Tag: Bama football news

Georgia football makes top-six for 2021 4-star WR

Georgia football made the top-six for 2021 4-star WR Chris Hilton

On Sunday, Chris Hilton, a 4-star wide receiver from Zachary, Louisiana, named his top six schools.

Georgia, Alabama, Florida, LSU, Notre Dame and Texas A&M made the cut.

The 6-foot, 169 pound prospect is ranked as the No. 5 receiver in the 2021 class and the No. 51 ranked prospect overall. (via 247Sports)

Hilton told 247Sports:

“You could say whichever school I feel like I’m more comfortable at, can play at, and get my education is how I’ll get it down to one.”

Although the Bulldogs have good depth at the receiver position for at least the next two seasons, Kirby Smart knows that you can never have too many explosive playmakers in today’s game.

Hilton, who runs a 4.45 40 yard dash, would be great addition to a speedy Georgia offense and with 5-star quarterback Brock Vandagriff heading to Athens in 2021, the Bulldogs hope to get as many playmakers on the outside as possible.

“I like the coaching staff and the academics are really good,” Hilton told Dawg Post, speaking of Georgia.

 

 

College Football News releases 2020 bowl projection for Georgia Bulldogs

College Football News released bowl projections for Georgia in the 2020 season.

Kirby Smart has transformed the Georgia program into one that’s consistently in the College Football Playoff conversation each preseason.

Smart guided the Dawgs to the playoff during the 2017 season and came so close to doing it again in both 2018 and 2019.

Could 2020 be the year that Smart gets the Dawgs back into the playoff? Pete Fiutak of College Football News thinks it’s a good possibility.

In his SEC bowl projections, Fiutak has Georgia sliding in and facing off against Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.

Yep, you read that correctly.

Georgia vs Ohio State, or as the media would read it come December: Georgia vs Justin Fields.

Could you imagine? Bulldogs vs Buckeyes in the Grandaddy of Them All, where replays of Sony Michel’s walk-off touchdown are still playing clearly in the brain of DawgNation.

Fiutak also recently projected Georgia’s win total for 2020, predicting 10 regular season wins for the Bulldogs next season.

With that in mind, it sounds like Fiutak has the Dawgs sneaking into and winning the SEC Championship Game with two regular season losses. In this scenario, that win in Atlanta would impress the committee enough to let a two-loss Georgia team, that played a very difficult regular season schedule, into the playoff.

I asked Fiutak for some more information on what led to this projection:

“Without spring ball to go on, just projecting talent – and Georgia has it. Here’s the deal. If the Dawgs split the Bama and Florida games, can they avoid a South Carolina loss like last year? They have to beat Auburn, too, but that’s at home. It’s still April – going with the call now that they win two of those three, and FINALLY pull off the SEC Championship. These things always change and adapt as we go … let’s see how these teams actually look, first.”

Fiutak also has Alabama and Clemson squaring off in the Sugar Bowl. Sadly, he predicts Ohio State and Alabama both advance past the semifinals and meet each other in Miami for the College Football Playoff National Championship.

College Football News writes that Georgia could be in for disappointing 2020

Could Georgia football be in for a tough 2020? One college football analyst says it’s a possibility.

Georgia has been the top-Dawg in the SEC East for the past three seasons, making the SEC Championship every year since 2017.

For 2020, expectations remain the same for Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs. A top-four finish, an SEC Championship appearance and a potential return to the College Football Playoff. Anything less is a disappointment.

With those expectations, a 10-2 regular season would be considered a disappointment. It would practically eliminate the Dawgs from Playoff contention, unless Georgia goes out and wins convincingly in Atlanta (if it can navigate its way there) and gets a lot of help from around the country.

So, when Pete Fiutak of College Football News picked Georgia as his potentially disappointing team from the SEC, he does not foresee an 8-4 season or anything like that. Instead, he made mention to how it’s all relative. Meaning that a 10-win season for 95% of FBS programs would be considered great, however, if Georgia wins 9 or 10, that’s a let-down by UGA standards.

From Fiutak:

It’s all relative.

No, 2020 Georgia isn’t going 8-4, or anything like that.

We predicted that Florida would be one of the top ten teams in college football before last year started – but would be a slight disappointment because it wouldn’t win the SEC East – and Georgia will begin this season in the top five, if not top three.

Georgia’s 2020 is going to be a difficult one. Aside from losing so much experience on offense and a few defensive leaders, that schedule is no joke.

