Jeremaine Copeland (born February 19, 1977) is a former professional

gridiron football Gridiron football,"Gridiron football"
''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Ret ...

wide receiver who is currently the

wide receivers coach In American football, a position coach is a team official in charge of coaching a specific position group. Position coaches have more specialized duties than the head coach, assistant coach, and the Offensive coordinator, offensive and Defensive c ...

for the

Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in 1 ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

. He has played with the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the third-old ...

, and

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

, as well as in the

XFL XFL may refer to: Sports * XFL (2001), a defunct American football league that played its only season in 2001 * XFL (2020), a professional American football league Vehicles * Bell XFL Airabonita, a 1940 U.S. Navy experimental interceptor aircra ...

and

NFL Europe NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa League) was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League (NFL). Originally f ...

Early years

Copeland was born in

Harriman, Tennessee Harriman is a city located primarily in Roane County, Tennessee, with a small extension into Morgan County. The population of Harriman was 6,350 at the time of the 2010 census. Harriman is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Statis ...

. He would attend Harriman High School, where he played on the Blue Devils

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team. While at Harriman, Copeland played at both running back and wide receiver.

College career

Copeland attended the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

, where he played under head coach

Phillip Fulmer Phillip Edward Fulmer Sr. (born September 1, 1950) is a former American football player, coach, and athletic director at the University of Tennessee. He served as head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers football team from 1992 to 2008, compiling ...

from the 1995 season to the 1998 season.

1995 season

As a freshman with the Volunteers, Copeland played as a running back some. He recorded 14 rushes for 73 yards and two touchdowns on the season.

1996 season

As a sophomore with the Volunteers, Copeland played both at running back and wide receiver. He recorded 17 rushes for 72 yards and two touchdowns. In addition, he had 16 receptions for 191 yards. In addition, he returned 11 punts for the team.

1997 season

As a junior with the Volunteers, Copeland played at wide receiver. He recorded 58 receptions for 732 yards and nine touchdowns. In addition, he returned seven punts for the team.

1998 season

In the 1998 season, Copeland and the Volunteers would have a very successful season. The team won the National Championship over

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...

in the

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been playe ...

. In the 23-16 victory, Copeland had one reception for 15 yards. The National Championship was Copeland's last collegiate game. On the season, he recorded 29 receptions for 438 yards and one touchdown. He retained duties for returning punts with 16 tries on the season. With the

Volunteers Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

, he recorded 103 receptions for 1,361 yards, for a 13.32 yards per reception average, and rushed 31 times for 145 yards and four rushing touchdowns in his collegiate career. At Tennessee, he played with quarterback

Peyton Manning Peyton Williams Manning (born March 24, 1976) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons. Nicknamed "the Sheriff", he spent 14 seasons with the Indianapolis Colts and four with th ...

and running back

Jamal Lewis Jamal Lewis (born August 26, 1979) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns. He played college football at Tennessee and was s ...

while wearing #6 for the Vols.

Professional career

Copeland played a year of

football for the Barcelona Dragons. He ended the season with a team leading 74 receptions for 821 yards, for an 11.1 yards per reception average, and six touchdowns. Copeland began his CFL career with the

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

and played six games. During that season, he also starred at wide receiver with the

's champion

Los Angeles Xtreme The Los Angeles Xtreme was a professional American football team based in Los Angeles, California. The team was a member of the XFL (2001), XFL, begun by Vince McMahon of World Wrestling Entertainment and by NBC, a major television network in the ...

. He was known for his flashy big plays and the famous long skull cap tail hanging out of his helmet during his time with the XFL. After beginning the 2002 season in the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

' training camp, Copeland returned to the Alouettes and contributed to their

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

championship that

year A year or annus is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hou ...

. Copeland picked up CFL and CFLPA all-star honours in 2003 after piling up 99 receptions and 1,757 receiving yards. Along with teammate slotback

Ben Cahoon Ben Cahoon (born July 16, 1972) is a former professional Canadian football slotback who spent his entire career with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. He won the award for the Most Outstanding Canadian in the CFL two years i ...

, Copeland set a CFL record for most receiving yards by two teammates, amassing 3,318 yards between them. In 2004, Copeland was one of four receivers with the Alouettes to eclipse the 1,000-yard receiving mark (the others were Cahoon, Thyron Anderson, and

Kwame Cavil Kwame Cavil is a former gridiron football wide receiver. College career Cavil played college football at the University of Texas at Austin from 1997 to 1999. In 1999, he set a school single-season record by recording 100 receptions. He was the fi ...

), a CFL record which was repeated by the Alouettes the following year. In

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, Copeland was lured west to join the

after he entered free agency. Although his statistics did not reach the same levels as those achieved with the Alouettes, Copeland and Stampeder teammate

Nik Lewis Nikolas "Nik" Lewis (born June 3, 1982) is the receivers coach for the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and he is a former professional Canadian football slotback who played for 15 years in the CFL. He is a two-time Grey ...

became infamous for their elaborate touchdown celebrations, including a "human bicycle" during the 2005 season, and the "bobsled" at the endzone pylon during the 2006 season. On November 23, 2008, Copeland and teammates of the Calgary Stampeders won the

against the hosting Montreal Alouettes, 22-14. In

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, Copeland enjoyed his best season since 2003 when he recorded 1,235 receiving yards and led the league with 12 receiving touchdowns, earning CFL all-star honours that year. On February 17, 2010, Copeland was traded to the

in exchange for wide receiver P. K. Sam. He was elected as the team's offensive captain, leading an inexperienced receiving corps and being a crutch for inexperienced CFL quarterback

Cleo Lemon Cleo Lemon Jr. (born August 16, 1979) is a wide receivers coach for the Jacksonville State Gamecocks and former American football quarterback in the National Football League and Canadian Football League. He most recently played for the Toronto Arg ...

. With the team, he was reunited with former XFL teammate Noel Prefontaine. On November 3, 2011, he surpassed the 10,000 career receiving yards mark, becoming the 15th CFL player to reach the milestone. On January 25, 2012, Copeland officially retired from the CFL after 11 seasons in professional football.https://www.cfl.ca/article/cfl-veteran-jeremaine-copeland-retires Copeland retires, joins Ticats coaching staff

Coaching career

After announcing his retirement from professional football, Copeland was named the

of the

Hamilton Tiger-Cats The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Tim Hortons Fiel ...

, joining former

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of an American football or Canadian football team who is in charge of the team's offense. Generally, along with the defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, this coach re ...

George Cortez George Cortez (born February 11, 1951) is a gridiron football coach who has spent most of his coaching career with in the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was notably the head coach for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats during the 2012 season. He attende ...

who was the team's

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

at the time. Following the 2012 season, Copeland left the Tiger-Cats to complete his degree at the

. On February 20, 2015, the

announced that Copeland would be their new receivers coach.

CFL statistics

References

External links

Toronto Argonauts bio page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Copeland, Jeremaine 1977 births Living people African-American players of American football African-American players of Canadian football American football wide receivers Barcelona Dragons players Calgary Stampeders players Canadian football wide receivers Los Angeles Xtreme players Montreal Alouettes players People from Harriman, Tennessee Tennessee Volunteers football players Toronto Argonauts players Hamilton Tiger-Cats coaches Saskatchewan Roughriders coaches 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American sportspeople