Columbia Academy graduate Logan Cooke is headed to the NFL. On Saturday at his parents’ home, the Mississippi State punter received a call from Jacksonville Jaguars officials telling him they were drafting him in the seventh round. Then Monday Jacksonville cut veteran punter Brad Nortman, opening the way for Cooke to see action on Sundays this fall.
And how’s this for an achievement: He’s the first graduate of a Marion County high school to be drafted in the NFL since Hall of Famer Walter Payton in 1975.
As he sat in at the home of his parents, Len and Tracy Cooke, Saturday night in Darbun, the calls and texts began to flow in.
“It was awesome,” a stunned Logan Cooke said of his being drafted. “From the get-go, Jacksonville was my first call I had from an NFL coach and first workout I had with a team. From the very beginning they were interested. They really made me feel welcome when I talked to the special teams coaches.”
Cooke, who will graduate from Mississippi State on Thursday, said he wasn’t sure what might happen in the draft. He had also worked out with the Saints and Baltimore Ravans and fielded calls from plenty of other teams. But Jacksonville had been the leader from Day 1.
“They flew me down for a Top 30 visit, and I spent the day down there and I met with the GM, owners, coaches and head coach and everybody. It was pretty neat – especially coming from Columbia, Mississippi. Getting to go to the big show like that was pretty neat,” he said.
Cooke said the process had been fascinating: He sat in a room with 15 to 20 coaches, and they asked him questions for about half an hour. He compared it to a job interview, which in a way it was.
And Cooke landed the position. Before the seventh round began, Cooke got a call from his agent, Bus Cook.
“He told me what he was thinking,” Cooke said. “Still, everything was pretty much up in the air. Jacksonville had two picks in the seventh round and they took their first pick and I thought, ‘Well, we have one pick left.’ Right when they got on the clock the GM called me and asked me if I wanted to be a Jaguar. It was pretty exciting.”
Cooke said the reaction at the house was overwhelming.
“There wasn’t a dry eye in the house, including me,” he said. “It was pretty neat. It was a lot different than signing with Mississippi State because that was a whole process of a couple of years. In the NFL, boom! It’s here.”
As family gathered to celebrate and Logan took calls, his father, Len, spoke about the moment.
“The NFL stuff has been about four weeks of preparing,” he said. “All of sudden, it’s over, where going from high school to college it was a process of a couple of years. We really only had three or four weeks to think that there was really a shot. Now it’s over. It’s been a stressful day – you don’t know what’s going on and what doors are going to open. You don’t know who is interested and who’s not. It’s been quite a ride. I know 37,000 miles of traveling watching college football had been a lot of fun – I don’t know how we’re going to pull this off yet.”
In an unusual twist, Logan Cooke and Mississippi State long snapper Hunter Bradley were both drafted in the same round.
“He’s going to Green Bay,” Cooke said. “We’re the first long snapper and punter combination from the same school to be drafted in the same round. I’m the first punter from Mississippi State to be drafted. A lot of them are just free agent signings.”
As the celebration wrapped up Sunday, Cooke still had business to attend to: He returned to Mississippi State to take his last couple exams before graduating Thursday.
He plans to sign with Jacksonville next week and will report for mini-camp in a couple of weeks.
Cooke reflected on his career at Mississippi State as he sat at his parents’ kitchen table.
“It’s a happy time, but it seems like four years flew by,” he said. “It’s just like high school, going ninth through 12th-grade. You meet people throughout the school and the athletic program. Mississippi State, I can honestly say, is a family. The president of the university, Dr. (Mark) Keenum, and I talk turkey hunting every time we’re together. You create a bond with everybody and now it’s over. It’s bittersweet, but I’m ready for another chapter in my life.”
Cooke said his phone didn’t stop ringing Saturday from teammates, friends and well wishers calling.
“There were a lot of people I hadn’t heard from in a while,” he said. “A lot of Columbia friends were calling. Going from high school to college, playing at CA and then going and playing in front of 60,000 at Mississippi State and hundreds of thousands of fans at other games was a big jump. Now, comparing the atmosphere of the NFL to MAIS AAA ball is a big difference. When I was visiting with them down there a couple of weeks ago they were asking about where I was from and talking about my hometown and that I grew up on a farm. They laughed and loved hearing those stories about how I’m from such a small town.”
Cooke then thanked everyone who has been involved in his journey, especially his family.
“My parents have followed me from little league and taken me to all of the camps and things,” he said. “In this position, a punter, kicker or snapper, you have to go to all of these camps and show your skills to get your name out there. They don’t just come watch you like if you were a running back or quarterback. It was a lot of time and money spent in traveling. I’m forever thankful for all that. It’s unbelievable.”
Pictured Above: Logan Cooke punts for Mississippi State before a game at Southern Miss in Hattiesburg in this 2015 file photo. Saturday he became the first graduate of a Marion County high school to be selected in the NFL draft since Walter Payton in 1975. | Photo by Mark Rogers
