BROOKVILLE, N.Y. -- Long Island University has hired veteran coach Ron Cooper, who spent this season working for Alabama, to lead its football program.
Cooper, a former head coach at Louisville and defensive coach at multiple SEC schools, spent this season as an analyst for Nick Saban's Crimson Tide program, which plays Georgia on Monday in the national championship game. He was hired Tuesday.
Cooper's Louisville team led the nation in takeaways and was ninth in the nation in scoring defense in 1995. He has also been the head coach at Eastern Michigan, Alabama A&M and Florida International, and was the defensive backs coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for one season.
The Sharks went 2-8 this season, including the program's first road win as a Division I program. They began playing at the FCS level in 2019.