MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Traz Powell Stadium rises up off Northwest 27th Street in Miami like an aquamarine shrine. For years, in fact, it has been known as “The Mecca” around here.
Traz Powell represents the home football field for seven local high schools, including Miami Central. That’s the one Georgia’s James Cook attended. So did his brother, NFL running back Dalvin Cook.
Exactly 6.5 miles north of “The Traz,” as the locals refer to it, is Hard Rock Stadium. That’s where No. 3 Georgia and No. 2 Michigan will do battle in the Orange Bowl on Friday night in a College Football Playoff semifinal.
For Cook, there could be no more fitting way to wrap up his college football career. Four years after leaving to go play for the Bulldogs hundreds of miles away, he’s back home, literally in his backyard.
“Just playing at Hard Rock Stadium, it just gives me chills because I ain’t never really played in the Hard Rock Stadium,” said Cook, who grew up in the Carol City area of Miami Gardens, just west of Traz Powell. “So just playing in front of my family is going to be good. I’m at home.”
Cook figures to be a big part of Georgia’s game plan. He has been all year and most of the past two seasons.
While Zamir White draws the majority of starts for the Bulldogs at running back – he’s had 10 in 13 games this season – it is Cook who is the Swiss Army knife of coach Todd Monken’s offensive scheme. Cook usually is the one in the game catching flare passes and screens out of the backfield, and he even lines up in the slot on occasion. He has had both 100-yard rushing games and 100-yard receiving games in his Georgia career.
Cook enters Friday’s game – his 49th as a Bulldog – with 1,997 yards on 279 touches and 19 touchdowns. Georgia plans for him to add to those totals.
“You can get him the ball in a number of ways, which is fun to have guys like that,” Monken said Tuesday. “The more versatile you are at certain positions, the tougher it is on the defense because you can do more with them in terms of formations.
“Again, I think James has had a tremendous career here. He’s one of our leaders that every week we talk about, along with Zamir and some of our other guys, being captains of our team. And I think he’s going to have a fantastic career at the next level.”
If Monken’s prediction proves true and Cook follows his brother to the NFL, he will be added to a long list of NFL greats who have come through Traz Powell. Amari Cooper, Teddy Bridgewater, Duke Johnson, Allen Hurns, Devonta Freeman and, yes, Dalvin Cook, are among the many pros that received their early indoctrination to football at The Traz.
All the pro talent is why Traz Powell – once known as “Trash Powell” – was able to undergo a major facelift a year ago. In 2020, the NFL, the Miami Dolphins, the Houston Texans and Nike got together to give The Traz more than $2 million in improvements, including a new field, track, press box and lots and lots of aquamarine-colored paint.
So, nowadays The Traz gleams as it rises up off NW 27th Street. It’s quite the contrast to the surrounding area, which features a lot of low-income housing and businesses.
“Where I grew up, it was -- I mean, it wasn’t bad -- but you’ve got areas like that are bad,” said Cook. “I mean, just growing up and just having that edge, like playing at Traz Powell as a young kid in high school in front of everybody, it was great. I know it’s going to be great playing at Sun Life Stadium in front of my friends and family.”
“Sun Life” once was the name of Hard Rock Stadium. It also was named Joe Robbie Stadium.
On Friday, it will host the Orange Bowl, which this year is a CFP semifinal.
For Cook, only The Traz itself could provide a better stage.
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