Cooks was a 2 year starter at Safety for the Hawkeyes as well as a team captain his senior season.  His talent allowed him to be selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the 5th Round of the 1998 NFL Draft.  Cooks floated around the league to the Green Bay Packers, Atlanta Falcons and the Jacksonville Jaguars over the next couple years before he retired after the 2001 season.  Later that year however, Cooks made an appearance for the Chicago Enforcers in the first and only season of the XFL.  He went back home to Texas to begin coaching at his high school before joining the Kansas State Wildcats as a graduate assistant for the 2003 season.  The next year Cooks left to become the defensive backs coach at Western Illinois, but again only stayed for one season.  He returned to the Big Ten and joined the coaching staff of the Minnesota Golden Gophers as their defensive backs coach.  Once again, he was only there for one season before leaving for a position with the Wisconsin Badgers under another former Hawkeye, head coach Bret Bielema.  He coached the defensive backs at Wisconsin for the 2006-2009 seasons with many of his players continuously earning accolades for their play.  In early January 2010, Cooks was hired as the outside linebackers coach at the University of Notre Dame. He remains in that position today.