Alabama Football: Looking back at the Crimson Tide career of Amari Cooper
By Matt Melton
One of the most-accomplished wide receivers in both Alabama Football and SEC history, Amari Cooper came to Tuscaloosa back in 2012 and shined on the field for the Crimson Tide for three seasons from 2012-14.
Looking back at those three years as well, it’s clear that Cooper was one of the best wide receivers to ever take the field at Alabama.
Looking back at the Alabama Football career of Amari Cooper
The fifth highest-rated recruit from the Crimson Tide’s top-ranked 2012 recruiting class, Cooper originally came to Tuscaloosa as the nation’s No. 45 overall player (according to 247Sports Composite) out of Northwestern High School in Miami, FL.
One of the nation’s top freshman wideouts entering his 2012 freshman season, Cooper would certainly deliver during his first year in Tuscaloosa as well. Leading the 2012 national champion Crimson Tide in receiving, Cooper would haul-in a total of 59 passes for 1,000 yards (16.9 YPC) and 11 touchdowns as a freshman, ranking fifth in the SEC in receiving yards and second in touchdowns.
Coming off that phenomenal freshman season, Cooper would once again lead the Crimson Tide in receiving as a sophomore, accounting for 736 yards and four touchdowns on 45 catches in 2013. Playing in four fewer games compared to his freshman season as well, Cooper averaged an impressive 16.4 YPC, with no moment from his 2013 season bigger than the 99-yard TD catch from quarterback AJ McCarron in the fourth quarter vs Auburn.
While Cooper’s first two years with the Crimson Tide were both memorable in their own right, his 2014 junior season however is what most Alabama fans might remember him by, one that was nothing short of phenomenal and one of the best in the history of Alabama Football and the SEC.
Ranking second nationally in receiving, as well as by-far first in the SEC, Cooper would haul in a total of 124 passes for 1,727 yards and 16 touchdowns during the 2014 season, winning the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s best wide receiver in the process, as well as a finalist for the Heisman Trophy. Included in Cooper’s 2014 season were seven 100+ yard receiving games, with the season overall currently ranking as the fourth-most receiving yards in a single-season in SEC history, as well as his 124 receptions the most in one year.
For his Alabama career overall, Cooper would catch a total of 228 passes from 2012-14 in which he turned into a combined 3,463 yards and 31 touchdowns, with his career receiving yards mark currently ranking third all-time in the SEC behind only DeVonta Smith and Jordan Matthews.
At the conclusion of the 2014 season, Cooper would declare for the 2015 NFL Draft, and would be selected with the No. 4 overall pick in the first round by the Oakland Raiders.
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Having played in a career 108 games from 2015-21 with the Raiders and Dallas Cowboys, Cooper has hauled in a career 517 passes for 7,076 yards and 46 touchdowns, while also having been selected to four Pro Bowls. Cooper is currently entering his eighth season in the NFL in 2022, as well as his first with the Cleveland Browns.