Growing up, redshirt junior receiver Cooper Willman was a three-sport athlete.

If you found yourself in Sterling–a town of about 15,000 people on the Rock River in the northwestern quadrant of Illinois–you could find Willman on the football field in the fall, basketball court in winter and on the baseball diamond in spring.

When it came to continuing his athletic career at the university level, Willman ended up pursuing football. He played quarterback and punter throughout his time in high school, but his coaches at Eastern had a different role for him on their team. They converted him to a receiver and punt returner.

Willman didn’t see much action during his early years in Charleston; his freshman year was in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic. The following year, he made it on the field for every game, ending the 2021 season with 11 receptions for 108 yards.

He became a starter for the 2022 season, while also earning second-team all-OVC for punt returning. In 2023, Willman was injured for most of the year. He redshirted and came back for the 2024 season, where he has 18 receptions for 189 yards and two touchdowns through five games.

Q: Where is Sterling?

A: “Sterling is about three and half hours northwest. I’m about an hour from both the Wisconsin and Iowa border. Kind of a smaller town in the middle of nowhere.”

Q: Why did you choose Eastern?

A: “Later in my high school career, I had wanted to play baseball. In my senior year, I played really well in football and started getting some looks. Then, I visited Eastern and fell in love with the place. I loved the coaches and the people here. It reminded me a lot of my hometown. That’s basically why I chose [Eastern]. The coaches, the atmosphere, the small town feel with a bigger university.”

Q: When you did get recruited to Eastern, did you know what position you were going to play?

A: “So, the guy that recruited me was from Dixon, Illinois, which is 15 minutes from me. Benny Boyd, he’s at Wyoming right now coaching corners I believe. He was a local guy that could relate to me on that level. He ended up recruiting me. He had connections to one of my friend’s dads. He is a scout for the New England Patriots. That got me that connection [to Boyd]. I was able to talk and talk until I finally got a visit here. At the end of the visit, he said, ‘Yeah, we don’t want you to play quarterback. We want you to play wide receiver.’ That kind of flipped my world on its head. I was like, ‘What does that mean for me?’ After continuing my recruiting process, I felt like, [Eastern] being my only Division I look, I figured they probably know what they’re doing. I took a shot at it, and it ended up working out.”

Q: Were you a Kendrick or Drake guy back in the summer?

A: “Drake.”

Q: What was the process like converting to receiver?

A: “It was tough. There are insane athletes that come here. When I first got here it was tough because growing up, I was the quarterback and an all-state player. Having to adjust and focus on the process has been tough. It’s not about playing now; it’s about playing in the next couple years and developing as a player. I took that and decided I’d take my first couple of years to focus on playing special teams, talking to the older guys, talking to the coaches, doing as much as I can to play. It ended up working out.”

Q: Do you have a favorite route?

A: “Comeback.”

Q: Have you ever returned punts?

A: “No. Everything was new when I got here. Even in high school, I remember we’d usually start practice with some blocking drills. I’d try and run in and get as many [reps as I could]. They’d always kick me out so I could start throwing. Blocking, special teams, receiver. Everything was brand new when I got to college.”

Q: What do you like about returning punts?

A: “The situation was kind of funny. I wasn’t a returner until we had a couple of guys who were returners get hurt or get COVID-19. Eventually they said, ‘You know what, get out there.’ I went out and started catching them. They saw I could catch them. That got me on the depth chart, I was second string. Our starter ended up getting a concussion so I started. From there it was about getting comfortable. I like the fact that it’s a quick play. I get the ball in my hands and can make a play.”

Q: Have you stayed with the history education major?

A: “So no, it was my second semester of my junior year. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, which was obviously very late in the process. So, to remain eligible, I couldn’t switch my degree because you have to have X amount of progress toward your degree depending on what year at school. So, I ended up switching from that and just doing history. I finished my degree in history this past spring and then started sports administration this year.”

Q: What is sports administration?

A: “It’s the graduate program for like sports management. Obviously, I want to be a coach, and I want to be around sports my whole life, so it was a move that I’m way happier with. And yeah, the classes I’m in, I enjoy a lot, and it’s definitely where I feel like I belong. It’s stuff that I enjoy learning. I enjoy going to the class and doing the work.”

Q: During your first few years at Eastern, was it conveyed that you would be starting in the future?

