Cole Tucker: Path To The NFL Draft

By Lee Wakefield

Every sports fan loves any player on their team who is born and bred in the local area. Someone who made it onto the field, who was previously a youngster watching from the stands. A potential inspiration for the very same cycle to repeat, unbeknownst to the person and player who came before or will follow in their footsteps afterward.

When it comes to the town of DeKalb Illinois, home of the Northern Illinois Huskies, wide receiver Cole Tucker is one of those hometown heroes. He speaks to Lee Wakefield about his path to the NFL Draft:

DeKalb Is Home, NIU Is In The Blood

Cole Tucker grew up in DeKalb. He attended the high school which bears the town’s name, and was the star receiver prior to enrolling at and making the short journey to attend Northern Illinois University – a choice that he says was “the best decision of my life”.

Both of Tucker’s parents are NIU alumni; his Father Brett played on the football team and Mother Cindy had a very successful gymnastics career with the university, which led her to be inducted into the NIU Hall of Fame in 2013.

Cole Tucker didn’t actually begin playing padded football until 5th grade. But Brett continued to coach youth football, and Cole’s earliest memories of football are being around his Dad’s coaching sessions, “just running around and watching him coach the older guys”. This early immersion into football developed into a love for the game.

However, Cole never felt any pressure to follow in his parent’s footsteps and attend NIU. That said, it was an “easy” and “phenomenal” decision in his own words. Regardless of football, Tucker would have wanted to attend the university but wearing that Huskies uniform is no doubt something that drew him in. It was a choice that is easy to understand when on gameday the stadium announcers can be heard in the backyard, and young life included attending games with family on Saturdays.

The easy-going and supportive nature of the Tucker family unit was clear to see when I asked Cole if it ever got competitive around the dinner table – considering he has two MAC championship rings to his name. Tucker aknowledged it was “great for him” but that he hadn’t lauded it over his Father. He moved on to talk about what great success both of his parents had with their respective sporting endeavours, noting that both can say that they’re in the NIU Hall of Fame – and he hopes to follow them one day.

The local spirit doesn’t escape Tucker when it comes to his own sports fandom either. With DeKalb being around 60 miles from Chicago, Cole grew up a huge Bears and Bulls fan, with basketball being another big love of his. Basketball is something that Tucker said has helped him with football a lot too, something that we have seen and heard from plenty of wide receivers, from Doug Baldwin to Stefon Diggs and Keenan Allen in recent years.

“Growing up I was better at basketball up until I was around a Junior in High School. As a Sophomore in High School I made varsity in both football and basketball…”

A collarbone injury during the basketball season turned his attention toward football, but despite leaving the court behind the sport remains a huge love of his. The Huskies’ gain potentially the NBA’s loss? We will never know.

The Ups And Downs You'd Never Change

In his own words, NIU has been through some “great highs and great lows” and a “bunch of adversity” throughout Tucker’s time with the team, from 2018 until this past season. 

This in a microcosm? A winless 0-6 record in the COVID-hit 2020 season, to bouncing back and winning a MAC Championship and appearing in the Cure Bowl the very next year after a nice 9-5 season in 2021.

It is often said that success cannot be properly appreciated without tough times, and that is certainly something that resonates with Tucker. I got the impression that despite a winless season and some issues with injuries throughout his college career, he wouldn’t change any of his experiences, as it has formed him into the player and person that he is today.

It showed that there is a wise head on his shoulders, and someone who is truly appreciative of life and the opportunities that he has had so far. More opportunities are certain to be around the corner for someone with this outlook, as well as the other qualities he has:

“It’s been a rollercoaster, for sure, but I regret nothing, you need those (bad) seasons to become mentally tougher and deal with that adversity and it makes those MAC Championships all the more sweeter”

Even with this in mind, prior to the 2021 season, NIU were predicted to come last in the conference. That said, the team and coaches didn’t have that mindset – they blocked out the noise and had high expectations and standards for themselves. Every day it was stressed inside the building that it was important that they showed resilience and focus to be single-minded as a team to get results, despite a lack of coverage and expectation from the outside.

This past season was also one that contained ups and downs. NIU recorded just 3 wins from their 12 games, which came on a schedule that included a visit to Kentucky and their QB, Rocky Lombardi having to take a medical Redshirt.

