Football
- Title:
- Secondary
- Email:
- football@kent.edu
- Phone:
- 330-672-3350
Jon Cooley took over as secondary coach for Kent State in January of 2018.
Cooley is one of three Kent State defensive coaches who spent the 2017 season at Chattanooga. The Mocs led the Southern Conference in total defense, allowing just 326.4 yards per game and 309.6 yards per contest in conference games. Chattanooga also led the SoCon in pass defense and ranked second in first downs allowed.
Prior to serving as defensive backs coach for the Mocs, Cooley was a defensive graduate assistant at Kentucky in 2016. The Wildcats finished tied for second in the SEC East and earned a bowl bid.
Before Kentucky, Cooley spent two seasons as secondary coach at his alma mater, John Carroll University. He helped the defense at JCU finish in the top five nationally in Division III both seasons.
Cooley’s first coaching job came as a defensive backs coach and assistant special teams coordinator at Millikin University in 2011. He then coached safeties at Bluffton University in 2012 and served as the team’s equipment manager.
A native of Columbus, Cooley was a four-year letterwinner and three-year starter at John Carroll, when he first came to Northeast Ohio. The defensive back finished in the top 10 in career pass breakups for the Blue Streaks.
Cooley was elected as a Unity Council member in all four years at JCU and earned his bachelor’s degree in finance in 2011. He went on to earn an MBA and completed work towards a second master’s degree in sport leadership at Kentucky.
