St.Augustine DB is a hot prospect

The month of May has been a busy one for one of the states top defensive backs. St. Augustine’s Willie Cooper, who is projected to play free safety in college, has had a flood of phone calls and hand-written letters during the evaluation period.

So far he has verbal offers from Bethune Cookman, Florida State, Florida, South Florida, Oklahoma, Southern Miss, Georgia, and many more. He also has a written offer from Rutgers.

“My top three schools are Florida State, Florida, and Oklahoma,” Cooper said. “Florida State is my favorite now, but I’m up for grabs. I’m looking for place and location to my liking. Whatever school that is the best seller is probably where I’ll go. I plan on attending the one day skills camp at both Florida and Florida State.”

According to St. Augustine’s Head Coach Joey Wiles, Cooper can pretty much write his own ticket.

“Florida and Florida State have offered him verbally,” Wiles said. “Both schools said they would send a written offer right away if we wanted. Coach Kines of Florida State told me that Cooper has been approved for a scholarship from everyone including Coach Bowden and Mickey Andrews. Florida’s coach called me on my cell phone yesterday to tell me that they love Willie, and he has a full-ride to Florida if he wants it. I’m friends with Oklahoma’s Heach Coach Bob Stoops, and he told me that Oklahoma’s always looking big, physical kids that can run like Willie.”

So how good does Cooper’s head coach think he might be, and how does he compare to other players that he’s coached?

“I’ve coached the Florida/Georgia All-Star game, and two Florida/California games," Wiles said. "In those games I coached players like Samari Rolle, Ben Washington, Hines Ward, Fred Taylor and Troy Davis. I would put Willie in that class of players.”

Last week in St. Augustine’s jamboree, Cooper helped lead his team to a victory over Trinity Christian by making five tackles in two quarters. One of his tackles was a touchdown saving one where he came from 30-yards across to field.

Cooper told FlaRecruiting.com that he’ll probably hold off committing to a school until fall.