On the other hand, Tucker had his best season from a statistical standpoint, posting career highs in receptions (45), yards (632), and touchdowns (4). Tucker also played 11 of the 12 games having missed some time through injury the previous season.

In the end-of-season team awards, the hometown hero was honoured to be named NIU wide receiver of the year last December. Which I found pleasing – Cole is so eager to share the credit and share praise, whether that be for his coaches, teammates, or family, so it was great to see him get some personal recognition for his achievements. Despite the climbs and big dips, all the best rollercoasters are finished with a smile, which seems to have been the case with Tucker’s NIU career.

I really got the sense that it suited Tucker and NIU to feel like they had their backs against the wall, and that they had to come out swinging to have a chance. That may not have always gone their way, but they always took the positives where they could. In particular, Tucker had the maturity to take on every life lesson that he could get along the way, whether that be from experiences both positive and negative, or being a sponge around his coaches.

A Route To A Roster

Being a Group of 5 receiver, it is never easy to make an immediate impression on scouts, coaches, and evaluators. Impressions are often made via intangible, off-field qualities and hard work and grit on it.

With that in mind, it feels to me like Tucker has always done a lot to put himself in positions to make an impression. He was part of the leadership council at NIU, he was always happy to play on special teams, be a team-first guy, and the kind of player who helped the younger members of the team with aspects of college and team life such as diet and time management. All qualities which will help you stick on an NFL roster, or at least give a player the best opportunity to do so.

Tucker spoke glowingly about the pride of being voted to be a part of the leadership council, and the satisfaction he felt in passing knowledge on to younger peers. It didn’t appear to me that he had done these things just to be able to say he had, either. He had done them because he cares about the programme and the success of those around him.

That said, all of the intangibles in the world aren’t enough on their own to make it to the NFL – You need to be able to play the game too.

A seven-catch, 123 yard game against Tulsa in week 2 of this past season was capped off with a touchdown and shows that there is an ability to dominate against high-level opponents at the college level. As does his performance against Eastern Michigan this year, where the Huskies ran out 29-point winners against a “great team”. 

Couple these performances with an NFL-type body which has Tucker standing at 6’2 and tipping the scales at 206lbs – as well as being able to line up both inside and outside as a receiver, and return kicks – and we are starting to see the makings of a promising prospect, well on the way down his path to the draft.

Big games like the one against Tulsa and scoring two touchdowns against SEC competition in Vanderbilt the next week gave Tucker the “confidence you need as a receiver to go out and dominate”.

Looking to the future it is fair to say that Tucker has been through adversity, both on a personal and team level. He’s coming into the draft process with something to prove (as smaller school prospects often do), but with a resume that says that he can overcome challenges that are placed in his way.

Tucker also spoke about his eagerness to play special teams as a returner, noting his comfort and feeling like he can be a reliable guy back deep. The elements in Illinois can be tricky, so once again Tucker’s local roots have helped him to become the returner he is – having spent years honing his skills by judging trajectories of booming kicks in high winds and being a safe pair of hands.

Cole's Favourite Play

When asked about his favourite play in college, Cole instantly went to a play that was referred to as Kentucky in the NIU playbook.

“I ran a lot of this in college, I was the right slot or the right outside… It’s a simple read for the QB. You take the easy out-route to the left if you’ve got it, take that one-on-one match up if you’ve got it on the go-ball and from then on you’re looking to the field.”

Northern Illinois would run this play typically from the left hash – so the left side of the field was the boundary side, with the right side the field.

“Then you come back to the right and read inside to out, so I think it’s a great play, works versus cover 2, works versus 3… against 4 it’s not a great one, but you have this cover 4 beater over to the left. I loved running dig routes and going over the middle… dig routes, shoot routes, anything over the middle is my favourite.”

Tucker was able to talk me through the QB’s reads and the nuances of the play. Talking about lining up as the right slot receiver (F) on this play he explained;

“Against cover 2 we would split the safeties (by running a post instead of the dig route) and clear things out for the outside guy coming in behind.”

It was clear to see that Cole is a knowledgeable guy when it comes to the whiteboard. We discussed the pros and cons of the play – not only the aforementioned versatility against different coverage shells, but also that there are wins for the offense regardless of whether the defense showed zone or man coverage.

Not only was Cole able to talk about the mechanics of this play and a couple of other plays that we talked about but also about being on the field and what it was like to run them.

