Report: Nebraska's Corey Raymond--new db coach

True, Cooper was not much of a recruiter. Raymond will be a big improvement there.

However, you have to give Cooper credit for two things - talent evaluation and player development. He was phenomenal in these two areas, and will be tough to replace. But I think we got a great one in Raymond and he comes into a very good situation.

 

Welcome back home Corey. Geaux Tigers.

 

I was in Corey's neck of the woods Sunday....guess where?



Yep, welcome home......

 

Avery Island......thats Tabasco fields on the lower right of pic.

 

Word is out that Terry Joseph may move from Tenn. to take Coreys job at Nebraska. If Joseph lesves, Tenn. will have 7 new asst. coaches on the staff this year.

 

i don't know. it's possible that Cooper is over-rated in both talent evaluation and player development. other than a few scrub 7th Round picks, the only South Carolina DBs Cooper developed in his 4 years there that got drafted were:

--Johnathan Joseph in the 1st Round, and he was a highly-rated JUCO transfer when South Carolina got him (Florida wanted him as well)

--Chris Culliver in the 3rd Round, and he was a Rivals 5-star recruit, so you could say he didn't live up to his potential

--Ko Simpson in the 4th Round, and although the recruiting services didn't evaluate him, he was a beast in high school: led his team to the 4A State Title, as safety on defense, he had 112 tackles, 4 INTs, 6 pass break ups, and on offense, he caught 22 passes for 525 yards and 4 TDs

you look at guys like Patrick Peterson, Morris Claiborne, TM7, Eric Reid... those guys were going to be great players regardless of who their DB coach was. on the flip side, look at 5-stars like Ron Brooks and Craig Loston who didn't live up to their potential, even under Cooper.

now i do think Cooper was phenomenal at taking a unit of DBs, and getting them to play together at a high level, he did that at both South Carolina and LSU


so with Corey Raymond, you want to look to see how he did with taking a unit of DBs and getting them to play together at a high level. Last year at Nebraska, he was faced with the challenge of replacing four starters in the Nebraska secondary, including three 2011 NFL Draft picks. how did he do with 4 brand-new starters?

Nebraska's pass D was the best unit on the Nebraska D last year, they were #8 in the NCAA and #1 in the Big Ten in lowest pass completion pct allowed, #18 in the NCAA in fewest passing yards/game allowed, #27 in fewest passing TDs allowed, and #34 in pass efficiency D. On top of that, one of the new starters, Alfonzo Dennard, was named the Big Ten Defensive Back of the Year, and two of the other new starters, Austin Cassidy and Daimion Stafford, were named Honorable Mention All-Big Ten

how did he do 2009-2010 as the CB coach at Utah State? for one, he did such a good job with CB Curtis Marsh, that Marsh was 2010 2nd Team All-WAC, #8 nationally in passes defended at 1.25 per game, and was taken in the 3rd Round of the NFL Draft at the end of that season

and as a unit, Utah State's secondary was perennially ranked in the bottom quarter of the NCAA (#90 to #118) in every passing D category before Raymond took over as CB coach, and by the time he left they finished #41 to #73 in every passing D category, going from the bottom quarter of the NCAA to squarely within the middle third

but most impressive is the coaches who wanted him:
--Kevin Wilson at Indiana hired him first, and Wilson was the great Broyles Award-winning OC at Oklahoma from 2002-2010
--then Pelini hired him away from Wilson
--then Miles and Chavis hired him away from Pelini

Corey Raymond Bio - Huskers.com - Nebraska Athletics Official Web Site

 

obviously, it would pretty much be impossible to find a guy that can recruit Louisiana better than Corey Raymond. he is from Louisiana, played at LSU coached at New Iberia High School, coached at Westgate (La.) High School, coached at LSU, recruited Louisiana for Nebraska, and then returned to coach at LSU

but for an example of how good a recruiter he is:

here's a quote from the Times Picayune article where LSU LB Deion Jones talked about Corey Raymond after committing to Nebraska: