Columbia Academy’s Logan Cooke continues playoff run with Jacksonville Jaguars

COLUMBIA, Miss. (WDAM) - One of the key players in the third-largest comeback in National Football League playoff history was punter Logan Cooke – the holder for Riley Patterson’s game-winning kick which sent the Jaguars to the AFC Divisional round.

Of course, Cooke’s NFL dreams began in Columbia, Mississippi.

“I went home when he was four or five one afternoon and he was out kicking a football and trying to kick soccer style,” said Len Cooke, Logan’s dad. “He had a talent, a God-given talent, but he also had the desire that he wanted to be out kicking and to get better at that.”

The drive eventually earned Logan Cooke a scholarship to Mississippi State University out of Columbia Academy.

And after four years in Starkville, the Jaguars welcomed him to Jacksonville as a seventh-round pick. Logan Cooke all of a sudden was rubbing elbows with his childhood heroes.

“Watching Drew Brees set a record one night, we were eating supper and he was all excited about that,” Len Cooke said. “Ironically, his first professional game in preseason was against the Saints in Jacksonville. He said, ‘Dad I was sitting on the field stretching and Drew Brees comes jogging across the field. I looked up and kinda laughed at myself and thought there’s Drew Brees right there.’”

Now five years in the league, Logan Cooke’s setting his own records. He holds the NFL’s best career net punting average at 43.2 yards.

Logan Cooke is further proof if one is willing to put in the work, dreams can turn into reality.

“I’ve come to realize that whatever the Lord’s will is you can’t stop it,” Len Cooke said. “And if it’s not His will, you can’t make it happen. And that goes back to being humble. The fact that this is what God had planned for him at this time in his life, it’s pretty awesome to know that you can represent a small school or a small town like this.”

The Jaguars visit Kansas City on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in the AFC Divisional Playoffs.

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