Former Aztecs running back Marquez Cooper returns to San Diego with Strike Force
Marquez Cooper topped 5,000 career yards. (Don De Mars/EVT)
Marquez Cooper is returning to San Diego by a route he never expected.
After stops with the Arizona Rattlers and the CFL’s Ottawa Redblacks, the former San Diego State running back has signed with the Indoor Football League’s San Diego Strike Force.
“No, I could not have imagined that,” Cooper said of returning to San Diego. “I went into the CFL with the positive attitude that I was gonna dominate because, typically, wherever I’ve been, I did. I didn’t imagine that it was gonna go this way at all. But I’m so blessed that it did, and I think that it’s meant to be like this.”
The possibility of signing with the Strike Force emerged about six weeks ago.
“It’s going to be good to reconnect with some of the fans that are out there,” Cooper said. “As well as playing the game of football again. It’s going to be very exciting.”
Cooper rushed for 1,274 yards and 12 touchdowns during his lone season at SDSU in 2024, earning first-team All-Mountain West honors. He finished his college career with 5,130 rushing yards and became the first Football Bowl Subdivision player to record 1,000-yard seasons at three schools — Kent State, Ball State, and SDSU.
That production did not, however, create a direct path to the NFL.
Cooper joined Arizona during the 2025 IFL season but arrived after the Rattlers had already played 10 games. He spent several weeks practicing before receiving limited game action. He later attended a professional showcase, where a conversation with an Ottawa defensive coach helped him better understand that the Redblacks had placed him on their negotiation list.
Cooper secured an Ottawa contract that day, but the Redblacks released him less than a week after he arrived.
“It’s devastating for sure, especially initially,” Cooper said. “I’m making sacrifices while I already have a son, a child, a family that I’m building. I have to go far from them, hours away. I can’t see them.”
Between opportunities, Cooper said he delivered packages for Amazon, worked for UPS, and handled overnight security at a bank.
“I can’t waste my talent if I feel like I could be there,” Cooper said. “I would like to do what I love, spend more time in my day with my kid than at my jobs and give my time to something that I love.”
Cooper also started a personal training business and plans to launch the Underrated Performance youth wrestling club this winter in Buffalo, N.Y. He said working with young athletes has given purpose to the difficult stretches of his career.
“Scoring touchdowns and stuff is fun and cool,” Cooper said. “But for me, the impact that I’ve been able to make through training these kids, helping these kids be better people, be better players, that means a lot to me.”
The work has given Cooper a purpose beyond his own playing career, but it has not ended his pursuit within it. The Strike Force offers him something training alone cannot: current game film.
Strike Force director of scouting and defensive coordinator Adam Shackleford said college film loses value as the seasons pass. Playing in the IFL allows prospects to stay active and give NFL, CFL, and UFL teams recent evidence of what they can do.
“It’s a ‘What have you done for me lately?’ business,” Shackleford said. “We’re going to give him an opportunity to get a recent film that he can send out, and we can send out to try and promote him to those levels.”
Shackleford believes Cooper can contribute as an inside runner, reach the edge, and catch passes out of the backfield.
“Sometimes it’s not about carries as much as touches,” he said. “How many different ways can Coach Taylor and our offense be creative and get him the football?”
Nothing has been promised. Cooper expects to compete for the running back job when the Strike Force reports in the spring.
“Being the first player to rush for 1,000 yards on three different teams, that tape just doesn’t go away,” Cooper said. “That person just doesn’t go away.”
“I’m still working out, still not quitting, still not giving up. I think they recognize that, and they see that I’ve got a lot more juice left. I feel like this is just the beginning.”
