One of three North Carolina natives on the Georgia Tech roster, the 5-foot-10, 197-pounder returns to his home state Saturday to face 3-0 Wake Forest at Allegacy Stadium in Winston-Salem (6:30 p.m. ET, Georgia Tech Sports Network from Legends Sports). In three games, Cooley ranks second on the Yellow Jackets in rushing (65.3 ypg) while leading the team with four touchdowns.
“It’s impressive how fast he truly is,” said Georgia Tech running backs coach Norval McKenzie.
Lately his uniform number has picked up another meaning: Cooley still has zero negative rushing yards in 32 carries, a fact that surprised even him.
That may come under siege against a Wake Forest defense that leads the ACC in tackles for loss per game (8.3). But Cooley says it reflects his commitment to being a hard-nosed, tough-to-take-down back in head coach Brent Key’s offense.
“Coach Key tells us we have to be physical up front, and as a running back, that’s what he wants, and that’s what we have to display,” he said.
The oldest of four, Cooley’s talents first gained attention at Knightdale High School in Knightdale, N.C. Even before then, competition was ever-present among his family members, a group that included younger brother Tamarcus, now a freshman nickel back at Maryland.
“Whether it was going good or bad, we always made the best of what we had. A lot of football, a lot of sports, a lot of track, a lot of street football, grass football – just football my whole life,” said Cooley, who balanced that competition with hunting, fishing and four-wheeling trips to his grandfather Michael Reid’s placid property in Wendell, N.C.
Georgia Tech and Wake Forest both offered the four-star back, but he instead signed with fellow ACC member Louisville, where he was recruited by McKenzie. In two seasons he showed promise – he rushed for 112 yards against Boston College as a freshman, and twice he topped 70 rushing yards in conference play in 2022 – but not quite the breakthrough he had hoped for.
His freshman year also overlapped with running back Hassan Hall, who left Louisville in 2021 before turning in a resurgent final season with Georgia Tech. Cooley said Hall’s success didn’t influence his own decision to transfer to Tech, though he credits the Atlanta native with giving him some much-needed confidence early in his career.
“He showed me hard work. Obviously, I do work hard, but sometimes when [your teammates] have so much talent, you really never know how much talent you have until someone else tells you. He was one of the first people to tell me, ‘Hey, you’ve got it. And this is what you need to do to maintain that and surpass that,’” Cooley said.
Back home in Raleigh, an NFL running back has also become a mentor to him. As an eighth grader, a mutual friend connected Cooley with Nyheim Hines, a Garner, N.C., native who starred at N.C. State before playing for the Indianapolis Colts and Buffalo Bills. Cooley first approached him at a basketball game, eager to share his own ambitions in the sport. A relationship formed that continues to this day.
“He’ll text me before games. I’ll text him before games. He’ll call me when he’s on vacation. We train together sometimes when we’re back at home in the summer,” he said. “I know I can call him and ask for any advice and he’ll give it to me. He’s definitely like a big brother to me.”
(After he rushed for 52 yards and two touchdowns in Georgia Tech’s season opener against his former school, Cooley said he received a text of encouragement from Hines at 2:44 a.m. that night.)
