Four-star Texas Longhorns commit says he will 'keep watching' Miami and 'keep making my notes'

Mario Cristobal and his staff made it clear, though, Derrek Cooper is wanted in Coral Gables.

"We're still coming after you. They keep saying it on and on. This doesn't end until December," Cooper said.

The Hurricanes didn't run the football with much fervor. Mark Fletcher Jr., ran for 66 yards and 15 carries while CharMar Brown added 15 carries for 54 yards and a touchdown. This doesn't seem to deter Cooper's interest, though, albeit minor.

"That was a great game. I was watching it. They're going to come back and be better," Cooper said.

Derrek Cooper, as stated above, is firm in his pledge to Texas. He has a visit planned.

Cooper is the 40th-ranked prospect in the 2026 class, per 247Sports. He is the nation's No. 3 athlete and Florida's No. 6 prospect. He will be in Austin September 20 and for now it's his only other visit. But, he did tell Urrutia Georgia is another program which is "another place of interest".

As a junior, Cooper ran for 905 yards and 13 touchdowns while also chipping in 46 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, four pass breakups, four sacks, three fumble recoveries, and two forced fumbles on defense. Chaminade-Madonna finished the season 13-2 and won Florida's 1A championship.

247Sports' director of scouting Andrew Ivins calls Cooper one of the "top overall prospects in the Sunshine State at this stage after impacting games in a variety of different ways". And at 6-foot-1 and 205 pounds, he gives Texas a lot of options with how he can be used to attack defenses in the future.

Cooper was only asked to run the football six times last week in a 28-14 win over McArthur (Tex.), but this week will be very different. On Friday, the Texas commit will take on his potential future teammate and five-star quarterback Dia Bell and American Heritage.

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