Forget the layers.
They’re thicker than grandma’s lasagna.
As Boise State readies to host Portland State tonight on the program’s signature blue turf, 38 years and counting, there’s veteran coach Dirk Koetter, now the Broncos’ offensive coordinator, whose son, Davis, spent three years as a Portland State wideout before closing his career in the same position at Boise.
Then there is Broncos assistant quarterbacks coach Steve Cooper.
Keep up and forget “Six Degrees of Separation” or Kevin Bacon.
A Portland State alum, Cooper is preparing to face his alma mater after previously coaching eight seasons for the Vikings, rising to the role of offensive coordinator. Those halcyon days include being a part of the program’s heralded 2015 season featuring wins against FBS programs Washington State and North Texas – the latter the largest-ever FCS over FBS upset, Portland State’s 66-7 shellacking.
Cooper has direct ties to Portland State head coach, Bruce Barnum, as well as multiple additional assistant coaches.
Too, his efforts at Portland State include being a lead recruiter in Davis Koetter’s recruitment. The Vikings are playing their first game in two weeks following last week's cancellation due to an outbreak of "whooping cough" within the program.
“I’m excited to play the school that I graduated from,” Cooper told FootballScoop this week. “And it’s unique because I got really close with the head coach there at Portland State, because we worked together on the offensive staff well before he was offensive coordinator or head coach.
“I spent a lot of time there over the course of a decade. It’s cool to see old mentors, members of that staff I was in their weddings as a groomsman. Guys on that staff that I coached. It will be unique and cool to see them -- after the game.”
There’s more. Maybe the most significant element. Cooper’s longtime girlfriend is Kelsey Messer, a former Boise State cheerleader and currently the school’s head coach of their spirit squad.
Their origin story? Well, naturally it traces to Portland State even as Cooper now counts Midwest and East Coast coaching stints, spending five years on Scott Frost’s Nebraska staffs and 2023 directing one of the FCS level’s top passing attacks at Maine.
“Honestly, Boise’s kind of been home for me even when I was in Maine and at Nebraska,” Cooper said. “We’ve been doing the long-distance thing, dating for seven or eight years and trying to see each other every chance we got but usually just holidays and summertime.
“We met because a guy on staff at Portland State was a Boise State guy, and his wife (Kassondra Landry) was the previous Boise State cheer coach and Kelsey was her assistant. So that’s how we met, but it was once again Portland State-Boise State.”
Even though he’s now been gone from his alma mater for seven years, Cooper still carries with him daily the experiences from Portland State and specifically the creative approach that remains a staple in Barnum’s program.
Frankly, he remembers that relationship as key in his decision to remain on staff at Portland State even amidst arising new coaching opportunities during his tenure.
“I think it had a lot to do with Barney,” Cooper, whose first game as PSU offensive coordinator was the 2015 opener at Washington State, when the Vikings scored 24 second-half points to defeat the eventual top-25 Cougars, said. “I learned as a young coach, Barney just really took me under his wing. He taught me everything he knew in regards to offense. Really, he groomed me to be his coordinator when he got a chance to be a head coach, and he got close number of other places.
“Barney’s ability to think outside the box, he’s not a prototypical head coach in that sense because he definitely marches to his own beat, he does it on offense as an offensive coach. I’m an offensive coach, so I’m looking more at defense this week, but Dirk and I did take a look at what they’re doing. They just find creative ways to do what they need to do to move the football.”