On Thursday, Troy University Athletics officially announced the hiring of former Samford assistant coach Brandon Cooper to the coaching staff.

Cooper will replace Travis Pearson as the school’s new cornerbacks coach. He has served as defensive coordinator at Samford and also previously was defensive coordinator at Austin-Peay.

“Brandon Cooper fits right in with our coaching staff and our program,” Troy Coach Gerad Parker said. “We couldn’t have found a guy who is more in line with how we operate on and off the field than Brandon, and we’re excited to welcome him and Natasha to our family. Brandon has coordinator experience at all levels of collegiate football and has a tremendous rapport with his players, which translates on the field and in recruiting.”

Cooper is a graduate of UT-Martin, where he played football from 2003-2006. He helped lead UT-Martin to a conference championship in 2006. After he graduated, Cooper began his coaching career as an assistant coach from 2008 until 2010.

Cooper served as cornerbacks coach at Jacksonville State in 2011 and went on to serve as an assistant at Murray State, Chattanooga and Austin-Peay. He served as co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at Austin-Peay in 2016 and was promoted to defensive coordinator in 2018. His defense was a key ingredient to Austin-Peay’s resurgence from a program that went 1-45 in the previous four years to a 13-10 record over the next two.

He joined the staff at Charlotte as co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach in 2019. Cooper joined the staff at Samford as co-defensive coordinator and cornerbacks coach before being promoted to defensive coordinator in 2025.

Cooper joins the Troy staff, replacing former coach Travis Pearson who was named Georgia State’s new defensive coordinator recently. Cooper won’t be the last assistant coach Troy hires this spring.