New Packers Snapper Coco ‘Just Outworked Everyone’ at Georgia Tech
GREEN BAY, Wis. – New Green Bay Packers long snapper Jack Coco took quite a path from Georgia Tech to Titletown.
2017: Redshirted as a walk-on long snapper and offensive lineman.
2018: Handled snaps on field goals and extra points.
2019: Handled snaps on field goals and extra points.
2020: Moved to tight end while still handling snaps on field goals and extra points.
2021: Finally got a scholarship and focused only on tight end.
2022: An undrafted free agent, he signed with the Packers on Tuesday.
“He’s just so determined,” Lewis Caralla, Georgia Tech’s head strength and conditioning coach, said on Wednesday morning. “He’s a relentless worker. He was our lifter of the year last year for the big-skill category of our team.
“He lost 60 to 70 pounds [to move to tight end] and transformed not just his body but his work ethic, which was insane. He would do so much extra work, so much beyond what was required of him, and loved it. He came in here with the best attitude every day, impacted so many other people around him. That’s why he got the scholarship because he was making a big impact on the team. He just outworked everyone, period.”
Georgia Tech TE Jack Coco. (Photo courtesy Georgia Tech athletics)
Coco’s older sister, Claudia, played volleyball at Tennessee. Her athleticism and competitiveness helped drive Coco on his quest to change positions.
“He completely changed his diet, and just the natural competitiveness as a family, we would text back and forth, and he would text, ‘I ran three miles today. What did you do?’” Claudia told The Athletic in 2020. “And I’d text back, ‘I ran six miles’ or whatever. He made it a point to really take time to change his diet; he learned how to cook. I think he ate the same thing for 60 days straight, I think it was salad and chicken. Like he knew how to cook one thing, and that’s what he did all the time. …
“Both Mom and Dad have put it in our brains, ‘If you work hard, it will pay off for you guys. You just have to put in the work to do it.’ It’s not always immediate.”
Coco toiled for four years at Georgia Tech on his own dime before getting that payoff. Finally, during a team meeting at fall camp last summer, Coco was awarded a scholarship – a moment he likened to being hit by a Mack Truck.
“His mom and dad were bawling on the phone,” Caralla recalled. “He was bawling. He didn’t expect it at all. We didn’t do that a lot here. We did it in front of a team meeting, which was the first time we’d done that here in three years. It was a big deal. Jack, he earned every bit of everything he got.”
Coco will battle incumbent Steven Wirtel to be Green Bay’s long snapper this season. Coco was not the snapper on the punt team during his career at Georgia Tech and didn’t snap at all in a game last season.
Still, he apparently showed enough at the Packers’ rookie minicamp, which was held on May 6-7, to merit an opportunity.
“Now he’s fighting on a 90-man roster, which I think is just incredible,” Caralla said.
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