever is greater.
https://www.athleticscholarships.net/2012/07/17/how-get-medical-redshirt.htm

I don't think he meets the requirement of a "medical hardship" and if he plays in 2 more games this year a red-shirt for this season is out of the question too.
Does he still have a red shirt available??
 
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