The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

IT was a storybook ending to a nearly perfect season for one Bahamian college football player as his team defeated another Bahamian on the opposing side of an historic bowl matchup.

The 2015 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl featured Alex Cooper and his No.14 ranked Houston Cougars with a 38-24 win over Mavin Saunders and the No.9 Florida State Seminoles in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia on New Year’s Eve.

It was the first time Bahamians squared off on opposite sides of a major NCAA football bowl game and was also the final game of Cooper’s collegiate career. Houston’s 38 offensive points were the most scored against FSU this season. They have won three of their last four bowl games and improved their record to 11-12-1 in school history. It marked the third straight season and the seventh in the last nine years in which Houston has competed in a bowl game. They also achieved their second 13-win season in school history.

The Cougars finished 13-1, 7-1 in the American Athletic Conference (AAC) to win the conference under first year head coach Tom Herman. Cooper, the 6’4” 305-pound senior, Eleuthera native was a team co-captain and has started every game for the Cougars this season at right tackle.

One of the anchors on an offensive line which powered the high scoring Cougars’ offence, Cooper was named an All-AAC Second Team selection. Cooper started 25 straight games on the Cougars line at various positions including both tackle spots and right guard. Cooper and his line mates lead a Houston team that is 14th nationally in rushing offence at 240.1 yards per game. Houston’s leader along the line with 892 snaps, Cooper has not allowed a single sack this season and just eight quarterback pressures.

Prior to the season, he had already completed his undergraduate degree and was named to the 2015 Athlon Sports Preseason AAC Third Team.

The Seminoles finished the season at 10-3, 6-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) to advance to a major bowl despite not earning a spot in the ACC conference championship game. Head coach Jimbo Fisher fell to 4-2 for his career in bowl games, including last season’s 59-20 loss to Oregon in the 2015 Rose Bowl, a semi-final for the NCAA College Football Playoff.

Saunders, the 6’5” 258-pound redshirt freshman tight end and Bimini native, has appeared in six games this season before being relegated to the sidelines due to a nagging back injury. In the season opener, he caught a single pass for five yards. His best game of the season was the first start of his collegiate career, when he finished with three receptions for 26 yards – both career highs – in the Seminoles’ 29-24 win over in-state rival, the University of Miami Hurricanes. He was pegged as one of the leading candidates to become a major contributor at tight end with the departure of senior standout Nick O’Leary.

Saunders was a standout this spring as the Seminoles wrapped up spring practice with the 2015 Garnet and Gold Game. He finished with six receptions for 91 yards and a touchdown. He appeared in just one game last season – an October contest against Wake Forest – before he earned a medical redshirt. Both Saunders and Cooper were originally recruited to the Frank Rutherford Elite Development programme as basketball players before making the shift to the gridiron in senior high school.