Back after season-ending surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip, Georgia Tech center Kenny Cooper is back on the field. But, as the Yellow Jackets are through their first four workouts of spring practice, Cooper is still waiting to fully participate.
“It’s tough sitting back and just watching because I’ve played so much,” Cooper said. “But it gives me the time to sit back, to watch and correct and help everybody else out and help them improve as a whole group.”
The 2019 season was to be Cooper’s last with the Jackets. After two seasons starting for former coach Paul Johnson, he was positioned to play his last year for coach Geoff Collins. But, while he started the first four games at center, he was having difficulty moving due to the injury.
“It was a good day and bad day (situation),” he said. “It just depended, really, on what day it was. It wasn’t fun by any means.”
Cooper played effectively with that pain, evidence of his remarkable toughness. He was finally knocked out midway through the fourth game of the season, at Temple. William Lay started the final eight games in his place. Through the NCAA rule permitting players who play four games or fewer in a season to claim it as a redshirt year, Cooper was able to come back for his redshirt senior season. (Cooper had played his first three seasons and had a redshirt year available to him.)
“I struggled with (the injury) for awhile, and we just finally decided to go ahead and do it,” Cooper said.
Not coming back was not an option.
“After I got hurt, I wanted to come back,” Cooper said. “I wanted to finish on a good note.”
Through four practices this spring, Cooper was able to take part in all facets except for the full-contact team drills. Offensive-line coach Brent Key will accept that limitation, happy to have an experienced and effective player back in his group.
Any offensive linemen is helpful for depth, as Key likes to move players around the line.
“But then you get a guy that has the amount of experience that he does,” Key said. “And regardless of what offense they played in, what system they played in, just the fact that they’ve been on the field, they’ve had their hand on the ball, they’ve executed a snap, they’ve been able to play in a game — that’s a huge bonus, it really is.”
If Cooper returns to reclaim the starting job at center, he’ll be part of a unit that could be vastly improved for at least two reasons. One, Key could go with a fivesome in which all five have at least one season of starting experience — Zach Quinney at left tackle, Jack DeFoor at left guard, Cooper at center, grad transfer Ryan Johnson at guard and grad transfer Devin Cochran at right tackle. They have a total of 109 career starts.
Beyond that, Cooper likes what he has seen thus far in spring practice. The comfort level and knowledge of the offensive scheme is greater. When the defense runs line stunts, with linemen looping behind one another to confuse the offensive linemen, the offensive line has had its share of successes.
“We’ve just got more recognition,” Cooper said. “Recognition of what to look at, what to see is 10 times better.”
Practice as a whole, Cooper said, is much better, as well.
“Everything we’ve done the past three days has been better than almost any practice or game I’ve seen,” Cooper said. “Communication’s better and energy, tempo and everything — it’s all together now.”
Speaking Sunday, Cooper didn’t have a timeline for when he’ll re-engage in full-contact team drills. He said that “it’s just getting back in the movement and everything.” Given his experience, it’s perhaps better for Tech for Lay and Mikey Minihan to collect practice snaps at center without him.
“He knows what he has to do, and he’s working to do those things that he has to do right now without being 100 percent into the mix,” Key said.
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