Cooper Cousins is Nick Dawkins. And Olaivavega Ioane. And Andrew Shelton. And Donovan Smith.
All big Penn State offensive linemen, past and present. All big talents. All big leaders. And all had a big classroom presence — in the best way — when I taught them at Penn State.
(Dawkins sat front row, center, in a class of 125 and ran the whole group from there. Vega sometimes took up a pair of seats. Always with a smile. Big Don owned the aisle seat, at the end of the second row, so he could stretch his legs and frequently offer his 2 cents.)
Each sat in the front or second, even after the first week of classes came and gone. Each rarely missed a class. Each a true student-athlete. Each took his studies seriously. Each personified the best of Penn State’s ideals. Leaders and great teammates, off and on the field. There’s something special, I’ve found, about the very best offensive linemen.
Dawkins, Shelton and Ioane are all heading to the NFL. Smith won a pair of Super Bowls there, while blocking as the left tackle for Mahomes and Brady.
And that leaves Cousins, in a very good spot. For both him and Penn State. A cooper is, after all, a skilled craftsman who makes, repairs and maintains.
Cousins remains despite wholesale changes on the second floor among the coaches’offices in Lasch Building, as well in the locker room a floor below. It’s big, and important, that Cousins — the latest in the long line of the Nittany O-Lions — has stayed. There was no doubt in his mind.
“No matter what happened, no matter who came here, no matter who was the coach here and what was going on, I truly am in love with this place,” Cousins said last month, during the THON Explorers event inside Lasch. “I’m truly in love with the university, and I love the game of football. And I want to do all that here. There was no doubt in my mind I was staying here…”
Cousins mans the lighthouse for the new Nittany Lion offense under Matt Campbell. He is a beacon of hope, of loyalty, of continuity, of tradition. And the bridge to a new era of Penn State football.
Cousins will be entering his third season at Penn State this fall, after playing 28 games, with two starts, in 2024-25 as he battled a depth chart filled with studs and some challenging injuries. He has the pedigree. Coming out of Erie McDowell as a two-time team captain, Cousins was ranked as the No. 2 (ESPN and 247Sports) and No. 3 (On3) high school football prospect in the Commonwealth.
At 6-foot-6 and 330 pounds, he has the frame to help carry the weight of the makeshift 2026 team on his shoulders and also the bulk to play the tough, physical, mammoth-sized football that Campbell and his offensive line coach, Ryan Clanton, expect for the PSU O-line in the seasons ahead.
“Coach Clanton has done a really good job getting all of us to gel together,” Cousins said after the first day of spring practice last week. “This is one of the closest groups I’ve ever been a part of.”
COUSINS THE LEADER
Here’s what Clanton and Cousins’ teammates have to say about James Cooper Cousins, Team Leader:
Trevor Buhr, O-line, Iowa State transfer: “Cooper’s been great. He is a textbook example of what a leader should be. He’s the first guy talking. He’s always vocal, always trying to round guys up for extra work out outside of practice, in the weight room, always just trying to lead. He’s phenomenal.”
Owen Aliciene, O-line, a redshirt sophomore who played one game for PSU in 2025: “Cooper’s leadership has taken a jump. He’s one of the older guys in the room. He’s been committed here for it feels like 10 years at this point. So he knows everything about the place. He loves Penn State through and through. Having him just grow into more of a leadership role has been great to watch. Many of the guys have only been here since January, so I think Cooper being one of the older guys in the room has really helped us just connect with each other and set like a good standard in the room.”
Clanton, the O-line coach at Iowa State in 2023-25 and at Northern Iowa before that: “Cooper brings the juice. No. 1, he’s got a lot of confidence. Then, he’s willing to stay after-hours and help young guys. That’s another big thing for us. We talked about this on Day One, that you shouldn’t be afraid to ask a question. Cooper is a big reason why those guys are gaining confidence, because you’re able to talk to him about football and about life. He’s a great leader, because he leads by example and he’s vocal at the same time. He’s confident. We’re really proud of him and happy to have him really lead the room.”
FOR COUSINS, IT’S ABOUT FAMILY
Cousins is a community builder. He was on the watch list for the All-State Wuerffel Trophy, awarded to the college football player who best combines exemplary community service with leadership achievement on and off the field. In high school, he was a part of the challenger baseball league and an elementary school reader.
And at Penn State, he mentors youngster Gannon Kupko, Jr., as part of Team Impact, a program that matches children facing serious injury and disability with a college sports team or athletes. (See video above.)
Cousins comes from a family of Nittany Lions. Three of his siblings — Coleman, Cece and Cassidy — went to Penn State. (The Cousins family is big on C for first names; there’s also a sister named Chloe.) Cooper wears his love of PSU on his personal sleeve. He has a tattoo of the Penn State logo on his left bicep, inside the outline of Pennsylvania.
He credits his parents, Ed and Holly, his family and his older teammates for passing along the leadership gene: “The people I’ve been around growing up and just how I’ve been brought up by my parents, really, kind of put me into this role, and gave me a foundation to step in that role.
“At the same time coming in here my freshman year, just seeing the leaders that I was playing with — Tyler Warren, Drew Allar, Nick Dawkins — and learning from those guys, has helped me implement some of their leadership into what I do.”
The result? Big excitement from the Big Guy for the 2026 season.
“Even though this is the earliest part of the year, I’m super-excited and super-grateful for what’s been going on in that room right now,” Cousins said last week. “I’m super-excited to see what’s gonna happen later on this year.
“We’re going to grind together and for each other. There’s not going to be any individual goals on this team. It’s going to be a team sport and a team thing. I mean, that’s kind of my philosophy, just work together with everybody, and then just help out the young guys as much as I can.”
