During Florida State’s first day of preseason camp Wednesday, few players on the field had more experience during their Seminole career -- or perhaps better perspective -- than redshirt senior defensive tackle Robert Cooper.
A three-year starter and regular member of FSU’s defensive line rotation since 2018, Cooper made the decision to come back for a fifth year in Tallahassee. And after showing teammates and coaches how committed he was during summer workouts, Cooper was chosen to "‘break the rock" after the final conditioning session.
Cooper spoke after Wednesday's practice about his desire to not only play his “best ball” this season, but also to help leave the FSU program in the best position possible.
“Just proving that I was a better player than what people have been seeing. I just want to play my best ball and help,” Cooper said. “When I was coming back, just help all of the young'uns. Even the new class, keep everything going. Make sure everybody knows the standard of what’s going on.”
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At the end of each summer -- and at various points throughout the year -- FSU's coaches choose one player to take a sledgehammer and smash a slab of rock that has been signed by every player on the team.
Cooper received the special honor last week.
“That was fun, I’m not gonna lie. Just because it was my first time breaking the rock,” Cooper said. “I held the hammer one time (as an honor), but I never got a chance to break the rock. Just breaking it, man, that was just … I was supposed to give a speech, but I was just so … it was amazing to me, knowing that I was chosen.
"After the work that we all did, anybody could have broke the rock. I was happy I got the chance to do it.”
It apparently was well-deserved.
During Tuesday’s luncheon with the media, Norvell made a point to specifically praise Cooper even though the reporter's question wasn’t about the 6-foot-2, 335-pound defensive tackle.
“A guy I definitely wanted to shout out that I thought had one of the best summers, Robert Cooper was phenomenal in his continued growth. Just the things that he’s done in this program, it’s been remarkable,” Norvell said. “When you watch the work, when you see the consistency, it’s truly special.”
Now entering Year Three of Norvell’s regime, Cooper remarked on the differences in the program from years' past.
“I do see a big difference, just with how fast everybody is moving. That tells you how confident more people are in what they’re doing,” Cooper said. ‘What’s expected from Coach [Adam] Fuller and Coach [Alex] Atkins. Everybody knows what to do. The standard has been set these past couple of years.”
Cooper’s aspirations to become a better player and FSU’s search to return to its winning ways go hand-in-hand. And he believes FSU is definitely on the right track.
“I think this offseason has been different just with how we’ve fought. How everybody fought together. Everybody commanded the best out of each other every day,” Cooper said. “That was the main difference. You can just tell everybody was together. Everybody was fighting for each other. When one got tired, you saw everybody helping him.”
With the first day of practice under his belt, Cooper assessed the rest of the defensive line, including redshirt freshmen like defensive tackle Josh Farmer and rush end Patrick Payton.
“One thing about this defensive line room, I have been impressed with it since I came in it in 2018. This room right here, you can just tell. You’ve got young'uns that are stepping up. Josh Farmer is stepping up, Pat is taking a bigger role. They’re starting to listen, you know. … They’re listening and applying it, and you can tell it’s going to go a long way for them.”
When the conversation turned back to the entire team, Cooper said he likes everything he saw and heard this summer from teammates in various workouts. Now, he knows it has to carry over to the field.
“We all know what we want at the end of the day. That’s the biggest thing -- we can’t just sit here and talk about, 'We want this, we want that.' The thing is to actually do it with action,” Cooper said. “Putting it on the field, showing it, that’s the step we need to take. I feel like we are doing a good job of that so far.”
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