EDITOR’S NOTE: Since 2002, the Times Free Press has highlighted the top 12 college football prospects among Chattanooga-area seniors with its preseason Dynamite Dozen. The countdown of this year’s list continues with No. 3.
Dayon Cooper had heard the noise, and for a moment he considered it.
In the months between the end of his sophomore season on the football field and the start of his junior year last summer, the South Pittsburg all-state athlete was approached by multiple schools that compete in higher TSSAA classifications. The sales pitch was the same every time: Cooper’s college recruitment would suffer if he remained at a Class 1A program, so the only decision was to transfer.
“I thought about it,” Cooper admitted. “A couple of coaches at bigger schools sort of got in my head because they were really putting South Pittsburg down and making it sound like if I stayed at a smaller school, then I wouldn’t get recruited at the level I could.
“I visited a couple of them, and they made all kinds of promises, but then I realized what I was being coached here was just as good as any of those bigger schools. And then I watched (former South Pittsburg defensive end) J.R. (Hardrick) get a bunch of bigger offers and wind up signing at Clemson, and I knew I had made the right decision.