Hype hasn’t gone to Pharoh Cooper’s head

Pharoh Cooper knows he’s on every preseason All-SEC team that has been released this summer and will be on every one that comes out between now and fall.

He just doesn’t care much.

“I see all of them on social media,” South Carolina’s star wide receiver said. “I pay attention to it a little bit to see who is up there and everything, but I don’t really put a lot of effort into looking at it. It has nothing to do with anything when you get out on the field.

“It’s just predictions. I’m just going to keep going out there and playing.”

That will be fine with the Gamecocks. As a sophomore, Cooper caught 69 passes for 1,136 yards and was named first-team All-SEC on the team that matters – the one released after the season. The 5-foot-11, 208-pound junior was the second-leading receiver in the SEC and also ran for 200 yards and passed for 78. In all, he accounted for 13 touchdowns.

He will be the focal point of the Gamecocks offense this season and also of opposing defenses – another fact he knows well.

“They won’t know about any of the other receivers so the first two or three games, I am going to be targeted,” Cooper said. “I tell the other guys, ‘They don’t know anything about you, you’re going to be open.’”

Cooper is trying to tutor his young position mates this summer during the team’s workouts. South Carolina’s quarterbacks, receivers and running backs gather once a week for two hours outside their regular workouts with the strength staff for seven-on-seven drills, Cooper said.

All four of the team’s quarterbacks are at those workouts – sophomore Connor Mitch, junior Perry Orth, redshirt freshman Michael Scarnecchia and freshman Lorenzo Nunez – Cooper said.

“Perry and Connor both have good balls,” Cooper said. “I feel a connection with both of them. They are competing hard every day, but I don’t really have a say in that.”

As for the newcomer Nunez, Cooper said, “He’s still young. You can tell he is just out of high school the way he throws and reads everything, but he’s really athletic. That guy can run.”

Cooper hasn’t given any thought to whether this will be his last year at South Carolina, he said. He will be eligible for early entry into the NFL Draft at the end of the season.

“I am just going to focus on this season and see how it goes,” he said.