Case Cookus' freshman season at Northern Arizona mostly defied logic, as the then 19-year-old quarterback joined the Lumberjacks late in the summer and quickly earned the starting job.
From there, he set the FCS freshman record for passing touchdowns and earned the Jerry Rice Award as the most outstanding freshman at the FCS level. Now in the stretch run of his collegiate career, a now 24-year-old Cookus is putting together an even more impressive statistical season while throwing to an entirely new cast of receivers.
"It's tough to compare years because it is just different players. My freshman year we had a guy in
Emmanuel Butler that was just truly special," Cookus said. "I think what's special about this group, and I've said it a few times, is each on our offense can make plays."
While Cookus previously leaned on Butler and
Elijah Marks, a pair of receivers who ended up in NFL training camps once their Northern Arizona careers ended, it has been a balance between
Brandon Porter,
Hendrix Johnson and
Stacy Chukwumezie in 2019.
The three primary receivers, who make up a little more than 60% of Northern Arizona's passing offense this season, combined for just five receptions from Cookus before the 2019 season. The lack of experience by Northern Arizona's pass catchers was not limited to the primary three on the outside. The 13 players who have caught a pass for the Lumberjacks this year combined for just 57 receptions from Cookus, and only 140 in their careers combined.
Porter ended up replacing Cookus at quarterback for a stretch in 2018 during his redshirt freshman season, Johnson is a true freshman who was in high school a year ago and Chukwumezie played just four games in his first year at Northern Arizona after transferring from Cerritos College.
"As you see a lot of times, the quarterback is going to be measured on 'Is he that multiplier, does he make guys around him better?' and that's what he does," Lumberjacks offensive coordinator
Aaron Pflugrad said. "I talked to Case about this before the year, that Kellen Moore at Boise State had Austin Pettis and Titus Young, two wideouts that got drafted,... and then in his final year at Boise State he lit it up and he had a bunch of guys who had never played before.
"That's what we had going into the year, and credit to those guys for really stepping up making big time plays," Pflugrad added. "Just being able to do it by committee, have different guys out there and build it around their skill sets."
Both Porter and Chukwumezie are currently on pace for 1,000-yard, 10-touchdown seasons, a feat only a handful of Northern Arizona receivers have achieved over the years. Additionally, Johnson's 918-yard pace puts three different receivers within reach of a 1,000 yard season after each spent little time with Cookus before fall camp began.
"I think it speaks volumes to who he is as a quarterback," Pflugrad said. "If you look at spring ball, Case was really limited. (Porter) didn't practice and Hendrix obviously was still in high school at Boulder Creek. So it left a short period of time to be able to develop that chemistry and get that going."
RECORDS IN REACH
With just five more games guaranteed in his Northern Arizona career, Cookus is on pace to capture a few more school records before he finishes his time as a Lumberjack.
Already Northern Arizona's all-time passing touchdown leader at 96 following his four-score game at Weber State last week, Cookus sits just 998 yards back of Travis Brown's career passing yardage record. Additionally, Cookus' current yards per attempt of 8.52 would set a new record and his completion percentage of 62.04% is the highest ever for a player with his amount of passing attempts.
The senior is setting career records while also looking to top the single-season marks he set in both his freshman campaign in 2015 and the Lumberjacks' playoff season in 2017. Currently on pace for a season stat line of 265-for-462 passing, 4,172 yards and 37 touchdowns, Cookus is likely to break the lone single-season record he does not hold.
Cookus is just 1,038 yards away from Jason Murrietta's record of 3,472 yards in 2003, a number Cookus could reach in three games at his current yards per game average. The senior quarterback already holds the single-season record for passing touchdowns (37, 2015) and completions (275, 2017), while tying the record for attempts in a season (474, 2017).
Should he reach 37 touchdowns this season, tying his single-season record from 2015, Cookus would also break another significant all-time record. The Big Sky Conference's career passing touchdowns mark of 110, held by former Eastern Washington quarterback Vernon Adams for his tenure between 2012 and 2014, is 14 away from his current total of 96.
A LONG LIST OF NAMES
Those 96 career touchdowns have been caught by 23 players over Cookus' five-year career, a list of players the quarterback managed to run through with minimal help. While Butler, with 21, and Marks, with 16, make up a significant percentage of the quarterback's career scores, the list quickly spreads out from there.
Porter's six touchdowns from Cookus this season already ties him with Dejzon Walker for the third most. Likewise, Chukwumezie and
Joe Logan's five touchdowns this year tie
Jonathan Baldwin for fifth most from Cookus.
Eight players caught just one from Cookus, with the most recent player to join the list being CeeJhay French-Love following his 14-yard score against Northern Colorado.
"You just took him through all the different guys he's thrown a touchdown pass to and that's quite a few different names in and out through the years," Pflugrad said. "He makes those guys better and those guys really believe in him."
DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE YEARS
"Something that's fun about the quarterback position is you never stop learning," Cookus said. "So I have learned all this stuff over the five years, but there is always more I can learn. And overall, I've progressed a lot in that aspect of it. Just from your freshman year, you come in and you kind of know the offense and you kind of know the basic coverage of the defense. Now you kind of get to know the leverage of the defense, what they want to do to try and get the ball out."
Describing himself as a bit of a "run and gun" quarterback as a freshman, Cookus has come a long way from the passer who tossed up the ball up to Butler as he streaked across the middle of the field past opposing teams' safeties.
"I kind of did make some freshman mistakes, but
Emmanuel Butler was able to bail me out on some things," Cookus said. "Now as I have progressed through this... and a couple different coordinators, I think each guy I have learned from has taught me different stuff about the position. And this team has done a great job of just getting open for me too."
Both Cookus and Pflugrad admitted the coverages the Lumberjacks see now vary from those of the past, as the absence of either Butler or Marks saves teams the need to double a specific receiving option.
The recognition of the defense before the snap at the line of scrimmage is what Pflugrad counts on Cookus to do at this point in his career, as he said the senior finds the Lumberjacks best option on any given play. While it is a simple example, the knowledge was on display against Weber State as Cookus stood in the pocket behind max protection with just two reads down the field.
Backed up on their own 6-yard line with under a minute before halftime, Northern Arizona took a shot counting on Weber State's defense to fall into a trap.
With only Johnson and Chukwumezie out wide, both receivers ran a stutter step about seven yards from the line of scrimmage before turning back up on a go route. While the corner covering Johnson stayed deep on the play, Chukwumezie's defender broke forward. The play call, recognition by Cookus and route from Chukwumezie led the junior receiver to catch the ball 30 yards downfield on the sideline, as the cornerback trailed five yards behind and the safety broke too late to cut off the ball, resulting in a 94-yard touchdown pass to break the school's all-time passing touchdown record.
While Cookus can make checks at the line to move out of certain calls, the quarterback admitted he is not out on the field making it up as he goes.
"We have our checks and we talk about them, I am not out there freelancing and making up stuff," Cookus said. "If there's an opportunity to exploit a certain player on their team, then we are going to take it whether that's a check in the run game or a check in the pass game.
"Overall, we do a good job of preparing through the week on that stuff so there's no surprises on Saturday," Cookus added. "There are checks that are going to happen throughout the game, but nothing crazy where we are just flipping the whole play and that stuff."
