On to the Goal

Photo via AL.com

Including incoming freshamn, 16 Gators were selected in the Major League Baseball Draft this week. Congratulations, all. But only one has any relevance to football: Riley Cooper was a 25th-round pick to the Texas Rangers.

That’s 10 rounds later than he was selected out of high school and maybe, possibly, hopefully late enough to keep him on the Gator football team this fall. Jeremy Fowler was unable to reach Cooper’s parents (or, apparently, Cooper himself) but portions of his post seem to indicate that this could still be a fluid situation:

“But don’t be surprised if Cooper is negotiating a deal after his bitter breakup with the baseball team … The decision could hinge on whether Cooper thinks he has a realistic chance at pro football.”

Ominous? Perhaps. That could be based on bits of inside knowledge or it could be merely speculative in nature. Either way, those are reasonable points to raise. I don’t think that a 25th-round pick who struck out in nearly 50 percent of his at-bats is likely to receive a big-money contract offer, but the prospect of earning even a little money is a powerful pull on just about any college student. As we recently learned with the developing “West Coast Tebow” situation, Cooper could also play professional baseball and still retain his amateur status in NCAA football.

My gut is that come September 5, Cooper will still be catching lasers from roommate Tim Tebow. And the Gators frankly need that. Cooper is the most experienced receiver on the squad with 30 career catches for nine touchdowns. He’s a big target, a good run-blocker and the only member of the receiving corps to see significant playing time in each of the past three seasons. Losing his experience would be a blow. Not a fatal one by any means, but Cooper’s presence would mean that a young player stepping up and contributing would be a luxury, not a necessity. You don’t want to be forced to rely on a redshirt freshman for this:

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 at 7:37 am and is filed under Personnel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.