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On the road at Alabama in week-three. An October game vs Auburn. The annual matchup vs Florida, this time on Halloween. If Georgia is undefeated heading into November, it’s the best team in the country and will be everybody’s pick to win the national title. But if Georgia comes out of that stretch with one or two losses, it’ll need a lot of things to fall into place in order to make it back to the playoff.

One regular season loss is fine, as long as Georgia wins the SEC Championship.

Two losses, and Georgia will need A LOT of help to make it back. A lot.

From Fiutak:

Georgia is going to keep coming into seasons as one of the five or six teams with a realistic shot at winning the national title. However, have a misfire like last year’s loss to South Carolina, finally be on the wrong end of the Florida showdown, lose to Alabama, or even have another season like the last two with an 11-1 regular season and a loss in the SEC Championship, and the CFP dreams are gone with two losses.

4-star OLB from Alabama includes UGA in top-10

4-star OLB Ian Jackson from Alabama included Georgia football in his top-ten schools.

On Thursday, 4-star outside linebacker Ian Jackson released his top-ten schools.

In no specific order, Nebraska, Georgia, Oklahoma, Florida State, Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Tennessee, Louisville and Texas A&M were the schools that he announced as his finalists.

From Prattville, Alabama, Jackson ranks as the nation’s No. 309 overall player, No. 25 ranked OLB and the 10th ranked player in the state.

Kirby Smart knows he has his work cut-out for him with both home-state universities Alabama and Auburn being listed in his most recent post.

Prattville, which is smack-dab in the middle of Alabama, is only a one hour drive to Auburn and a 90 minute commute to Tuscaloosa. In comparison to Athens, it’s a 3.5 hour drive.

During his junior season for Prattville, Jackson tallied 91 tackles, 18 tackles for loss and six sacks.

 

 

Report: Scott Cochran pursued three jobs before leaving Alabama for Georgia

Per a report, Scott Cochran pursued three different jobs before eventually leaving Alabama for the Georgia football program.

Though Scott Cochran’s decision to leave Georgia for Alabama may have came as a surprise to fans and media members, it likely didn’t shock Nick Saban or those close to Cochran.

Per a report from Matt Zenitz and John Talty of AL.com, Cochran had tried for position roles with the New York Giants, with Michigan State and with Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss.

According to the report, Cochran had been hoping for a new coaching position since at least 2018.

How deep Kiffin and Cochran made it into the interview process is unclear, but Ole Miss was able to land Houston assistant Blake Gideon as its new special teams coordinator. Gideon is considered one of the nation’s best.

The report also details how Saban was “riding Cochran mercilessly in front of staff.” What led to Saban getting on Cochran, I’m not sure, but the report noted that the head coach “wanted tweaks made.”

People speculated that the timing of Kirby Smart’s hiring of Saban’s right-hand man stemmed from malicious intent, however, seeing as how Cochran had been searching for a new position, it’s possible that it just played out like this.

As Alabama’s head strength coach, Cochran was paid $595,000 in 2019. At Georgia, Cochran’s 2020 salary will be $550,000, the school confirmed Tuesday.

Scott Cochran makes first tweet since accepting Georgia job

Georgia football assistant Scott Cochran made his first tweet since leaving Alabama and Nick Saban for UGA and Kirby Smart.

Former Alabama strength coach Scott Cochran made headlines when he decided to accept the position of special teams coordinator at Georgia.

That was a week ago, and we have not heard much from Cochran about the career move since — but it’s clear that the on-field coaching opportunity was something that he had been hoping for.

On Monday, Cochran finally made his first tweet…and it has gone over great with Georgia fans.

So far, the hype video has been retweeted over 1,000 times with nearly 5,000 likes.

“New Mission” is what Cochran’s hype video is titled and it outlines his success to date and includes testimonials from former Alabama stars.

Alabama targeting former Georgia strength coach Aaron Feld

The Alabama Crimson Tide are considering hiring Oregon Ducks strength and conditioning coach Aaron Feld, who previously coached at Georgia.

The Alabama Crimson Tide lost an excellent strength and conditioning coach in Scott Cochran, who joined the staff at Georgia this past week. Now, the Crimson Tide are considering hiring Oregon Ducks strength and conditioning coach Aaron Feld. Before Feld coached at Oregon, he was under Kirby Smart in Athens.

Feld coached at UGA from 2015 to 2017 as the assistant strength and conditioning coach. Feld helped Kirby Smart develop players like Roquan Smith, Nick Chubb, and Sony Michel during his time in Athens.

