There are many great names in the history of college football.

There’s Captain Munnerlyn. Weston Steelhammer. Phat Watts. Jake Butt.

But the best of all time is James Robert Cooter, aka “Jim Bob,” who played for the Tennessee Volunteers back in the day and then found his way to the NFL as a quality control guy and later an offensive coordinator.

Now the Eagles are adding Jim Bob to their staff, and head coach Nick Sirianni clarified Cooter’s role in his most recent press conference:

As far as Jim Bob goes, we brought him in as a consultant. I’ve worked with him in the past. He was my assistant wide out coach in Kansas City, so worked with him in the past. Obviously, he’s got a lot of experience and he’s a great football mind. I think very highly of him.

So, he’s doing special projects for me and consulting here, which has been great. If I see a play or if we talk about a play that — I just think this is really important. When you put a new play into your system that you maybe saw on tape, I think it’s very easy for a coach to do that and be like, ‘Oh, I saw that on tape. This looks great. I’m just going to throw it my offense.’

Well, do you know everything there is to know about that play? I’m not saying Jim Bob knows everything there is to know about every play, but what he is able to do is while we’re doing something else, he’s able to go research that play. I’ve already seen the benefit of that with a couple new wrinkles we have in this offense.

So really excited to have him. I haven’t really ever had that on a staff, and sometimes it deters you from putting in a play that you might like. So we have really gotten a lot out of him and really excited he’s here.

Hell yeah. This is a great idea. Jim Bob Cooter needs to find the next Philly Special and we’ll add it to the play book. He should also go back to the Fiesta Bowl and steal that Statue of Liberty from Boise State. There’s all kinds of stuff out there worth appropriating. Not culturally, but in a football sense.

Here’s Jim Bob Cooter’s coaching resume:

  • Tennessee Volunteers – grad assistant (2007-2008)
  • Colts – offensive assistant (2009-2011)
  • Chiefs – offensive quality control (2012)
  • Broncos – offensive assistant (2013)
  • Lions – QB coach (2014-2015)
  • Lions – offensive coordinator (2016-2018)
  • Jets – running backs coach (2019-2020)

Welcome to Philadelphia, Jim Bob Cooter. He’s one of us.

Kirthmon F. Dozier, Detroit Free Press