Time seemed to freeze on Saturday afternoon as the officiating crew at Beaver Stadium, where No. 2 Indiana was fighting for its life against undefeated Penn State, reviewed a potential game-winning touchdown with :36 remaining.
Trailing 24-20 in the waning moments, the Hoosiers had only needed eight plays to cover 73 yards and claw within a few feet of the season-saving score. That’s when quarterback Fernando Mendoza, a legitimate Heisman Trophy contender, backpedaled away from two Nittany Lions defenders and winged a pass toward wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. in the back of the end zone.
At first blush, it seemed impossible that Cooper had touched his toe in bounds to complete the catch. He’d been tracking the ball at full speed, gone airborne in pursuit of Mendoza’s pass and landed approximately 3 yards out of bounds beneath the field goal upright. Though it was called a touchdown on the field, the likelihood of that decision surviving a replay review seemed farfetched.
But an incredible shot from handheld camera operator Doug Kirk showed quite clearly that Cooper had tapped not just one foot, but both feet, hanging in the air while he did so as if suspended by an invisible wire. Indiana went on to win, 27-24, and extend its perfect season for at least another week.
For Kirk, 43, it was the highlight of a television career that has spanned two and a half decades, following in the footsteps of his late father. Clips of Cooper’s astounding catch — and Kirk’s artistic camerawork — are still circulating wildly on social media, days after the game was complete.
I spoke with Kirk on Wednesday afternoon to walk viewers through his unforgettable shot:
Note: This retelling has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Last-Minute Call to the Big Game
“With FOX,” Kirk told me, “I’m more or less like a fill-in guy, so I don’t really travel with any particular crew. Wherever they have a hole, they kind of call me at the last minute and ask me to go. So I usually do NFL with FOX. This particular week, they had a position open for that game, and they asked me, like, maybe Tuesday, if I could go and do it. I said, ‘Yeah, sure, I’d love to.’
“When the young lady crewed me, she told me that it was going to be for a handheld. So I knew going up there that it was going to be handheld. I haven’t done a bunch of handhelds during football games. I’m more of a hard camera operator. That was my first time doing the handheld for football this season. But I’m a handheld guy for the UFC, so I’ve done a lot of handheld for them, which is a lot different than shooting football.”
Setting Up for the Shot
“In that role, because I’m on the same side as the cart camera, I think about being 10 yards to 15 yards ahead of the cart. I don’t want to be positioned right in front of him, but down a little ways, that way the angle is a little different. So as the team moves up and down the field, I’m always 10 yards to 15 yards ahead of the cart. Now on that particular play, when you get in the red zone, my responsibility is to be right on that back line, and the cart, his responsibility is to be right on the goal line. So that way we have both: He has a pylon covered, and I have the back line covered, which actually set up perfect for this particular shot.”
For a Second, I Thought I Missed It
“In that moment, things were happening so quick. I actually thought that I had missed the play. I remember telling myself to kind of widen out and pan down a little bit, because I knew that I was going to cut the wide receiver’s feet off. And I thought I completely missed it. I didn’t know that I actually had everything until I saw the replay later. So the play happens, the director will cut to a camera to finish off the play, and then, you know, they’ll roll some replays, so the audience at home can see it. When they rolled [my footage], I missed it at first because I was still doing my job. But a few minutes after that, I was able to catch the replay, and it was like, ‘Oh, wow, I did have it.’ And that feels amazing.
“I’m a fan of football. I love college football, I love NFL football. So in a week that I’m off, or if I’m at home watching a Monday night game, I’m always looking at different camera angles, I’m always looking at different camera shots, and I’m always thinking to myself, if I were there, how would I shoot this? How would I cover this? And so for me, I never want to be too wide to where you can’t see it. And I never want to be too tight to where you miss it. And so, yeah, I nailed that shot.”
Indiana wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. hauls in a game-winning touchdown catch against Penn State.
The Shot of a Lifetime
For me, that’s the best shot I’ve ever had in my entire career, without a doubt. Everything was spot-on. It was the play to win the game, last second, everything that went into that shot kind of just all matched up perfectly. In the moment, I didn’t really know that the shot would be this amazing, right? But once I saw it on social media, like, I can’t stop watching it. I’ve probably looked at that clip probably 1,000 times now.
Like Father, Like Son
“I got into TV because of my father. He worked at Turner Sports for years as a camera guy, so I’m like a second-generation camera-op. My dad has passed away, but as I sit back and I look at that shot and I reflect on that shot, you know, I can’t help but to think about him and how proud he would be of me knowing kind of where I’m at in my career now and for me to have an amazing shot like that.
“When I was a little boy, he would always take me to work with him. If I didn’t have school or if I didn’t have anything going on the weekends, he would always take me to work with him. So the first time I actually remember going and, you know, looking through the view finder and him showing me a pedestal camera, I think I was 8 years old, and it was at Turner Studios. It was a Saturday morning, and they were getting ready to film a WCW live wrestling match in the studio. Back then he did football, he did baseball, he did a little bit of everything. I have a few guys that kind of taught me along the way, but he’s the one that had his fingerprint all over me. He taught me everything I know about being a camera man and framing and focus and all of that.
Indiana wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. reaches over Penn State’s Zakee Wheatley to secure a game-winning touchdown catch.
Working Side by Side with My Hero
“We worked together a bunch. Before he retired, I mean, there were times where he and I would literally work side by side. It was great to have my pops there with me. I guess during that time I probably took it for granted because I didn’t realize how special it was. But I know that he didn’t take it for granted. I mean, he would always tell me how proud he was of me, and how he’s glad that he was able to show me a skill and I was able to take it and go even further than him. Because he would always tell me that just natural talent, I had way more talent than he did.”
Perfect Frame, Perfect Focus
“What I think he would be impressed with on that particular shot is the frame. The framing of it is perfect. When he taught me how to operate cameras, he was all about framing. So for him, he would have seen that the frame was perfect, and then he would have said, ‘And you’re in focus.’
“So yeah, for guys like me, my résumé is stuff like that. I don’t actually have a résumé. From the TV, you see my résumé.”
Michael Cohen covers college football and college basketball for FOX Sports. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.
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