When Scott Cochran left Tuscaloosa, Alabama to head to Athens, Georgia to join Kirby Smart’s coaching staff, tensions rose and many wondered why Cochran, someone who has been a part of Saban’s staff since the very beginning, would head to join the Bulldogs.
Cochran had been at Alabama since Saban’s arrival at Alabama in 2007. He was even with Saban at LSU while he was an assistant in 2003. But eventually, news broke that Cochran wanted an on-field role, something Saban wasn’t quite ready to give him.
DawgNation spoke with Kirby Smart, who shared why he gave Cochran an opportunity to become an assistant coach with the Bulldogs.
“Scott and I have had a relationship for a long time, and when I think of good coaches, I think of guys that can relate to players.
I’ve always judged a coach by two qualities.What is his ability to make players want to play for him? His relationship, do players want to run through the brick wall for their coach, do they respect their coach, do they want to play for their coach, can he relate to them in a personal way and get them to do something that maybe another coach can’t. Does that separate him?”
Smart also said the other area he judges a coach is “their ability to recruit, and both of those two things in my nine years at Alabama, (Cochran) was outstanding at.”
Smart also made a comment towards those who doubt Cochran based on lack of on-field coaching experience:
“He was always involved in some way, shape or form with special teams (at Alabama). That’s always been something, even dating back to my days at LSU, that he was kind of the quality control guy at LSU that worked with special teams. So his background has been around that.
We’ve certainly had a staff full of guys, Glenn Schumann, Dan Lanning, Todd Hartley, Cortez, Dell, Charlton, have all had special teams duties in their career.
So this is not like Scott Cochran is the only special teams guy on our staff. We have an immense amount of knowledge and experience on special teams. They’ll draw on that. Scott will be the special teams coordinator. But we’ll use the entire staff to help with that.”
And if that wasn’t enough, simply put, Smart believes in Cochran:
“The big part was hiring Scott,” Smart said, “because we felt like he brought a lot to the table in terms of the entire organization.
Ask anyone who’s been around him, Scott’s passion and energy is contagious. Special Teams Coordinator is a great fit as he’ll be working with all position groups. ”
There’s no doubt it will be very interesting to see the impact Scott Cochran has on Georgia’s program.
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