Zion Cooley wasn’t very familiar with East Carolina football when the Pirates extended a scholarship offer on January 23, 2024.
“I really didn’t know anything other than their team color is purple,” said Cooley, who would receive an accelerated course on ECU football over the next four-and-a-half months. The knowledge he gained convinced the 6-foot-4, 225-pound edge rusher from Carrollton, GA, to become a Pirate on June 15.
Cooley is one in a flurry of verbal commitments ECU has received in June from prospects in the recruiting Class of 2025. He chose the Pirates over other offers from Florida Atlantic, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Mercer, Navy, Samford, South Alabama, Troy, Alabama-Birmingham and Wofford.
The pledge from Cooley came two days after he made an official visit to Greenville where he was pleasantly surprised by what he experienced.
“To be honest with you, when we left to go up there, we had some little birds in our ears saying it wasn’t the best area,” Cooley said. “But when we got up there, me and my family, we loved it — the environment, the coaching staff, the community and how it’s a college town. They packed that stadium last year even though it wasn’t the best season. Just to have the community behind you like we do at Carrollton made it feel like home.”
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Cooley has spent a good part of his football career to date playing tight end. He picked up the sport at age 12 and size made him the perfect candidate to play as a blocking tight end. The role continued as Cooley joined the Carrollton varsity as a freshman.
“I played tight end most of my life, and defense as well,” Cooley said. “But for the most part I was a tight end.”
Most of his action as a freshman and sophomore came on special teams at Carrollton. But graduation losses forced him into a dual role at edge on defense and tight end on offense.
Cooley responded to the expanded responsibility on defense by earning second-team All-Region 2-7A honors by Georgia High School Football Daily.
“I think my strongest asset is my speed,” Cooley said. “I’m pretty quick off the ball and I’m pretty strong actually. A good example is a play I made against East Coweta. I had gotten past the tackle, and the quarterback started to run out of the pocket in the opposite direction. I chased him down and tackled him.”
ECU defensive coordinator Blake Harrell made the first contact with Cooley, and extended the scholarship offer. But Cooley said new outside linebackers/defensive ends coach Rico Zackery played a big role in his decision to join the Pirates.
Zackery is a Georgia native and came to ECU after a two-year run as head coach at Westlake High School in the Peach State. Six of the Pirates’ current 17 verbal commitments for the 2025 class hail from Georgia, and Zackery has played a major role in securing several of those.
“He’s from the area and knows what it’s like to be from here,” Cooley said. “So, he did play a big part (in commitment). We have a good connection and good relationship.”
While many prospects will be hitting the road to camps this summer, Cooley will be recovering from minor knee surgery before he starts getting ready for his final prep season.
“It’s not very major at all,” Cooley said. “Just go in there and clean it up a little bit. I’ll be out maybe four weeks.”
Cooley plans to spend his entire senior year at Carrollton. But when he does arrive at ECU, he hopes to start competing for playing time quickly.
“I definitely would love to come in and show what I can do and play right off the rip,” he said. “But there are some guys that are still there. But I wouldn’t want to go somewhere where I’m sitting for three years and only play my senior year.”
“They packed that stadium last year even though it wasn’t the best season.”
LOL! In what game last year did ECU pack Dowdy-Ficklen?
ECU average attendance* for 2023: 35,115, DOWN 11.4% from 2022. FIVE year average attendance* for ECU, 35,695. % capacity attendance* = 70.23%
https://www.d1ticker.com/2023-fbs-attendance-trends/
* = ECU counts attendance as “tickets sold,” not actual attendance.