IOWA CITY, Iowa — Defense and special teams have long been Iowa's identities in football. Cooper DeJean is this year's poster child.
DeJean's breakout 2022 season earned him a spot on this year's Associated Press preseason All-America first team, but he was relatively quiet through four games. He busted loose last week, stopping a Michigan State drive with an interception in the end zone in the first half and running back a punt 70 yards for the tie-breaking touchdown late in a 26-16 victory.
The big plays were flashbacks to last season when he returned three of his team-high five interceptions for touchdowns. Early 2024 NFL mock drafts project him as a first-round pick.
“In my opinion, you could put him on any team in the country, and he’d be unique and rare,” coach Kirk Ferentz said. “He played that way last year. He had a fantastic year.”
The junior cornerback from Odebolt — a town of fewer than 1,000 people about four hours away in northwest Iowa — had no interceptions this season until he picked off Noah Kim after Michigan State drove to the Iowa 20 looking to add to its 6-3 lead. Kim overthrew his receiver, and DeJean made an over-the-shoulder interception and got a foot down inbounds before momentum carried him out of the end zone.
DeJean had three long punt returns against Western Michigan last month, but he never had one as significant as the one in the fourth quarter against the Spartans with the game tied 16-all. Ryan Eckley outkicked his coverage, and no defender was within 15 yards of him when he fielded the punt at his 30.
DeJean ran left and picked up a couple key blocks as he dashed down the sideline for his first career punt return for a TD. DeJean joked that his only mistake was not tucking the ball on his left arm to protect it as he ran down the left side of the field.
“You just see a bunch of guys busting their you-know-what to lay some blocks out there for me,” he said. “It was really cool to see how much those guys cared to do that and put us in a position to score.”
DeJean has been showered in adulation since Saturday, and he appreciates it.
“But I’ve been trying to kind of put it behind me,” he said. “The season goes by fast, so you got to move on from last week to focus on this week.”
DeJean led the nation in pick-sixes last year. His first came against Rutgers, when he snared the ball at midfield and took a winding path to the end zone. He took direct routes running back interceptions on short fields against Wisconsin and Kentucky, the latter one earning him MVP of the Music City Bowl.
“I hate that word ‘natural’ because there’s a connotation there that this guy just goes out and plays,” Ferentz said. “A lot of the stuff he does is because he knows how to play. He’s smart. He studies. He’s in the right place. He just does a lot of things really well, smoothly. It’s unusual to have a guy with that kind of skill set.”