Jack Cooper

Jack Cooper joined the Rhode Island coaching staff as the defensive coordinator in February of 2020. He enters his third season with the program in 2022-23.In 2021, Cooper led a resurgent defensive effort for Rhode Island. The Rams ranked in the Top 50 in points allowed per game (25.36/49th); yards allowed per play (5.17/35th), yards allowed per pass attempt (6.58/29th); yards allowed per pass completion (11.64/40th); defensive pass efficiency (119.39/28th); and sacks per game (2.45/33rd). Cooper came to the Rams from Nebraska, where he spent two seasons as the defensive quality control coach. He worked closely with the team's defensive backs.Cooper spent each of the last four years working on Scott Frost's staff. Before joining Frost in Nebraska, Cooper was a defensive graduate assistant at UCF in 2016-17. In his two seasons at UCF, the Knights lowered their scoring defense average by nearly two touchdowns per game while ranking third nationally in takeaways over the 2016 and 2017 seasons combined.Previous to UCF, Cooper was a defensive assistant at Yale in 2015. He worked with the defensive backs and special teams at Southern Connecticut State – his alma mater – in 2014, where he also served as the recruiting coordinator.