More of the Q&A: Perrish Cox

by Brandon Chatmon
bchatmon@opubco.com

It was a roller coaster senior season  — and career — for former Oklahoma State cornerback Perrish Cox. After earning All-American honors during the regular season, Cox was suspended for the Cotton Bowl after missing curfew twice during bowl week.

He spoke with the Oklahoman early last week about his suspension, his performance at the Cotton Bowl and his relationship with Mike Gundy.

Tell me about your Senior Bowl experience.

It was a different experience because I was there with the top players from across the nation. I think I did good overall I had three picks, two for six (returned for a touchdown). You can’t ask for anything better than that. The game was just splitting time a lot.

How were the practices were they really competitive?

Yeah, there were like 1,000 scouts there. It was intense, you had to do what you had to do, it was all on you.

Where you nervous with all those scouts watching?

Actually, I wasn’t. I felt pretty good. I was more confident, I felt better doing it in front of them, it was like a game day for me. I knew I had to something spectacular, whenever I go in front of a crowd like that I get a different feeling. I just go out and do my thing.

Was it a weird feeling having a game-like atmosphere every day up to the game?

It was but I knew that going in. A lot of players who are already in the league told me about the practices so I was locking down to boost my draft status and that’s what I did.

What are your goals for the combine?

One of the biggest things in the combine is the 40. That’s my number one priority going in. My goal is to get 20 (reps) on the bench press and run a good 40 time. My goal is to run a 4.2 so if I try to reach that goal, I’m going to hit a 4.3.

What things to you want to show them you can do that they may not think you can do right now?

There’s a lot of things they say I have already but one of my goals is to improve on everything I’ve done. One of my biggest goals is to work on staying low.

What are you hearing about your projection?

Late first (round), early second. It depends on what I do at the combine. The Senior Bowl changed a lot, I had a great Senior Bowl and that boosted me up, the combine is the cherry on top. For anybody, if you’re a fourth round and you go out and knock out the drills and run a good time you can shoot up into the first round. The sky’s the limit.

How has the process been its it long?

You have your points you want to be at, like ‘I want to be at this point by this time’. One of my first goals for the Senior Bowl I wanted to go there and ball out because I didn’t get to play in the bowl game so I had a lot of making up to do because of the issues I had with the curfew. I had to explain it, so that’s all they wanted to know is what happened. That’s it. It’s a wild experience talking to all these coaches and general managers. It’s something you can’t explain, you have to go through it yourself.

What did you tell scouts about the Cotton Bowl?

It was a dumb mistake on my part. Half of them were thinking it was something else (not just missing curfew). I told them I was being stupid. It happened twice, the first day it was about 12 of us, we just felt it’s our last bowl game why not have fun. The second time, it was a dumb mistake on my part. I shouldn’t have left. I was trying to bring in the New Year’s and I got caught out. It’s something I’ve learned from. They understood, it looked different because I was suspended the whole game.