“As a receiver, these routes they’re really good to run, especially a field route breaking inwards, there’s a lot of space in there and you can’t be afraid to go across the middle and take a hit! It can lead to a lot of big plays.”

Tucker isn’t a player who is afraid of the physical side of football, which is a great attribute to have for a guy who is looking for a route into the league – and one that will likely come via being a solid special teamer.

“I have taken some licks(!) over the middle, had the wind knocked out of me for a minute but it’s fine”

Big Play Ability

The ability to go over the middle served Tucker well as he described his favourite play of the year to me. It was against Vanderbilt, so some SEC competition for NIU – A game that they lost 28-38. However, the play that resulted in Tucker’s touchdown put the Huskies up 28-14 in the 3rd quarter of the game. 

Tucker took a drag route on a short completion and showed great field vision to cut back on himself to take the pass 70 yards for the touchdown.

“Probably the best moment that I had in college, but also a big moment for the team, to go up two scores on an SEC school”

It says a lot about a young player when even as he is describing his best moment in college, he still comes back to the team element and the game as a whole. Tucker is a humble guy and team-oriented guy. That humility was shown moments later when I was talking to him as he admitted,

“Unfortunately, I started cramping up after that and I had to miss most of the game. I had to get an IV, I don’t know what happened. It was a nice moment, nice that it was me, but I’d have been going just as crazy if it was anybody else on the team”. 

All of this was said with a smile as he reassured me that the cramp had never happened before in college – and that, maybe, it was just the adrenaline hitting him all at once.

All of this is easy to understand when you put your team into a winning position against what was, on paper, far superior opposition. Couple that with the fact Huskie Stadium was going wild and had never been so loud in living memory,  it was a simple decision for the hometown husky hero. Perhaps it will prove to be a moment that inspires another kid from Dekalb to stay home and  play football, and follow in the footsteps of Cole Tucker one day.

Draft Preparations

In November, Tucker announced his intention to prepare for the next level, leaving NIU with lasting memories and a legacy that will be remembered by those who wear red and black for a long time to come.

Tucker and I spoke about maybe the most current, big-name NIU receiver in Kenny Golladay, whose time with the programme didn’t overlap with Tucker’s – As Golladay left for the NFL, Tucker arrived on campus. Tucker was respectful of Golladay; he remembered watching him from the stands but was quick to note that they are different people and players, who have forged their own paths in separate ways. I wondered if my mentioning a recent NIU star would bring stories from coaches about how it was possible to go from NIU to the NFL in the same manner, but Tucker was very much focused on his journey and being the best that he could be.

Whilst it seems those values are absolutely instilled by the coaching team at NIU, it seems they’re happy for everyone to do it in their own way, rather than hold up one example. Tucker actually noted Chad Beebe, whom he got close to in the one year that they shared at NIU, as more of an influence than Golladay – whilst noting that he tries to “take pieces of everyone’s game” rather than copy one receiver. 

Tucker is preparing for the draft in the warmer climes of Tampa Bay since late December, working out and in particular trying to improve his 40-yard-dash time towards, hopefully to somewhere in the 4.5s, as well as working on the agility drills. The goal is to hit peak performance for the NIU pro-day on March 23rd, where he can put on a show for teams once again – and hopefully take another step towards the league.

Tucker also took part in the College Gridiron Showcase. The event was covered by 31 of the 32 NFL teams who had either scouts or staff or both in attendance. Tucker put in some great work and put on a show for those in attendance for three days, as well as meet with teams in interviews and no doubt show all of the positive qualities that came across in the short time that I spent talking to him, both as a player and as a person.

Overall, Tucker knows who he is; he’s well aware of what he needs to do to achieve his dream. He’s a quick study, a team player, and a guy who is willing to get his hands dirty in order to achieve that.

“It would obviously be a dream come true to be drafted, it’s been my goal as a young kid to play in the NFL, to even get the opportunity to play in the NFL. I’ve set myself up well to have a good chance, but getting that call and hearing my name called would be a dream come true.”

Certainly, everybody in DeKalb, Illinois will be rooting for Tucker come draft weekend. He’ll always be their guy.

Lee Wakefield

Guest Writer

Lee Wakefield has covered the NFL and College Football for a number of publications, including Full 10 Yards & First and 10. Chargers sufferer. Pass rush enjoyer. Currently a contributor for With the First Pick.

5/5

A huge thank you to Cole for taking the time to talk to us. Everyone at The Touchown wishes him well in his future career.