Cooper joins Tigers’ staff

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jan 8, 2009 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

The second domino in the shuffling of LSU’s defensive coaching brain trust fell Wednesday, in large part because Ron Cooper found a situation he couldn’t turn down.

Cooper, South Carolina’s safeties coach this season and Gamecocks assistant for five years, was officially named to the Tigers coaching staff Wednesday, two days after LSU unveiled John Chavis as the team’s new defensive coordinator.

A 46-year-old native of Huntsville, Ala., Cooper spent most of last weekend in Baton Rouge with Les Miles and a handful of assistants and left town knowing what his answer would be if Miles called with a job offer.

“The first time I got a break on Saturday, I called my wife and told her this place was something special,” Cooper said Wednesday. He was on the road recruiting, which is regarded as one of his strengths.

“I’ve known Coach Miles for a long time and knew he was a first-class person and ran a first-class program, plus I’ve known John Chavis for a while, as well. But when I got here and they showed me around, I realized that there’s an atmosphere and attitude about this program that makes great things possible to achieve. It didn’t take me long at all to see this is a special place.”

Besides the notion that he could win a national championship and coach and recruit the best players in the country, Cooper said the biggest impression came from Miles, who is going through the first major restructuring of his staff since he took over in 2005.

Besides Chavis and Cooper, LSU is expected to tab former Chicago Bears and Mississippi State assistant Brick Haley as the new defensive line coach later this week — completing a major makeover after the defense stumbled through the 2008 season.

LSU tumbled to a 7-5 record after claiming the program’s second BCS National Championship in five years in 2007. The Tigers salvaged some momentum by flogging Georgia Tech 38-3 in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

“There aren’t many coaches around who have won national championships and coach Miles came here and did some pretty special things pretty quickly,” Cooper said. “He had an excitement to him when he was talking about the future. He was fired up about where we’re headed next season and how much he wants to get this program right back where it was. I wasn’t around him very long on Saturday before I knew it would be a blessing to come here and work for him. When the head coach is that fired up, it rubs off on everybody around him.”

So strong was the impression made by Miles and the LSU program that Cooper eschewed a chance to go to another BCS school as a defensive coordinator. Cooper was set to fly to College Park, Md., to meet with Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen Monday about the Terrapins’ coordinator position.

But a job offer from Miles made that trip unnecessary.

“There are so many things here where we are so far ahead,” Cooper said. “Some friends in South Carolina asked me if this was a lateral move, but once you sit back and look at it, coming here is a step up and that’s not a knock against South Carolina at all. This is one of the premier programs in the country.”

A substantial financial bump is an added bonus. There were published reports earlier this week that Cooper was offered a three-year contract worth $300,000 a year to leave Carolina for LSU. He was making $175,000 a year at USC.