Dave Feit's Greatest Huskers by the Numbers: 17 - Reggie Cooper

College football recruiting has always been a little like the Wild West. Anything goes - especially if you don't get caught. This was definitely true in the 1980s. Just ask Oklahoma, SMU and many schools that colored outside the lines.

Except for Nebraska.

Osborne was a stickler for following the NCAA's many (and often bizarre) recruiting rules. As such, Pierce made sure to always abide by the rules too… even if he often found creative ways to walk right up to the line.

A highly touted recruit wanted to sign with Nebraska, and he wanted to do so at school in front of his friends and classmates. One problem: Nebraska had already used its visit and could not enter the school. Pierce relayed the request to Osborne, who said "Daggummitt, Jack. We can’t do that. We can’t go to the school."

Pierce had an idea and made a few phone calls.

The next day Pierce and Osborne pulled up outside the school. Osborne was emphatic: "I'm not going in and neither are you." Pierce told him they wouldn't have to. He had arranged to have a section of fence at the edge of school grounds removed. A table was put in its place. The recruit sat on one side - on school property - with the entire school behind him. Osborne and Pierce sat on the other side, technically on a public sidewalk.

By the letter of the law, no rules were violated. More importantly, the recruit signed with Nebraska.

A similar situation occurred in the recruitment of Reggie Cooper. In addition to being an outstanding football prospect, Cooper was a McDonald's high school All-American in basketball. Everybody wanted to sign him.

Here is how Pierce told the story to Shane Gilster (then of Big Red Report):

"The LSU coaches claimed I recruited Reggie illegally, but I didn't. I had run out of visits at his high school…this is back in the day when you can sign the kid at the school. So I signed Reggie Cooper on the hood of a Cadillac, and that photo was run in the Times-Picayune sports section with a question mark as the headline," Pierce laughed. "The Cadillac was my rental car but they were questioning whose car it really was. But I couldn't go on the school grounds because I ran out of visits, so I had Reggie come out to me and sign his letter of intent on the hood of my car."

Thank goodness Pierce found a workaround. As we’re about to see, Cooper was worth the extra effort. Plus, Cooper - the Louisiana prep Defensive Player of the Year - helped persuade the state's Offensive Player of the Year (Mickey Joseph) to come to Nebraska. Pierce played a role in that recruitment as well.

For three straight years, Pierce helped Nebraska sign the top offensive AND defensive player from the state of Louisiana.

Reggie Cooper was a player ahead of his time. At 6'3" and 210 pounds, he was a man among boys in the defensive backfield. Cooper used that size and speed to earn four letters, playing with the varsity as a true freshman. As a sophomore, Cooper racked up eight tackles in his first career start (against Texas A&M in the Kickoff Classic). He would earn a spot on the All-Big Eight second team.

Cooper was a sure tackler, leading all defensive backs in tackles his final three seasons, and breaking Larry Wachholtz's school record for tackles by a defensive back. Cooper is still 44th on the career tackles list, tied with fellow Louisiana native LeRoy Etienne.

As a junior in 1989, Cooper led the Big Eight in interceptions despite playing with cartilage damage in his left knee. He returned blocked a punt 17 yards and recovered a second blocked punt in the end zone for a touchdown. He was a first-team All-Big Eight selection, second-team All-American and finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award.

Cooper's senior season was even more of the same. He led the team in pass breakups, led all defensive backs with 71 tackles and once again was named first-team All-Big Eight.

Reggie Cooper played in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys and was inducted to the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 2013.

The game may have changed since Cooper’s day, but there will always be room for a guy like him.

***

In case of emergency, break glass.

This phrase has been printed on fire alarms and extinguishers for decades. They are readily available safety devices that we secretly hope we'll never need to use. But when the spit hits the fan, you need to be ready to break the glass.

On a football team, "in case of emergency, break glass" often applies to the third (or fourth) string quarterback. He's the guy who trots out on the field when the starter - and his backup - are unavailable, and the only other option is going down in flames. Matt Turman is a classic example of a "break glass quarterback," but since he wore #11, we're not talking about him… yet.

As it has happened, #17 has been worn by several "break-glass quarterbacks" in the 21st century, as well as several QBs who toiled in anonymity near the bottom of the depth chart.

Scott Siefken, Jack Woche and Luke Longval never appeared in a game. Garth Glissman was a walk-on who played in three career games. He lettered in 2004 but did not record any statistics. They all wore #17.

Cody Green was a highly touted quarterback recruit from Texas. When Zac Lee was injured in 2009, Green was thrust into the starting job, becoming the first true freshman to start at QB since Tommie Frazier. Green made four career starts: two in relief of Lee, two for an injured Taylor Martinez. Nebraska won all four of those games.

When injuries sidelined Tommy Armstrong Jr. in 2015, Mike Riley called on Grand Island's Ryker Fyfe to start a division game at Purdue. Good news: Fyfe threw for 407 yards, the sixth most in school history. He is the most recent Husker QB to throw four touchdown passes in a single game. Bad news: Fyfe accounted for five turnovers (four interceptions and fumble), and the defense couldn't keep the Boilermakers out of the end zone. Purdue 55, Nebraska 45.

Fyfe started two more games, leading the 2016 team to a 28-7 win over Maryland on Senior Day and a 38-24 loss to Tennessee in the Music City Bowl. Despite having only three starts, Fyfe is one of just 33 Husker quarterbacks to throw for over 1,000 career yards.

Finally, there's Andrew Bunch, who wore #17 in 2018, Scott Frost's first season as head coach. Starter Adrian Martinez was injured in the opener against Colorado. Noah Vedral likely would have been the backup quarterback, but his eligibility after his transfer from UCF was hung up in red tape. That meant "Bunchy" got his first (and only) career start against Troy. The Trojans - aided by three first-half turnovers - led 17-0 before Bunch hit Stanley Morgan for a touchdown.

Our purpose here is not mock or denigrate these second, third, fourth (and beyond) string quarterbacks. Every one of them was a successful high school quarterback who could have been a starter at a different school. At Nebraska, they were valuable members of their teams - providing depth, leading scout teams and being good teammates.

Therefore, we are recognizing and celebrating the contributions of players who stepped up when their team needed them. Yeah, a couple of them struggled when thrown into the fire, but we could find hundreds of starters (including several of the Greatest honorees) who did the same thing.

The old cliché is that the backup quarterback is most popular guy on the team In reality, that popularly usually only applies to the second-string QB or a prized recruit. Once we get down to the "in case of emergency, break glass" players, trepidation usually outweighs popularity.

If things work out, they are a hero (as we'll discuss at #11). If not, they are often not remembered as fondly. That's a shame. Yes, Ryker Fyfe threw several interceptions. But he didn't allow Purdue to score 55 points. Football is a team game. Leaving the outcome up to one player is usually a recipe for failure.