BRADENTON, Fla. — Derrek Cooper picked up his first scholarship offer while at a camp at Vanderbilt prior to the ninth grade. Two years later, there isn’t a major college football program in the country that wouldn’t love to sign him in 18 months.
Last weekend, Cooper, the No. 1 athlete in Rivals’ Class of 2026 rankings, took home MVP honors at the Under Armour Future 50 camp at IMG (Fla.) Academy, flashing top-end speed, great hands and a knack for making big plays out of the backfield.
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The 6-foot-1, 200-pound South Florida native played mostly safety as a sophomore last season at Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons, racking up 49 tackles and a team-leading four interceptions. He also caught nine passes for 71 yards and a touchdown on offense.
This season, though, Cooper will likely take all of his reps at running back for national power Hollywood Chaminade-Madonna.
“Nobody is really recruiting him on defense,” Chaminade coach Dameon Jones said Tuesday. “When you see him run the ball, you’ll see why. He killed it in the spring. He’s not an easy tackle. He’s big, fast and strong.”
Former (and future?) Georgia commit Derrek Cooper was brought in on defense to stop this conversion. Mission accomplished.@Rivals pic.twitter.com/p5DrplcXMX
— Radi Nabulsi (@RadiNabulsi) June 26, 2024
Rivals national recruiting analyst John Garcia believes Cooper could be a star on either offense or defense at the next level.
“I think a lot of schools are treating him as an athlete. I know Georgia was for sure,” he said. “But the more everyone sees him as a running back — he keeps winning MVPs and kind of dominating at running back — the more people might see him that way. He’s just so athletic. Even though I think he probably has a higher ceiling on defense, his offensive stuff has plenty of juice behind it.”
Cooper committed to Georgia last month at the OT7 national championships but backed off that decision a few days later and is once again on the open market.
Cooper said at the Future 50 event that he’s still trying to figure out what position he’ll play at the next level, but he is “leaning toward running back” and has been telling schools that is his preference.
He said Florida State is recruiting him as an athlete and wants him to choose what he’ll play after his junior season.
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Ohio State, Georgia, Florida State, Miami, Louisville and Penn State are the schools recruiting him the hardest. He’s been on Florida State’s campus three times — more than any other school — and he noted that his stepfather is a Seminoles fan. He said he’d like to get to Tallahassee a few more times and attend a game or two, and he singled out FSU’s Mike Norvell as the head coach he has the best connection with.
“He’s energetic, exciting,” Cooper said. “Every time I go there, I just have a big smile on my face. He has a big smile on his face.”
Cooper doesn’t plan on committing until next summer.
Houston’s best athlete
Keisean Henderson, like Cooper, could be a star on offense or defense in college.
The Houston native and No. 2-ranked athlete in the Class of 2026 in the 247Sports Composite was voted as the best player at the Future 50 by evaluators from On3.
Henderson committed to Houston on Memorial Day weekend as a quarterback. But the 6-3 185-pound rising junior could also be a star at receiver or safety at the next level.
“I watched him at OT7,” Garcia said. “He’s betting himself as a quarterback and not going anywhere that won’t let him call the shots as a signal caller.
“But he has a fascinating athletic profile, and we’ve seen him make big impact plays at receiver or in the secondary. So it’s hard to put him in any one position. He and Cooper are just positionless superstars where no matter where they end up, you expect big things.”
Henderson committed to Houston because Shawn Bell — the first coach to offer him as a quarterback — left Baylor to join Willie Fritz’s staff. He said SMU, Baylor, Oklahoma, Arkansas and New Mexico State are the only schools that have offered him as a quarterback. He said Duke is also considering it.
Oregon, Texas, Michigan, Ohio State, Florida State and Penn State have all offered him as an athlete and want to get him on campus before the end of the summer. He said he’ll likely visit Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan later this month.
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Henderson excelled as a quarterback as a sophomore at the Legacy School of Sports Sciences. He completed 63.4 percent of his attempts for 1,574 yards, 21 touchdowns and three interceptions over eight games. As a freshman, he had 74 catches for 1,135 yards and 14 touchdowns as a receiver and two interceptions playing defensive back.
“Last year I wanted to change everybody’s mindset to show them that I’m actually a quarterback,” Henderson said. “I like making a difference.”
Fritz, he said, has sold him on making a difference in his hometown. He’s been on Houston’s campus — only a 25-minute drive from home — dozens of times.
“I can’t wait to just put the city back on the map,” Henderson said. “Everyone looks at us, Houston, like it’s a tourist place. They look at it as like high school football, but not college. So I want to put UH back on the map.”
Henderson, who works out in Houston with Miami quarterback Cam Ward and Virginia Tech quarterback Kyron Drones, said he is close with former Houston QB and current SMU quarterbacks coach D’Eriq King.
Other Future 50 standouts to keep an eye on
• Simeon Caldwell, a 6-3, 190-pound rising junior at Jacksonville (Fla.) Bolles, believes he’s one of the smartest defensive players in the 2026 cycle. He is the son of former NFL linebacker and current Raiders linebackers coach Mike Caldwell.
“I feel like my IQ is second to none,” said Caldwell, who racked up 137 tackles and two interceptions playing safety and linebacker as a sophomore. “Just being a coach’s son and being around the game my whole life, I usually know what the other team is gonna do before the play happens.”
Miami, Notre Dame and Ohio State are the early leaders for Caldwell. Miami and Notre Dame were the first schools to call him shortly after midnight when the contact period began. His uncle, Tim Walton, is the cornerbacks coach at Ohio State. He’s been on campus at Florida, Florida State, Miami, Georgia, Texas, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Ohio State and Michigan.
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Caldwell, who is ranked No. 62 overall and the No. 4 linebacker in the 247Sports Composite, has no timeline for making a college decision.
• Four-star receiver Vance Spafford from Mission Viejo (Calif.) High School, won the “fastest man” award at the Future 50 combine. The 5-11, 175-pound rising junior ran the 40-yard dash in a laser-timed 4.35 seconds.
Spafford put up eye-popping numbers as a sophomore: 83 catches for 1,576 yards and 22 touchdowns. He told Rivals that Oregon, Ole Miss and Arizona State are three teams standing out early. He grew up an Ole Miss fan.
• IMG Academy’s own Zech Fort, a California native, was among the defensive back standouts during the two-day five-on-five tournament. He plays both safety spots and in the slot at cornerback.
Florida State, Alabama, Ohio State, Florida and Notre Dame are early leaders for Fort. He’s been on campus at Ohio State, Michigan, Florida State and Alabama the most thus far.
How different is Tuscaloosa under Kalen DeBoer compared to when Nick Saban was the Tide’s coach?
“It’s a little more laid back,” he said. “But it’s still Bama. Coach DeBoer is still gonna uphold the Bama standard.”
Fort said he wants to commit by January 2025.
(Photo of Keisean Henderson: Manny Navarro / The Athletic)
