Inside the Lens: The Cameraman Who Captured College Football’s Catch of the Year

The officiating staff at Beaver Stadium in Beaver, Pennsylvania, where the No. With :36 left, Indiana 2, who was fighting to save its life against Penn State’s undefeated record, reviewed the potential game-winning score. In the final moments of the game, when the Hoosiers were trailing by 24-20, they only needed to play eight plays in order to gain 73 yards. They came within a few inches of the winning score. Then, Fernando Mendoza, who was a serious Heisman Trophy candidate, flew a pass to wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. at the back of the endzone. At first glance, it appeared that Cooper could not have touched the ground to make the catch. He was tracking the ball with full speed and went airborne to pursue Mendoza’s throw. He landed about 3 yards out-of-bounds below the field goal upright. It was a touchdown called on the field but the odds of it being upheld in a replay review were slim. Doug Kirk, the handheld camera operator, captured an amazing shot which clearly revealed that Cooper had not just tapped one foot, but also both of them, and he was hanging in the air as if he were suspended by an invisible cable. Indiana won the game 27-24 and extended its perfect season by at least one week. Kirk, 43 was able to follow in the footsteps his late father and enjoy the highlight of an extensive television career. 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. I’m called at the last moment to fill in wherever there is a gap. I do NFL for FOX. They asked me if I would be able to fill a vacant position for this game. I replied, ‘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 when I got up there it would be a handheld. I haven’t done a bunch of handhelds during football games. I’m more of a hard camera operator. This was my first handheld football 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. When you’re in the red area, it is my responsibility to be on the backline, while the cart has to be on the goal-line. This way, we can cover both sides: he has the pylon covered and I have my backline covered. It’s a perfect setup for this shot.”I Thought I Had Missed It for a Moment”The action was so fast in that moment. I thought that I’d 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. I thought that I had 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. They rolled [my footage]I missed it because I was doing my job. After a few moments, I caught the replay and it was amazing. ‘Oh, wow, I did have it.’ That feels incredible. “I’m a fan of football. I’m a big fan of college football and 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 it? And so for me, I never want to be too wide to where you can’t see it. I also don’t like to be too close to the target, so you might miss it. So, yeah, that shot was a success. Omar Cooper Jr., Indiana wide receiver, hauls in the game-winning catch against Penn State. The Shot of a LifetimeFor me, that’s the best shot I’ve ever had in my entire career, without a doubt. Everything was perfect. Last second, it was the play that would win the game. Everything that went into the shot matched up exactly. 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. “He would take me to the office with him when I was a child. 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. The first time I remember seeing him show me a camera through the viewfinder, was when I was about 8 years old. It was at Turner Studios. The studio was getting ready to shoot a WCW wrestling match on a Saturday. He played football, baseball and a bit of everything back then. 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 everything I know about how to be an excellent cameraman and what framing is, and what focus means.  Omar Cooper Jr., Indiana’s wide receiver, reaches above Penn State’s Zakee Whitley to grab the game-winning touchdown. Working with My Hero: “We did a lot of work together. There were times when he and i would literally work together before he retired. It was wonderful to have my dad there. 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. He would tell me I was more talented than him because of my natural talent.”Perfect Frame, perfect Focus” I believe he’d be impressed by the frame of that particular shot. The framing is perfect. He taught me to use cameras by focusing on framing. He would have made sure that the frame is perfect before he said anything. ‘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.Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? To receive personalized daily newsletters, create or log into your FOX Sport account. Follow teams, leagues and players!
2025-11-13 01:18:14