Who is Cooper Rush? A CMU Chippewa turned Dallas Cowboys' Sunday Night hero

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was published in 2021 after Cooper Rush's first career win.

Cooper Rush, coming up clutch.

Rush, an all-Mid-American Conference selection for Central Michigan in 2015 and 2016, led the Dallas Cowboys to a 20-16 upset win over the Minnesota Vikings during Sunday Night Football in Minneapolis.

He was tabbed to start for former Pro Bowl quarterback Dak Prescott, scratched just a few hours before the 8:20 p.m. kickoff with an calf injury.

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Besides an ugly interception, Rush was great in primetime on the road. He finished 24 of 40 passing for 325 yards. He had two touchdowns to top Kirk Cousins (the former Michigan State QB had 184 yards and one touchdown) and led a game-winning drive with less than 3 minutes left to bring the Cowboys to 6-1.

Fire up, Chips! More on the surprising star from Central Michigan and central Michigan:

Who is Cooper Rush?

He is from Charlotte, Michigan, about 100 miles west of Detroit. The 2012 Lansing Catholic graduate chose CMU but had interest from Michigan State and Northwestern, according to 247Sports. Rush threw for 90 touchdowns and nearly 13,000 yards during four seasons starting at Central Michigan. He ranks among the program's leaders in touchdown passes, passing yards and completions.

He was projected a late-round pick and signed with Dallas as an undrafted free agent in May 2017.

Then-Central Michigan football coach John Bonamego wasn't surprised an NFL team took a shot on him.

"I went to the NFL combine this year and talked with a lot of people because when it's that time of the year, people want to know what you think of your former players," Bonamego told the Free Press in September 2017. "I had a lot of good things to say about Cooper, obviously."

The Rush family loved Sunday's events. Several relatives attending the game in Minnesota were repeatedly shown on the NBC broadcast reveling in Cooper's clutchness. He said in the postgame interview that his wife and parents came to most every game throughout his high school and college career. An even bigger group showed Sunday.

“Finally got my first start," Rush said. "Waited a long time for it. ... Support system is unbelievable. It's the reason why I'm here."

What did he do before Sunday?

He had completed 1 of 3 career passes for 2 yards going into the game. Yet the Cowboys seemed to value his skills to some degree, holding onto Rush for several seasons (the New York Giants also added him to their roster after he left the Cowboys in 2020). Plus, they were willing to part ways with veteran Andy Dalton, who played 11 games as Prescott's backup in 2020, leaving Rush the QB2 for a playoff-hopeful team.

Rush told the Dallas Morning News he got first-team reps this week and it showed Sunday night, as he repeatedly hit CeeDee Lamb and Amari Cooper on timing patters, such as curls and out routes, against soft Vikings coverage.

Lions reporter Dave Birkett wrote about Rush in the lead-up to the 2017 NFL draft and QB guru David Morris told him Rush could be a starter in the league. Morris — who started a game at Ole Miss as a walk-on before opening the "QB Country" training house — raved about Rush after working with him in the weeks leading up to the 2017 draft.

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A 'special' student of the game

In that draft class, thought to be light on quarterbacks, Rush was on the radar. Part of the reason was his production, part of that was his improvement with Morris and part of that was his ability to think the position, Birkett wrote.

“Off the field, he’s the best I’ve ever had inside, in meetings, in the board room, retaining information," Morris said then. "He’s special there."

Rush was an actuarial science major with a GPA of nearly 4.0. He was skilled at dissecting defenses because of his days in a Central Michigan offense that used NFL terminology.

“Playing in a system like we had, a lot of pro-style concepts and the QB had a lot of responsibilities with the protections and run-game responsibilities,” Rush told Birkett. “We were asked to do a lot, which they are in the NFL, too. So it’ll be a big transition still, but at least being more familiar with that, a lot of the terminology will be (similar) so you can relay it faster and apply it quicker.”

If you want more Rush, the Cowboys host the Broncos at 1 p.m. Sunday. With their bye week already gone and a deep playoff run a possibility, maybe the Cowboys will be inclined to let Prescott heal another week after Cooper impressed?

Follow the Free Press on Facebook and Twitter for more news. Tyler Davis can be contacted at tjdavis@freepress.com or on Twitter @TDavisFreep.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Dallas Cowboys' Cooper Rush: A Michigan native, CMU standout