Couch: Criticism of Connor Cook's personality is overblown MSU's QB finds himself under a microscope as the stage gets bigger and his pro career closer

Graham Couch | Lansing State Journal

EAST LANSING — Connor Cook is an easy target for criticism.

Because he’s interesting. And authentic. And flawed. Like every interesting person.

Michigan State’s senior quarterback has come under fire of late. As the stage gets bigger, as his NFL career gets closer, the spotlight is becoming a microscope.

During the trophy presentation at the Big Ten championship game, Cook gave ammunition to everyone who’s ever disliked him when he shunned Ohio State legend Archie Griffin.

The optics were dreadful. Cook quickly apologized. Too late. The Twitterverse was abuzz. Questions resurfaced about his leadership — Why again wasn’t he a team captain? — his sideline demeanor and his indulgence in being a big man on campus.

The awareness that makes Cook such an incredible quarterback on the field sometimes escapes him in other public settings.

He can be oblivious — as he was when he took the MVP trophy from Griffin. He can be snippy and emotional. He can also be engaging and polite. Most importantly, whatever he is in a given moment is real. He is not a con artist.

And he’s one of the best pro-style college quarterbacks I’ve seen. It’s his pocket presence, his feel and courage with linebackers approaching, with chaos at his feet that separates him from so many others.

“The highest compliment I can give him is that under pressure, with several free runners on the blitz, where he knows he’s going to take a shot, he stayed in and delivered the football with accuracy,” NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock said after breaking down Cook’s performance at Michigan in October.

Cook’s predecessor Kirk Cousins didn’t have that. Nor did Brian Hoyer before him. Both are starting in the NFL these days.

“I think probably the thing that sticks out first and foremost is the accuracy,” MSU co-offensive coordinator Dave Warner said Wednesday, when asked what separates Cook from other college QBs and those who played at MSU before him. “He’s got a very good sense of timing, anticipating windows. I think he throws the ball down the field more than the quarterbacks we’ve had in the past, which might be good, might not be good.”

The national conversation about Cook over the last week has been less flattering.

ESPN NFL draft analyst Todd McShay said the following on ESPN radio when asked if Cook helped his draft stock by returning to MSU for his senior year:

“On the field, helped. Off the field, there are some real questions,” McShay said. “It’s amazing. Everyone (NFL scout) I talk to, whether it was the fact that he was not a captain, just the way he carries himself, it’s a little bit of the (Chicago Bears QB) Jay Cutler, where it just kind of turns people off.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel quoted an anonymous NFL scout as saying, “How much does he really like (football)? How much is he going to work at it? He likes being a celebrity.”

God help the team who employs this anonymous scout. He clearly missed Cook morphing from an erratic sophomore who lost a position battle to Andrew Maxwell, to being considered the nation’s top senior quarterback — hence the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award.

Cook wanted no part of this discussion Wednesday morning at the Spartans’ East Lansing Cotton Bowl media day. Check that. He was smart enough not to speak his mind on this one.

“I’m here to talk about Alabama,” he said. “I’m not here to talk about that right now.”

Cook will get his chance to answer his critics eye to eye. He’ll have to explain why his teammates saw three other players more fitting to be their captains. And admit that, like every normal, red-blooded college quarterback, he enjoys the fruits of his existence. He is, after all, living the dream. He should enjoy it. I’d resent him if he didn’t.

And NFL teams, in a quarterback-driven league, will then have to decide if they want to risk passing on a quarterback who is 34-4 in three years as a starter in the Big Ten. Nothing in his leadership style or lifestyle has prevented him from winning at an unprecedented rate at MSU.

Leadership comes in many forms. Cook may not be the classic leader. He may not make the cover of “Wholesome Living” or provide perfect-sounding lies to television cameras, as so many athletes do. But the resiliency, the fearlessness in the pocket, the big-time throws in critical moments, the shoulder-first fourth-and-2 run in the Big Ten championship, with an injured shoulder …

What the hell kind of leader does the NFL want?

Cook is among the driving forces behind perhaps the most improbable program rise and culture change in modern college football history. And he’s done it in an offense that translates to the NFL.

The Spartans for decades were the Detroit Lions. Now, they’re the Seattle Seahawks.

And Cook is a heckuva lot more interesting than Russell Wilson.

That might hurt him. It shouldn’t.

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.