Football Spotlight on Cooper Edmiston

Spotlight on Cooper Edmiston …

#42 Cooper Edmiston • 6-3 • 241 • Senior • Linebacker

A fourth-year senior, Cooper Edmiston came to Tulsa from Gatesville High School as a true freshman in 2016 and saw action that season in all 13 games. He led Tulsa last year in tackles (113), interceptions (4) and fumble recoveries (3). Edmiston recently was named to the preseason watch list for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, which is awarded to the nation's top defensive player. Edmiston will receive his degree in business management with specialization in sports management in just four years (May 2020).

College career has flown by …
I've been thinking about that a lot. It's crazy how fast this has gone. Not red-shirting, it blows by fast. It goes faster than high school. It's definitely true that as you get older, everything goes by faster.

I'm from Gatesville, Texas …
Gatesville is about 45 minutes due west from Waco. Population sign says about 15,000. But half of that is prisoners from the women's prison, so about 7-8,000. It's a big prison. I graduated with about 190 kids from Gatesville High School.

Hashtag during my time here …
It would be #Consistent. On and off the field, I think I stick to a consistent routine. I feel like I really don't have ups and downs. I stay pretty even-keel. I really try to focus day-in and day-out on what I have to get done that day, and not think about too much other than that.

My focus this year …
My main focus is to be the playmaker that I know I need to be, and stepping up my leadership on the field vocally. Being the guy that my teammates can turn to in adverse situations, and that I can be the one to step up and make the play.

Excited about a veteran defense …
I'll talk about linebackers first, playing next to Zaven and Diamon, that's awesome. You've got two guys right outside of you who can make plays at anytime. They have big-play capability and their consistent guys too. We have a lot coming back upfront with Trevis, Shemarr, Big Cat, Cullen, and a lot of other guys. We have a lot of playmakers up front. And behind us, as well, we have lot of playmakers. It's great to have a lot of veteran guys coming back. We can rely on each other for leadership. We're really looking forward to it.

Mentality going into the season for the defense…
We have to come out with an aggressive mentality. We can't play on our heels. In a few of the games last year when we had leads built up, we got those leads because we were playing aggressively. Then later in the game we kind of backed off, and because of that mindset when we'd have a two-score cushion we weren't aggressive, and that's what hurts. We stepped off the gas, that's what hurt us, because teams in this conference can score whenever.

Favorite part of football …
it's the physical and mental toughness it takes. It's a good game to prepare you for the future. You get put in a lot of adverse situations and you have to figure out how to get out of them. You have 10 other guys on the field at all times as well, and that's an awesome part of it as well.

In high school…
I ran the 100, 200 and maybe the 400 a couple times. I basically ran track just for football. I wasn't out there winning anything in track.

Favorite NFL team and player…
The Dallas Cowboys and Cowboys linebacker Clayton Vander Esch. I like the way he plays and he's a big guy.

Hobbies …
Lately, I like to listen to a lot of podcasts and I've been reading more now. Right now I'm listening to Jocko Willink. He's ex-Navy Seal. He started his own business consulting firm. He's a big leadership guy. He talks about war and the leadership that goes into that, and the business side of it. He also talks about working out.

What I'm reading now…
Right now, I'm reading "Magic of Thinking Big". I'm also about to read his book Jocko's book "Extreme Ownership"

Growing up…
I did a lot of ranching growing up. We grew up on 320 acres. The most we probably had were a 100 head of cattle, 6-7 horses and even had a bunch of goats at one time too. There were only a few times out of the year you had to work them all. I enjoyed it. It was fun.

My twitter handle…
@Cooperedmiston

Football Spotlight on Cooper Edmiston

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