Best Alabama football players: Modern-era Mount Rushmore – From Derrick Thomas to Tua

While Amari Cooper may have only played three years in the Crimson Tide offense with good-not-great quarterback play from A.J. McCarron and Blake Sims, that didn’t stop the eventual first-round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft from rewriting the record book for Alabama football wide receivers in his time playing for Alabama football.

Cooper’s rise to the top of the Bama record books started in his freshman season when he set a school record with 11 receiving touchdowns and the fourth 1000-yard receiving season in the history of the program. Helping lead the Tide to a National Championship, Cooper wasn’t quite as productive in his sophomore season, going for 736 yards and four touchdowns.

It was in his junior season when Cooper truly earned his place on the Mount Rushmore for Alabama. The standout wide receiver set single-season school records with 124 receptions, 1,727 yards and 16 touchdowns on the year. Furthermore, his phenomenal campaign that won him the Biletnikoff Award put him atop the Alabama record books for career marks in all three of those categories.

When you think of the elite wide receivers that have come to Tuscaloosa, particularly in the Nick Saban era, such as Julio Jones and most recently Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs III and DeVonta Smith, that Cooper sits above them all in every category while playing just three years in the program speaks heavily to his rightful place as an all-time Alabama great.