There aren’t many people out there these days who don’t know about Cooper Kupp. The Los Angeles Rams star turned Seattle Seahawk in a two-time Super Bowl champion and just wrapped up his ninth season in what has been an illustrious NFL career. He has made himself a household name for those who are any sort of football fan. Before all the bright lights, though, Kupp had humble beginnings at Eastern Washington. For four seasons he lit up the red turf in Cheney and set the standard in the FCS for the wide receiver position. To date he is the last pass catcher to win the coveted Walter Payton Award and he still holds the subdivision’s record for most career receptions, yards and touchdowns (among several others).
He was something to watch during his heyday with the Eagles and several teams fell victim to the one-man highlight reel that was Cooper Kupp. Even some of college football’s big boys got more than they bargained for with #10. Just ask the Oregon Ducks. Oregon paid Eastern Washington to come into Eugene to kick off the 2015 season and, because of essentially Kupp alone, nearly regretted that decision in a big way. Although they still came out with the win, the Ducks learned on that early fall afternoon what those around the FCS already knew at the time; Kupp was cut from a different cloth.
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Kupp, though, was merely a footnote heading into that contest and that was because of who Oregon’s quarterback that day was. Vernon Adams was making his Ducks debut and was doing so against his former team. Adams had transferred out of EWU following the 2014 season after lighting up the stat sheet. In just two seasons with the Eagles, Adams threw for a staggering 8,477 yards and 90 touchdowns all while racking up nearly 900 rushing yards on the ground. His final year in the red and black ended with him finishing as the runner-up for the Walter Payton Award and, of course, drew him a ton of interest from the next level including Oregon. Adams hung ‘em up in Cheney and made his way over to Eugene.
With all that going on, Kupp naturally took a backseat in the headlines leading up to the 2015 season. It was a place he wouldn’t stay long, though, and everyone in attendance at Autzen Stadium became very acquainted with not only Adams but his former teammate as well.
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The game got off to an expected start. Oregon raced out to a 13-0 lead and Eastern Washington was forced to punt after just five plays on their opening possession. Midway through the first quarter, it appeared as though the rout was on and, if it was, it was no fault of either team. The Ducks were that good, just coming off a trip to the inaugural CFP national championship game the year prior. Guys like Royce Freeman, DeForest Buckner and Dwayne Stanford were just a few of the embarrassment of riches that they boasted. The Eagles were no slouch by any means either but Oregon… and that Oregon team in particular… was far and above on another level. It seemed to be a run-of-the-mill paycheck game and nothing more.
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Then, with 7:11 to play in the opening quarter, EWU quarterback Jordan West zipped a quick pass to his left to Kupp who brought it and curled up field for an 11-yard gain. Alone; a seemingly insignificant play. But with the benefit of hindsight, the first in what turned out to be a monster day amidst a mammoth season for #10.
West’s completion helped propel the Eagles to their first score of the day. On that same series, Eastern Washington would find the end zone and, although Oregon scored again before the end of the first, it was 20-7 as the second quarter began and, it was in the second quarter, that Kupp really started to come alive.
It started with a bang, too. On their first snap of the second, West slung a pass out to Kupp at behind the line of scrimmage and he turned on the jets for a long 73-yard sprint down the left sideline. He dove for the pylon but was knocked down just short of the chalk. Still, it set up Eastern’s second touchdown of the afternoon. Kupp was just two catches in and already had 84 yards.
By the time halftime rolled around, Kupp had piled on 73 more yards through the air and snagged a touchdown of his own. West was making no attempt to hide it either, the ball was going to Kupp and yet the Ducks defense had no answers for it. Yes, Oregon had dropped 37 points of their own in the opening 30 minutes, but the Eagles had 21 (more than many FCS teams ever get against UO), sparked largely by the play of their electric junior wideout.
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The trading of blows continued in the third quarter. Oregon scored only for Eastern to answer right back. Kupp came down with a one-yard catch on a slant route in the end zone for his second TD of the afternoon. The Ducks marched right down the field once more only for the Eagles to do the same. Aided by a big 37-yard reception from Kupp, EWU made it 51-35 with another touchdown. Even with West now out, backup redshirt freshman QB Reilly Hennessey kept the game plan the same; find a way to get the ball into hands of #10. It just kept working.
By now it was quite clear to everyone watching that Kupp was a problem for Oregon’s defense regardless of who was passing him the ball and, had it not been of an offense that was ultra-talented on the other side, the #7-ranked Ducks might actually be losing. Even with a 19-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, there was a restless sense of unease among the 56,000 plus at Autzen Stadium. Normally lower-level teams didn’t hang around quite like the Eagles were and it was almost all because of one guy.
Kupp naturally caught the first pass of the fourth quarter, a 13-yard dart over the middle that moved the chains. Three plays later he came down with a nine-yarder, then a 16-yarder on the next drive and then… finally… his final reception of the day was a seven-yard touchdown strike. Oregon still won 61-42 but when all was said and done, Kupp’s stat line looked like something straight out of something from NCAA Football’s line of video games. 15 total catches for 246 yards and three touchdowns. For those doing the math at home, that’s an average of over 16 yards per reception.
Not often does a team like Oregon get left so completely dumbfounded by an individual player, let alone an FCS one. Kupp, as we all know now, of course is no ordinary player though and that performance was the genesis of a season no FCS wide receiver had seen before or since. In 2015, Kupp caught a grand total of 114 balls for 1,642 yards and 19 touchdowns. He averaged 149.3 receiving yards per game that season and even had an outing with higher numbers than the Ducks game. Perhaps the most perplexing of all of it, however, was the fact that Eastern didn’t even qualify for the playoffs that year.
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It’s not always easy to pinpoint the exact moment that a star, in any sport, is born. For Kupp, though, it’s fair to say that moment came in Eugene on September 5, 2015. It was a coming out party put on for not necessarily Eastern Washington and its fans who already knew what they had, but for the college football following as a whole. From that point on, Cooper Kupp was a name that seldom fell on unknowing ears. It didn’t take long for the NFL to come calling and the rest is history. The trophy case is full for the now 32-year old Kupp and, while he delivered many, many special performances for EWU in his college days, few hold a candle to what he did against mighty Oregon 11 years ago.
