Even in the loss that spoiled Alabama’s pursuit of perfection and a third consecutive championship, Cooper led the team. In the Iron Bowl, he had six catches for 178 yards including the 99-yard touchdown. A month later in the Sugar Bowl, Cooper had 121 yards receiving on a team-leading nine receptions in the 45-31 loss to Oklahoma.
In an up-and-down sophomore season riddled with injuries, he led the team with 45 receptions for 736 yards.
Despite those impressive statistics, Cooper said he’s not ?satisfied with the end of his second season in Tuscaloosa.
“I think we used those losses at the end of the season last year to serve as our impetus for this year,” Cooper said. “I think the leaders, they’re coming in everyday being positive in offseason workouts, and it’s having an effect on the guys who are trying to lead.”
According to senior wide receiver Christion Jones, he and Cooper are two of those leaders on the 2014 team.
“It really doesn’t matter what my title is, I would rather just be titled as a leader of the team. My role on the team has changed,” Jones said. “I do consider myself a leader and I’m going to try to lead this team with the other leaders such as Amari Cooper and Landon Collins and try to mold this team into a different type of path that we sort of mishandled last year.”
The junior receiver was selected for the Preseason All-SEC first team, but said he’s far from satisfied with his current ability.
“I work really hard,” Cooper said. “I try to train everyday. I try to do anything that I can to become a better receiver.”
New offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin praised the star receiver’s work ethic and said he was surprised by Cooper’s drive.
“Watching Amari, much like T.J. [Yeldon], does not say very much, [he] just goes to work every day,” Kiffin said. “We would have workouts when we first got here, and Amari sometimes would work out two hours before workouts started, which I thought was a really hard workout that we were doing – the 4th Quarter program here – and he’d workout two hours before that.”
Cooper’s determination to improve extends beyond the weight room, as he asks questions on how he can improve his play.
“What you realize about Amari is that there really isn’t any off field stuff,” he said. “Amari is completely dedicated to being the best football player that he can and completely focused so he’s great to work with. He wants to be great, but then also wants to expand his game.”
In addition to pushing the workout boundaries, Cooper expands his mindset to the team as a whole. The wide receiver said he’s focused on a national championship.
“I think if we have that mentality that we actually want to go to the national championship and win the national championship, I think it will permeate throughout the team and those guys will have a positive attitude and a winning attitude as well,” Cooper said.
