NU recruit Cooper hasn't made a decision yet
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BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
When the decision involves six digits and the future of your education, it’s probably prudent to not make it rashly.
And so it’s of no surprise Husker football recruit Khiry Cooper is still contemplating the major-league choice before him: pro baseball or Big Red?
The native of Shreveport, La., who has carried intentions of playing both football (wide receiver) and baseball (center fielder) for the Huskers, was picked in the fifth round of Thursday’s baseball draft by the Los Angeles Angels.
As of Sunday night, his Calvary Baptist Academy baseball coach, Rodney Traweek, said Cooper has not yet signed with the Angels, though a representative of the club had visited him Friday and pitched an offer.
“Nebraska seems to be the front-runner,” Traweek said. “Right now it looks like they haven’t worked out a contract. It may or may not get worked out. If it doesn’t, he’ll be at Nebraska and he’ll be excited about being there.”
The coach said he feels an answer is likely to come this week, possibly even in the next couple of days.
“He’s ready to get it over with,” Traweek said.
Prior to getting drafted, Cooper had planned on settling in Lincoln by this week. But the Angels had other ideas. They had been tracking the baseball talents of Cooper the past two months.
“There’s a lot to like,” Angels scout Kevin Ham told the Shreveport (La.) Times. “He’s a tremendous athlete. We like young athletes with tools so we can teach them the Angel way — the professional way — to play.”
The Angels showed their seriousness in Cooper by taking him in the fifth round, where players can fetch a significant signing bonus.
Though there are extreme exceptions — TCU pitcher Jake Arrieta got a bonus of $1.1 million from Baltimore as a fifth-rounder last year and prep star Will Middlebrooks claimed $925,000 from Boston — 23 of the 30 players taken in that round in 2007 are known to have received bonuses between $110,000 and $150,000.
Pro teams have until Aug. 15 to sign their draft picks. With a scholarship to Nebraska in hand, the Angels know they are courting a player with some leverage.
“They knew going in when they took him in the fifth round that that could be trouble,” Traweek said. “Since he has signed with Nebraska, he has definitely bled Nebraska red.”
Part of a 2008 football recruiting class of 28 players, the 6-foot-2, 180-pound Cooper possesses attributes that could enable him to contribute early as a Husker.
“He’s a smooth player,” Husker coach Bo Pelini said last week.
It is possible that Cooper could play minor-league ball and football for the Huskers. Last year, Dennis Dixon spent his summer in the Braves organization and his fall as quarterback of the Oregon Ducks.
This sort of situation is not new to Nebraska. In the early 90s, Erick Strickland split his time between minor-league ball with the Florida Marlins and hoops with the Huskers.
Then there’s the case of Carl Crawford, his situation still a painful memory to some Husker fans. Crawford was an elite option quarterback who signed with the Huskers in 1999. Then he got drafted in the second round by Tampa Bay and changed course, picking baseball instead. It worked for him. He has more than 1,000 major-league hits for the Rays.
And there’s Ross Pilkington, who played baseball a couple of years before starting his college football career.
In 2000, Pilkington signed with the Huskers only to get drafted in the 20th round by the Colorado Rockies. Pilkington initially picked baseball, collecting a $50,000 signing bonus.
But after a couple of years of bus rides on the minor-league circuit, Pilkington lost some love for the game, turning back to Husker football in 2002.
“It takes a special breed to play minor-league baseball and put up with it,” Pilkington told the Journal Star at the time. “Playing two years of minor-league baseball, that will put five years on an 18-year-old kid.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.
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