Former Eastern Washington star Cooper Kupp ready to make the most of his NFL career

IRVINE, Calif. – Southern California looks and feels nothing like Cheney, but Cooper Kupp is settling in just fine.

“It’s incredible,” Kupp said. “When you Google ‘what’s going on tonight in L.A.?’ all these cool things show up.”

“In Cheney in the summer, all you’ve got is the rodeo,” Kupp said with a laugh.

Perhaps the fun is easier to find when you’re a wide-eyed 24-year-old from Yakima, and Kupp is making the most of it. He and wife Anna have found a new church and many new friends while settling into an apartment in Thousand Oaks.

That’s 80 miles and almost two hours from the Rams camp at UC Irvine, but Kupp didn’t mind the drive to fall camp.

In a life-imitates-sports comment, Kupp said “You just have to find the right routes.”

Then Kupp hauled his gear to a dorm room, just as he did as a redshirt freshman at Eastern five summers ago. He may have traded pine trees for palms, but football doesn’t change.

Fast company

Kupp has been in SoCal for only three months, but you get the sense that he’ll be the same man 300 months from now. He’s staying grounded even while reaching for the stars.

“It’s incredible what God has provided,” he said Wednesday, with little reference to his $3.8 million contract . Not so with the Rams’ surprise announcement last week that he was atop the depth chart.

That was question No. 1 from the media, and a tricky one: would Kupp let his ego get the better of him?

Nope.

“There has been stuff coming out of the media about stuff like that, but at the end of the day I’m just here for the team,” Kupp told a group that dwarfs anything he saw during preseasons at Eastern.

Addressing the media on rookie move-in day, Kupp said, “I am here to be the best me that I can be. I still haven’t done anything yet. I just want to come in here and at the end of the day I want to get better every single day and be a part of winning games as a Ram.”

That could be the biggest adjustment for Kupp, who was part of three Big Sky Conference championship teams in four years under former EWU coach Beau Baldwin.

The Rams, 4-12 last year under the fired Jeff Fisher, are in rebuilding mode. At 31, Sean McVay is the youngest head coach in modern NFL history and only seven years older than Kupp.

Not surprisingly, the experts predict some growing pains. Sports Illustrated sees the Rams going 6-10 this fall, while USA Today has them at 4-12.

That leaves plenty of upside, and the surety that no matter how bad the Rams will be this year, it won’t entirely be Kupp’s fault.

Since rookie camp in May, the Eastern Washington All-American impressed coaches with the same qualities that carried him to the top of the Football Championship Subdivision record charts: precise route running, uncommon focus and discipline and the ability to make the tough catch.

And Kupp’s slow 40 time at the NFL Combine? That’s ancient history, though he’s not seen as a deep threat and still figures to play primarily in the slot.

“I think the first thing you know about Cooper is he’s a pro and you can see that,” offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur said. “He came in here not like most rookies do.”

“You can tell he works at his craft each and every day,” LaFleur said.

A whole new game

Only in the second year of their return to L.A., the Rams are trying to gain some traction with the fans and media. Kupp is eager to help, on the field and off.

The night of the draft, he and Anna dashed to the beach and posted a Twitter video that closed with a chant of “Go Rams!”

That kind of youthful enthusiasm won’t die easily with Kupp, no matter how bad the Rams turn out to be this year. And no matter how much the business side of football intrudes on the game he loves.

“People talk about that a lot … I’ve had people say that you lose your love for the game, but at the end of the day I don’t think about that,” Kupp said.

How could he, on this, the first day of camp?

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Kupp reflected last week on a perfect SoCal afternoon, with a gentle breeze and highs in the low 80s.

“There’s been adjustments, learning a new system in a new place, but I’ve been around some really great teammates and some incredible coaches,” Kupp said.

That brought him full-circle to Cheney and the coaches and players “pushing themselves to be great,” Kupp told the L.A. media.

He hasn’t forgotten. Last month, Kupp got out of the fast lane and flew to Washington for the wedding of college teammate Zach Wimberly. He even found time help raise some money for his old high school program in Yakima.

That’s where this journey began in 2012, a lightly-recruited kid getting a chance the play on the red turf at Eastern.

“I fell in love with Cheney,” Kupp said. “Now I can’t wait to see what God has in store for me in L.A.”