{"id":200056,"date":"2025-07-12T00:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T00:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/200056\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T00:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T00:03:10","slug":"derrek-cooper-nations-no-3-rb-sets-new-commitment-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/200056\/","title":{"rendered":"Derrek Cooper, nation’s No. 3 RB, sets new commitment date"},"content":{"rendered":"

Derrek Cooper<\/a>, one of the nation\u2019s top running backs in the 2026 class, is down to five schools, he announced on Thursday. <\/p>\n

Among the remaining contenders are Ohio State, Florida State, Miami, Georgia and Texas. Cooper was previously set to announce his commitment in July 12, but opted to postpone that decision. He\u2019ll now announce on July 20. <\/p>\n

Cooper took six official visits during May and June \u2014 making stops with the Buckeyes, Hurricanes, Seminoles and Bulldogs, as well as Alabama and Auburn. The Longhorns have been a team to watch in his recruitment in recent weeks though, despite not receiving an OV. <\/p>\n

After losing out on targets\u00a0KJ Edwards<\/a>,\u00a0Javian Osborne<\/a>,\u00a0Tradarian Ball<\/a>, and\u00a0Ezavier Crowell,<\/a> the Longhorns are pushing hard to land the Chaminade-Madonna<\/a> (Fla.) star. <\/p>\n

Heading into the previous decision date, Cooper was considered a strong lean to Miami. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had a great visit to Miami. They have done a great job recruiting me and showing me how they want to use me,\u201d he told Rivals\u2019 Chad Simmons<\/a>. \u201cCoach Merritt is a great coach\u2026 I like Coach Dawson a lot too\u2026 He wants to show that I am a three-down back and I like the people at Miami.\u201d<\/p>\n

But with the latest buzz around the Longhorns growing \u2014 and his decision to move his decision back more than a week \u2014 what seemed like a sure thing might be anything but that. <\/p>\n

Cooper is the country\u2019s No. 33 overall prospect, according to the Rivals Industry Ranking<\/a>, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He also ranks as the nation\u2019s No. 3 running back and No. 3 recruit in the state of Florida. <\/p>\n

As a running back last fall for the Lions, he toted the rock 124 times for 905 yards (9.3 YPC) and 13 TDs. He also showed some skills in the receiving game, with nine catches for 156 yards and a touchdown. On defense, he was all over the field with 46 tackles, four sacks, three fumble recoveries and two forced fumbles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Derrek Cooper, one of the nation\u2019s top running backs in the 2026 class, is down to five schools,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[42769,25528,7699,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-200056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-chaminade-madonna-prep-lions-hollywood","9":"tag-derrek-cooper-26-chaminade-madonna-prep","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114837337348973281","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}