"Then somebody, I don't remember who it was, told me, ‘Coop, don't look at your leg,' " Cooper said.
"Of course, the next thing I did was look at it, facing the wrong direction, just kind of dangling there."
Immediately, Cooper's career at Oklahoma seemed to be dangling, too. Yet there he is, back in the middle of OU's offensive line, a focal point as the No. 15-ranked Sooners prepare for their most revealing test yet, Saturday's road matchup with No. 18 Oregon.
The Sooners are striving to produce ruggedness in their running game mentality.
"Running the ball is all about attitude," said OU offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson. "You've got to have attitude."
On the road for the first time, going against a defense that surrendered 217 rushing yards to Fresno State — 154 to Bulldogs running back Dwayne Wright — establishing a ground game and unleashing Adrian Peterson appear central to the Sooners' success.
"We love running the ball," said Cooper, OU's sophomore center. "Just watching that ... they've got good players. They're a good, solid defense. We played them last year. We know a lot about them.
"But yeah, we're always going to run the ball. So I'm excited for that."
There was a time after his injury last November when Cooper wondered if he'd experience that excitement again.
Peterson had just plowed into the end zone against Tech on a goal-line play from the 1 ? "28 Down." While celebration took place around him, Cooper never rose.
"I heard his leg pop, snap, whatever happened," said linemate Chris Messner. "I was like, ‘Man, what was that?'
"I looked down and was like, ‘Oh, crap.' It was pretty gruesome."
During the play, a teammate stepped on Cooper's foot, planting it in the Tech turf. Then somebody landed on his leg. And as it goes in the trenches, a pileup ensued with Cooper on bottom.
"Everybody was kind of laying on it," Cooper said.
His ankle dislocated, broken and shattered, every ligament in his lower leg torn, it was a worst-case injury that would require surgery and extensive rehabilitation.
X-rays taken at the stadium revealed the extensive damage. That made the flight back to Norman even worse.
"It was terrible," Cooper said. "I was in so much pain. I was thinking to myself, ‘How bad is this?'
"And my parents were there, driving to Norman that night. I just had a million things on my mind on that plane ride."
Among his thoughts: How soon, if ever, would he play again?
"It put some doubt in my mind at times," Cooper said.
Determination, however — and toughness — overcame doubt and pain.
Cooper still lugs around much of the hardware required to repair the leg in surgery.
Beneath an 8-inch scar, a plate and 10 of 11 screws used to secure bits of bone remain in place.
And after his difficult winter of rehab and a spring spent on the sideline, Cooper returned in the preseason to resume butting heads.
It took a while to get comfortable, he said. And there were mental hurdles.
"Just convincing myself it was going to be all right," Cooper said.
"When I went outside and started doing drills, to have the confidence in myself to be able to plant, be able to run and hit and not be scared of getting hurt again."
A breakthrough came during one film session.
"I saw myself on film, running," Cooper said, "and thought, ‘That looks like the old me.' "
And he's playing more and more like the old Cooper. Through OU's 2-0 start, he's snapped the ball for each of the Sooners' 121 plays.
"It's unbelievable, the courage he has," said tight end Joe Jon Finley. "You can see Coop out there playing with pretty much a cast on, limping around, but still finding a way to make his blocks every time.
"Everybody respects him a lot for that."
[12 hrs ago]
