Cooper Kupp

Early life

Cooper Douglas Kupp was born June 15, 1993, in Yakima, Washington, United States. He is the grandson of Jake Kupp, an NFL offensive lineman, and the son of Craig Kupp, an NFL quarterback. His family is one of only five in NFL history to have three generations selected in the NFL draft.

Kupp attended and graduated from Davis High School in Yakima in 2012 where he was a two-sport athlete in football and basketball for the Pirates athletic teams. A two-way All-State selection, he earned first-team 4A All-State honors as a defensive back and honorable mention accolades as a wide receiver from the Associated Press, as selected by sportswriters and broadcasters. Kupp was also named by the Seattle Times as a "White Chip" selection, as one of the top 100 prospects in the state of Washington.

Kupp was a unanimous first-team All-Columbia Basin Big Nine League wide receiver and defensive back at Davis. He finished his senior season with 60 receptions for 1,059 yards (17.7 per catch) and 18 touchdowns and scored 22 total touchdowns to set a school record. Kupp also had 11 rushes for 122 yards and two touchdowns as he helped Davis come one game away from a berth in the Washington State 4A Playoffs.

Kupp finished his prep career without a single college football scholarship offer despite recording 110 catches for 2,100 yards. Three weeks after the final game of his senior season, he received his first scholarship offer to play for Eastern Washington, followed shortly thereafter by an offer from Idaho State.

Kupp was also a three-year letter-winner in basketball. He led Davis to a 23–2 record and won the State 4A Tournament championship during his senior year for the Pirates.

College career

Kupp attended Eastern Washington University, where he signed to play for coach Beau Baldwin's Eastern Washington Eagles football team in 2012 and redshirted that year. Kupp would eventually be named Eastern's Offensive Scout Team Player of the Year.

2013 season

In 2013, Kupp entered his redshirt freshman year as a starter at wide receiver. He finished the season having set numerous single-season school and national receiving records at the Football Championship Subdivision Level. Kupp has set national freshman records for receiving yards (1,691), total touchdown catches (21), consecutive games with a touchdown catch (14), and receptions (93).

On November 26, 2013, Kupp was named to the All-Big Sky Conference First-team as a unanimous selection and was also the recipient of the conference's first-ever Freshman of the Year Award.

On December 16, 2013, Kupp was named the recipient of the 2013 Jerry Rice Award, given to the top freshman player in the FCS. Kupp is the first Eastern Washington player and the first player from the Big Sky Conference to receive the award.

Kupp was named a consensus first-team All-American, having been honored by the four major selectors at the FCS level, consisting of the American Football Coaches Association, the Associated Press, The Sports Network and the Walter Camp Football Foundation. Kupp was the first freshman wide receiver to be named as a first-team All-American since Randy Moss in 1996.

On January 9, 2014, Kupp was honored by the College Football Performance Awards with the 2013 FCS Wide Receiver Award. Kupp is the second straight Eagles wide receiver to win the award, following Brandon Kaufman, who won the 2012 award.

2014 season

Kupp finished his sophomore season with 104 catches for 1,431 yards and 16 touchdowns in 13 games. He was named a First-team All-American by the AFCA, AP, and TSN for the second consecutive season. He was also named to the first-team All-Big Sky for the second straight year as a wide receiver while also earning third-team honors as punt returner. Kupp finished 18th in the 2014 Walter Payton Award voting.

2015 season

In the 2015 season, Kupp finished the season with 114 catches for 1,642 yards and 19 touchdowns in 11 games. He broke the Big Sky single-season record for catches with 114, a total that ranks ninth most all-time in FCS single-season history. Kupp was named a first-team All-Big Sky wide receiver for the third-straight year and was also named the league's Offensive Most Valuable Player. He was just the second wide receiver to be named Big Sky Offensive MVP in the last 42 years. Kupp also won the Walter Payton Award, becoming the third Eastern Washington player to win the award and only the second wide receiver to win, after Brian Finneran of Villanova in 1997.

2016 season

On November 30, 2015, Kupp announced that he would return for his senior season after speculation that he was considering entering the 2016 NFL draft. He was poised to break nearly every major FCS career receiving record mark during his final collegiate season. In the 2016 season, Kupp finished with 117 receptions for 1,700 yards and 17 touchdowns. At the end of his college career, Kupp's 428 receptions and 6,464 yards were both the most in FCS history, passing marks previously held by Terrell Hudgins, who had 395 receptions and 5,250 yards playing for Elon University from 2006 to 2009. Moreover, Kupp's 6,464 yards eclipsed Scott Pingel's all-division NCAA record set in 1999, which was accomplished at the Division III level of competition. Kupp's 73 receiving touchdowns also rank first in FCS history, passing the 58 touchdowns that New Hampshire's David Ball caught from 2003 to 2006.

Personal life

Kupp is the son of former NFL quarterback Craig Kupp, a fifth-round draft pick by the New York Giants in 1990 out of Pacific Lutheran University who played for the Phoenix Cardinals and the Dallas Cowboys in 1991. His younger brother, Ketner, also played at Eastern Washington and was signed by the Los Angeles Rams as a free agent in 2019, participating in training camp and in preseason games, but was released during the final roster cutdown.

His grandfather, Jake Kupp, was an offensive lineman for the University of Washington and was selected in the ninth round of the 1964 NFL draft by the Dallas Cowboys. He played from 1964 to 1975 as a guard with Dallas, the Washington Redskins, Atlanta Falcons, and the New Orleans Saints. Named to the NFL All-Rookie team, he later was a five-time captain for the Saints. He was named to the franchise's 25-year All-Time Team and was inducted into the New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame in 1991.

Kupp developed a close friendship with former Rams quarterback Jared Goff while living with him for a few weeks after the draft. They practiced on their own time together, watched films, studied defensive schemes, and learned the playbook.

Kupp has been described as a devout Christian.

As a senior in high school, Kupp met his girlfriend and future wife Anna Croskrey. They married in June 2015 and have three sons. When Kupp played for Los Angeles, he and his family lived in Westlake Village, California, during the season and Wilsonville, Oregon, during the offseason.

As part of a pregame ritual, Kupp is responsible for finding a Vietnamese restaurant to bring pho for his teammates Sam Darnold, Drew Lock, and Jalen Milroe the night before the team dinner of a road game. The quarterbacks rank and review Kupp's choices after they've finished reviewing the call sheet.