Amari Cooper can be as good as he wants to be...

I'll start by breaking down a play from the BCS National Championship against Notre Dame. It's early in the 4th quarter (13:05) and the score is 35-7 in favor of the Crimson Tide. Alabama has lined up in, what seems to be a variation of their favorite formation of the 2nd half of the season, an ace look with trips shown to the left and TE Michael Williams is also on the left side of the formation even though he is ineligible being covered by Kevin Norwood. H back Kelly Johnson then motions to the right side of the formation and settles in behind DJ Fluker.

The play ends up being a counter fake to the right. Lacy takes a jab left and attacks the line of scrimmage back to the right side. AJ gives a nice fake, extending the ball to Lacy before bringing it back in and settling in the pocket. AJ takes a hitch step and launches the ball to Amari.

Amari Cooper is flanked out wide lined up with Notre Dame's best cornerback Bennett Jackson defending him. Although you can't tell in this image, Jackson is giving Cooper about an 8-9 yard cushion which make this route even more incredible.

Amari quickly eats up the cushion that Jackson is giving. Amari keeps his eyes up and focused on the corner. Amari doesn't give away his route by trying to get an inside or outside position too early. In the image above he's still breaking down the cushion. Notice how low he's come out of his stance compared to his original resting stance. Just like a sprinter a good receiver wants to come out low. Driving out of the "blocks" -- or his stance in this case. I'd call this simply his drive off of the line of scrimmage. This drive should look exactly the same every play. I've noticed that Amari does a very good job of making this look consistent each play, run or pass.

Above we see that Amari has made his release and declared his route... or has he? From this image we can see that Amari has taken what's known as an outside release. He's attacking the corners outside shoulder making Jackson think fade or just a simple streak/go route. Jackson now has his eyes on Amari after he has realized that this is pass. Jackson has also opened up his stance already to the outside release.

 Amari is still getting up field in this image and Jackson continues to take the bait and open his stance...

In this image, Jackson has fully declared his position after turning his hips around to get hip to hip with Cooper and follow him up the sideline. It also appears that Cooper has shortened his stride a bit...

And boom goes the dynamite. Amari has perfectly set up his route by "stemming" his route to the outside making the corner think fade while the real route is post and breaking inside.

Another part of Cooper's game that is superb is the use of his hands. Using your hands in the game of football is underrated in general. At the receiver position, especially split end, using your hands well is crucial. Obviously against a press corner you need a few good releases but few people realize the subtle hand movements that can get you open past the line of scrimmage. The most widely used is the "top gun" move that Cooper is in the process of using above. It is essentially a "swim." There are many different ways that this move can be executed but this is a perfect example. Amari clearly has the advantage in this route after making his break on the post but now he's got to get off his break cleanly, meaning that he needs to now separate from the corner to get open. The best way to ensure this separation is using the "top gun." Amari places his right hand on Jackson's back and will "swim" over/under him with his left hand. In this instance, Jackson is actually too out of position to properly use this technique but Amari clearly has an understanding of this technique and is attempting to use it. He's also show example of this move in several other game this past season.

As you can see above, Amari has released cleanly from his break. All he has to do now is accelerate down field, and he will win that battle every time. Kirk Herbstreit pointed out in the television broadcast that Cooper is a true freshmen and commented on how polished he is as a wide receiver. That is an understatement. Cooper is an absolute technician at the position.

On the same drive, Cooper is aligned in a trips formation to the right of the field. He's in the middle of the three receivers, with Kevin Norwood to his left (inside) and Kelly Johnson to his right (outside). Just based on the formation alone Bama has won on this play. Johnson is split wide being covered by a corner while Cooper is in the slot being covered by an outside linebacker.

Above Cooper has recognized zone coverage and has already made his break. The play appears to be some sort of trips vertical concept with Norwood getting across the field, Cooper on a post, and Kelly Johnson taking an outside release on a fade taking the corner with him. Once Cooper identifies zone coverage he just finds the soft spot of the zone which happens to be right behind the outside linebacker covering him and underneath the two deep safeties that Notre Dame is playing. The coverage appears to be a cover 2 man. Once Cooper sees this, he makes a "speed cut" and gets into his route.

A "speed cut" is different from a regular break on a route in that the plant foot on the cut changes. On a typical post route a wide receiver would plant on his outside foot and break in... while on a route that breaks out you would plant on your inside foot. On this speed cut, Cooper throws his left foot into the ground and rolls his weight over that foot and gets into the post. Essentially a  speed cut is just rounding off your route but it should help you get into the route quicker, it just may not get you as much separation... but as in Cooper's case he doesn't need separation.

In the images above, you see Cooper getting into that soft spot in the cover 2 and catching the post for the TD.


Moving to the SEC Championship, Cooper caught a jump ball in the first half that was just beautiful. The catch was one of the most impressive things I've seen in a while for a receiver let alone an 18 year old who was playing high school football last season at the same time. On that play however, just as impressive as his catch was the release off the line of scrimmage. Above I wrote about Coopers consistent and full speed releases off the line of scrimmage and this is another example of it here. Again he's come out hard, full speed, but again he's also making himself small and coming out low. Eyes are up... on the corner... threatening him deep.

A few yards down field, Cooper eats up the cushion given by the Georgia cornerback. The Georgia corner appears to hand check him to slow him down and get hip to hip with him after Cooper has released to his outside. Cooper does an excellent job of dipping his shoulder and minimizing the effect that the corner's contact has on his momentum.

Again this is a cover 2 and this corner has the flats so he lets Cooper go down field and Georgia's All SEC Senior safety Bacarri Rambo picks Cooper up.

Above, you can see who wins the jump ball. These two players are almost exactly the same size except for the fact that Rambo is about four years older and will be playing in the NFL next season. Cooper does an unbelievable job of "high pointing" this ball and hauling it in. If you've never done this before, you have no idea how hard it is...

Later on in the game Cooper catches the game winning touchdown on an inside zone play action pass...

Bama has lined up in a similar formation as the formation seen against Notre Dame above. It is trips to the left, one back, and a TE to the right. Cooper is lined up to the far left.

Here again we see Amari's good release from the line of scrimmage. He's low and his eyes are up.

In this post game interview from the Crimson Tide Recruiting Facebook page, Amari states that the preferred route on this play is an "inside release post" but that "they are told to use the best release." Initially, this route just looks like a fade that was stemmed hard inside but now with the interview we know that the preferred route was an inside release post that Cooper reads and takes "the best release" outside and blows by the corner.

Above, Cooper again uses the "top gun" move with his hands to minimize contact by the corner and get away clean.

There are many more examples of his play throughout this past season that I could go on and on about... and I may later but I will stop for now.

I can't say enough about his game. Amari is special and I don't care if I'm biased. I personally haven't seen a wide receiver prospect this polished at his age. I'm excited to witness the rest of his career...

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Got an idea for a future breakdown? Let me know!