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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Cooley Looking to Avoid Teammates
September 21, 2005 | Football
Sept. 21, 2005
By JACK CARLE, Sentinel Sports Editor - If Monte Cooley can avoid his teammates, he's ready for a breakout senior season.
Cooley, a 6-foot-2, 271-pound senior, is Bowling Green's starting defensive tackle. He has already been in on 12 tackles this season. Cooley and his teammates line up at Boise State Wednesday with kickoff at 8 p.m.
It has not been an easy road for Cooley. He had two knee surgeries as a freshman and was a spot player for the next two seasons.
This was to be his year as the coaching staff moved Brad Williams to end. Williams and Cooley had shared the tackle spot in 2004.
However, Cooley was forced to have knee surgery after an injury in spring practice. He then suffered a separated shoulder against Ball State on Sept. 10. Both injuries were caused by his teammates.
"In the spring he got fallen on, on an inside run and sprained his ankle and twisted his knee," said Mike Ward, BG's assistant coach, who works with the defensive tackles.
The injury required surgery in June to repair a torn meniscus.
"He had to absolutely work his tail off to be back for the Wisconsin game (BG's season-opener)," Ward said. "He played really well against Wisconsin, considering the amount of reps (repetitions) he had taken at two-a-day camp. He had one-and-a-half tackles for loss and was one of the bright spots up front."
Against Ball State, a teammate ran into Cooley on a goal-line play.
"It was a freak deal ... But he's going to be fine," Ward said.
Now Cooley says he's ready to go and battle the opposing offensive linemen, who out-weigh him by as much as 30-50 pounds.
"I'm not trying to sound cocky or anything. I've got good hands, I can keep the offensive linemen's hands off me. I've got good feet and quickness and I'm pretty strong," he said.
Cooley started his career as a defensive end, but after gaining some weight he was moved inside to tackle.
"He's by far the most athletic defensive lineman we have," Ward said. "He's what you want on the line. You want to recruit a big defensive end and make him into a defensive tackle ... We're trying to get as much speed on the field as we can."
Cooley is able to complement the other interior defensive linemen, who are what Ward calls "pluggers", with his athletic ability and quickness.
With Cooley's development into a starter this fall, Ward wishes things would have been different during Cooley's freshman year. Cooley's first knee surgery was right before camp started in August 2002. After playing at the beginning of the season, it was apparent he was not 100 percent.
The plan was to have Cooley take a medical redshirt, but he was needed in a late-season game at South Florida.
"We had to play him, which cost him his year of eligibility," Ward said. "We didn't have a whole lot of depth.
"I think if we did it all over again, we would try like heck to redshirt him."
Cooley had his second surgery at the end of the that season and then was free from major injuries until this year.
He has played in 26 straight games, making a total of 83 tackles, in two-plus seasons.
"The coaches have learned to trust me a little more on the field and that's how most of your playing time is accounted for; how much they trust you and how you get the job done," Cooley said.
Cooley said he and Williams, Devon Parks and Mike Thaler, along with the backups, have started to develop some cohesiveness on the line.
"We're just starting to trust each other a little more," he said. "It really doesn't matter as long as I'm on the field. I'll do what's best for the team. If that's where they need me (defensive tackle), I'll play there.
"When they first moved me, I didn't like it. When I got used to it, it was better ... At defensive tackle it's either now or never."
It's also now or never for Cooley, with just nine regular season games remaining in his college career.
"He just wants so badly to perform," Ward said. "He knows this is his last hurrah and he wants to go out with a bang."
