Newly-Offered 2025 OL Will Take UMass Official
According to his coach, 2025 Delaware offensive lineman Garrett Cooper will take an official to Amherst later this month.
As first-year UMass head coach Joe Harasymiak works to immediately bolster his new roster via the Transfer Portal, the Minutemen are still working the high school recruiting scene ahead of February’s National Signing Day.
Earlier this week, UMass extended a scholarship offer to 2025 Delaware offensive lineman Garrett Cooper.
“He's 6-6, so that's big and he has over a 70-inch wingspan,” one of Cooper’s assistant coaches at Delmar High School, Alan Preston, told Minuteman Command.
Cooper checks in around 285 pounds.
“He is a big boy,” Preston continued. “I think that's one of his biggest attributes. Great kid. Does exactly what he's supposed to do. He's got good grades, good family.”
But, Preston believes Cooper still has room to grow.
“I think once he gets into a program with a good weightlifting program and a good nutrition program, I think he's going to get a lot bigger too,” the coach said. “I don't think he's done growing yet. I think he's grown maybe two inches in the last year. He's still spurting up.”
Cooper received the offer when new Minuteman offensive line coach Kurt Anderson stopped by Delmar.
“Coach Anderson came down to see him, so that was a great, great experience for him,” Preston said. “He hadn't really had any bigger schools come down to visit him.”
Anderson made a strong impression on both Preston and Cooper.
“He was a great guy,” Preston said of the UMass assistant. “He was very personable and he was worried about the student. He wasn't fluffing anything around. He was talking about Garrett and how he was going to help Garrett with his education.
“It wasn't all football. He talked about life and everything else. I think that touched Garrett pretty good.”
While much of the UMass staff is busy trying to hit as many schools as quickly as possible, Anderson’s trip to Delaware from Amherst was clearly intentional.
“It was,” Preston said. “ 100 percent. I asked him if he stopped anywhere else and he said, ‘Nope.’ He said he went from Baltimore to Delmar and back to Baltimore. He said he wasn't looking at anybody else, so that was a big telltale sign that they were very, very interested in Garrett. I think it actually made Garrett very attentive to detail with what UMass was throwing at him.”
Attentive enough to schedule a trip to campus.
“He is going to come up to UMass for an official visit,” Preston said. “I think it’s the end of January.”
Cooper is also considering James Madison among other schools.
“He wants to study Business. That's one of his big things. And really just a family feel from the coaches and just the program itself. He is going to be around the football program the majority of the time, and just wants that family feel.”