Ohio State Freshman Wide Receiver Mookie Cooper Loses Black Stripe

Mookie Cooper became the last of the highly touted receiver quartet to lose his black stripe on Tuesday, when he “officially” became a Buckeye.

one of the greatest moments in my life , stamped https://t.co/jnwBy5bSkZ

— MCEE (@mcgetbusy1) October 13, 2020

“I wanna thank the whole Zone 6, all the older guys for picking me up if I had a bad day, and Kaila (Olson) and all the nutritionists for helping me get my diet right,” Cooper said after his stripe was removed.

Cooper and linebacker Mitchell Melton became the 11th and 12th freshmen to lose their black stripes on Tuesday. The other three freshman receivers, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Gee Scott Jr. and Julian Fleming, all lost their black stripes in September.

A four-star recruit from St. Louis, Cooper was ranked as the No. 16 receiver and the No. 93 overall player in the 2020 recruiting class. The lowest-rated of the four freshman receivers as a recruit, Cooper was expected to have the steepest learning curve among them after he transferred high schools and was banned from playing his senior season, but Ohio State wide receivers coach Brian Hartline recently said Cooper's development had exceeded his expectations.

“I think Mookie is much further along than I, frankly, anticipated,” Hartline said on Sept. 29.