A: “No. So I came in as a walk on. I was told by our old coaching staff that I was going to get opportunities. But the guys that were put on scholarship got the first shot because they had money invested in them. You know, I took that as like, ‘I got to become a scholarship guy.’ And so, like I said, in my first two years, it was focused on special teams. Get on the bus, travel to every trip. I was starting holder in my first year and was working on kick return. And then my second year I was on holder, kick return, punt return. I was trying to learn all those positions to make myself the most valuable player. On offense, I mean I still am and always will be a guy that wants to know every position I can play so I can play all four receiver spots. So, at any moment a coach can throw me in, and I know what I’m doing. So yeah, just making sure that in those first two years, knowing everything give me the best opportunity to make it hard for them to not put me on the field in the future.”

Q: What was your process when learning those positions. Do you have to do that independently?

A: “Independently or a little bit independently, but I mean, you always gotta talk to your coaches, talk to other guys, but yeah. It’s just kind of anything like receiver or any position you play. You just got to put time into it and learn it.”

Q: Do you have a favorite time period?

A: “World War II easily.”

Q: You brought up liking the coaches as a reason to come to Eastern, but was it like playing under former head coach Adam Cushing’s coaching staff?

A: “When I first came on the visit, obviously being a young 17-year-old kid being recruited. I didn’t go on many recruiting visits, so I didn’t really know. Every coach is going to be super nice and give you this, give you that, make everything seem good to make you come to their school. Which at the time, like I said, I love the coaches, and I still think they’re great guys, but obviously that era wasn’t too good. We won, what, two games in two years. But yeah, I mean the Cushing era, you could say, was it was tough because I felt like as players, we felt less cared for. I guess you could say we felt like we weren’t getting the job done, so, it’s our fault. To where now, with coach [Wilkerson], I mean, he cares about us. He does love all of us and especially our coaches, all of our position coaches as well. Like, it does feel like a family. And obviously, things aren’t going great right now, but at the end of the day, we’re all working to get back. It’s not just pointing fingers, and I think that’s something that our program has gotten really good. It’s not pointing fingers; it’s bringing your family along.”

Q: What’s your favorite movie?

A: “Interstellar.”

Q: You just got engaged. What’s the story there?

A: “So, we met on her first day here at Eastern. It was the summer, and she ended up coming up because she played soccer and I played football, and we hung out and from there. Yeah, we just kind of got together Sept. 9 of 2020 and since then, we’ve been together. So about four years. Not this summer, but the summer before, I proposed to her. We have a wedding coming up this summer. But yeah, we’ve been together for four years, and it’s been awesome.”

Q: Favorite song right now?

A: “I would say, ‘Jesus Saves’ by Riley Green.”

Q: So, you’ve seen Wilkerson come in and form that culture. How long did that take?

A: “I would say at first it was a little bit of a slow burn cause, I mean obviously, just getting here, you don’t want to just step your foot on the gas right away. But, right off the bat he started preaching family, we got to be together, we got to play for each other and stuff like that. Obviously, you can hear that from anybody, but it doesn’t matter until you trust them, and I would say going into that fall season of his first season was when I started to really trust him, and I think the team started to trust him. Even though we went two and nine, it was a completely different 2-9 from the previous years. So, I mean, after that season, all the guys that decided to stay for that next season to go 8-3, we all trusted him and trusted our coaches. I’d say, yeah, I mean there was a little bit of a slow burn, but at the end of the day, like we did end up trusting him.”

Q: Waffles or pancakes?

A: “Waffles.”

Q: Do you have a favorite memory, looking back at your time at Eastern?

A: “My sophomore year, [me and my fiancé] decided to go on a split-second decision six hour drive up to Green Bay to go watch a game. I’m a Green Bay fan, she’s a Bears fan so, you know. They were in the playoffs against of the 49ers in the divisional, and yeah, we drove straight up there, made the game right at kickoff and I’d say that was our best memory. It was my first time at Lambo, and it was a split decision and it was really fun.”

Q: Do you have any advice for upcoming athletes who are going to be in your position like your first two years, kind of waiting?

A: “Yeah, I’d say just trust the process. Don’t get down on yourself. Everybody has a different path to when their time is. You just got to embrace it. Use every opportunity you have, and just continue to get better and trust your coaches and your process.”

Aidan Cusack can be reached at 581-2812 or at atcusack@eiu.edu.