The Texas Southern football team had just wrapped up an early August fall camp practice in the unforgiving Houston heat when head coach Cris Dishman announced there would be no practice the next day.
Smiles could be seen through the exhaustion and Friday night plans were probably being formed when the voice of reason called the team together at Durley Stadium.
“Let’s be smart,” the voice in the middle of the team huddle warned. “Let’s stay off our feet and don’t do anything stupid.”
Leadership isn’t always fun or what the crowd necessarily wants to adhere to, but it’s necessary, and senior quarterback Kenneth “KJ” Cooper effortlessly takes on the role with the Tigers. It’s what Cooper feels he has been called to do.
“I don’t think, I know that it’s a leadership quality that the Lord has blessed me with,” Cooper said to the Defender while sitting in the sweltering heat after practice. “I don’t think anybody can just wake up and have that leadership quality. You go through things, you go through trials and tribulations to become that leader.”
Dishman, entering his second season as Tigers head coach, appreciates the leadership qualities Cooper readily accepts.
“His best quality is that he is not afraid to be a leader,” Dishman said. “He is not afraid to stand alone and tell guys no, tell them they are doing wrong, whether it’s offense or defense.”
Life’s challenges have been a source of inspiration in Cooper’s path to leadership, and none has probably been bigger than last season when as a transfer, he beat out the returning starter Jace Wilson in fall camp. But the accomplishment was dimmed when Cooper suffered a lower leg injury in the season-opening Labor Day Classic against rival Prairie View that ended his season prematurely.
The disappointment hit Cooper hard, but his faith helped him through it.
“At the moment, it was frustrating because I wanted to be out there for my team,” said Cooper, who ultimately played a role in the 27-9 win that snapped the Tigers’ nine-game losing streak in the rivalry against the Panthers. “With the talent, the team and the transfers that we had and the determination that the guys had to win, it was kind of disheartening at the moment. But God doesn’t make mistakes.
“At the end of the day, I learned so much during that process, understanding patience and understanding life lessons not just on the football field but off the football field.”
He learned things like patience, perseverance and determination while staying in the moment with his teammates and rehabbing and strengthening his leg for this season. If his coaches didn’t fully understand how important football and being a good teammate were to Cooper before the injury, they certainly saw it as he remained a positive and encouraging influence on the sideline.
Passing game coordinator and co-quarterbacks coach Zerick Rollins also assigned Cooper tasks to ensure he felt a part of the team.
“I hated losing him after that one game last year,” Rollins said. “But I think him sitting back and watching from a coach’s perspective kind of helped raise his game, as well, and also kind of raised the level of hunger for him to prove, `I’m not just a one-game guy, I can take this team to the promised land.’”
Cooper has put in the work and is back on the practice field, but the landscape is very different. Wilson has graduated and departed, but Dishman and his staff have also added some new quarterbacks in the room in transfers Cameron McCalister, Khalib Johnson and Fort Bend Marshall product Jordan Davis, after sharing starting responsibilities with Wilson last season. After spending last season as a reserve at Kennesaw State, Johnson came over, but began his college journey at Louisville. McCalister, who played high school ball at Clear Brook, also previously played for McNeese State.
“He put in a lot of work on his body in the offseason. He really put in a lot of work to fine-tune his body from his core to his upper body, his legs. You can tell his mechanics are lot cleaner. When he first got here, he had to learn some things and adjust because he was a bit raw.”
Zerick Rollins, TSU passing game coordinator/co-quarterback coach
It’s anything but a given that Cooper will be the starter come the Aug. 30 Labor Day Classic against Prairie View.
“It’s definitely open because he only played one game for us last year,” Rollins said. “Like I told all the guys who came in, he played one game last year, so that position is open. I don’t want to start a guy who can win this team one game. We want to win the national championship, so I want the best guy behind center to do that.”
Instead of dwelling on winning the job, Cooper is zeroing in on just doing his job. The rest will take care of itself.
“My mentality is just to be the best quarterback and best leader that I can be for my team and try to be the best quarterback in the country,” he said. “At the end of the day, the quarterback has a big role and I just want to be mentally as prepared as I am physically. It’s a big mental game, a big mental tool. So what’s important is me understanding what I’ve got to do with the ball, putting our team in smart positions, not turning the ball over and just constantly trying to move the ball and not putting our team in bad plays and bad positions.”
All indications are that Cooper is improving and is more natural at the position than when the El Paso native arrived last year from Minnesota State C&TC, where it was at times difficult to process the Tigers’ pro-style offense. But where Cooper at least has a leg up on McCalister and Johnson is familiarity with the offense.
“The biggest thing is he is taking that next level in a pro-style offense,” Rollins said. “Last year, he was just running plays and rather than just running plays, now he is able to recognize and communicate and execute the offense.”
Cooper believes going through what he went through last season and his faith have made him better for this upcoming season.
“I learned perseverance and I learned that I just have to dig deeper into my word, dig deeper into my source and that my savior, Jesus Christ, and understand that you never know enough and you are going to be put in so many different situations in life and understand that sometimes things aren’t fair – they don’t seem fair at the time but He has a plan and He knows what He’s doing,” Cooper said. “At the end of the day, I’m just so thankful to be able to serve a Father like that who wants nothing but the best of me and the guys around me.”