He left Georgia following the National Championship defeat to become the strength and conditioning coach at Oregon under Mario Christobal. The Ducks have had success with Feld as well. Oregon defeated Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl this season and is returning a good bit of talent in 2020.

Feld would be a logical choice at Alabama based on his previous success. The Crimson Tide will miss Scott Cochran, who is now joining Kirby Smart once again at Georgia, but Strength and Conditioning coaches can only do so much for the team.

Feld reportedly met with Nick Saban at Alabama this week and has removed Oregon from his Twitter bio. That being said, nothing is set in stone. Fans should bet on either Feld heading to Alabama or staying at Oregon after getting a raise.

Will Feld stay or go?
Dec 31, 2018; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Oregon Ducks strength and conditioning coordinator Aaron Feld in the game against the Michigan State Spartans during the third quarter at Levi’s Stadium. Credit: Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
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Tua Tagovailoa on impact of Scott Cochran leaving for Georgia: ‘It’s going to be hard’

Former Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa discussed how important new Georgia football assistant Scott Cochran was to Nick Saban and the Tide program

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On Monday, Georgia hired Nick Saban’s longtime head strength coach Scott Cochran to come serve as the special teams coordinator in Athens.

On Monday night, we highlighted some tweets from former Alabama players who understand just how important Cochran was to Saban and the Crimson Tide program.

But maybe one of the most important players in Alabama history, Tua Tagovailoa, was one of the first to stand behind a podium and speak publicly on Cochran’s departure and what it means for Alabama going forward.

While at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, Tagovailoa went into more detail about Cochran.

“He was a special guy. He doesn’t get as much credit as people give him,” Tagovailoa said. “He’s been the backbone for the organization at Alabama.

“It’s going to be hard. Alabama is definitely going to miss him.”

Kirby Smart and Cochran remained close since their days of coaching together in Tuscaloosa, and you may remember Smart actually tried to bring Cochran with him to Athens when he was given the head coaching position at Georgia.

Having been at Bama since 2007, Cochran has seen hundreds of Tide players come and go, but based off of the testimonies of multiple different former players, Cochran impacted the lives of every student-athlete to come through those doors.

“Off the field, he’s someone who develops relationships with guys,” Tagovailoa said. “Brings guy over and cooks meals for guys who aren’t able to go home for Christmas.”

Former Alabama players tweet thoughts on Scott Cochran leaving for Georgia football

former Alabama players tweeted their thoughts on Scott Cochran leaving Bama for a job with Georgia football.

On Monday, Georgia football was able to make one of the biggest offseason splashes when it hired Nick Saban’s longtime strength coach Scott Cochran away from Alabama.

At Georgia, Cochran will serve as Kirby Smart’s special teams coordinator. The two coaches remained close ever since their days of working together in Tuscaloosa and you may remember Smart unsuccessfully trying to bring Cochran with him to Athens when he was first hired at UGA.

Alabama fans understand just how big of a blow this is to Saban’s program. Cochran has been in Tuscaloosa since 2007 and was considered Saban’s right-hand man, having been on staff for all six of his national titles, including in 2003 at LSU.

Related: Kirk Herbstreit on Georgia hiring Scott Cochran: ‘Significant loss for Bama’

Related: Alabama fans have Twitter meltdown with news of Scott Cochran to Georgia

Related: Report: Scott Cochran not allowed to address Alabama players prior to leaving for Georgia

But it’s just not Bama fans who are in panic mode. There have been multiple former players take to Twitter to express just how much Cochran means to the Tide program, including Raiders running back Josh Jacobs.

Having been there since 2007, Cochran helped coach and physically develop hundreds of Alabama players, who all understand Cochran’s value to the program.

There’s a reason why this is as big of news as it is. I mean, how often does a strength coach leaving make as big of headlines as it did on Monday?

Click on to the next page to see a few more tweets from former players.

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Report: Scott Cochran not allowed to address Alabama players prior to leaving for Georgia

On Monday, Georgia football officially announced the hiring of Scott Cochran, Nick Saban’s longtime head strength coach. Cochran, who has remained close with Kirby Smart since their time together in Tuscaloosa, has left Bama to become Smart’s new …

On Monday, Georgia football officially announced the hiring of Scott Cochran, Nick Saban’s longtime head strength coach.

Cochran, who has remained close with Kirby Smart since their time together in Tuscaloosa, has left Bama to become Smart’s new special teams coordinator in Athens.

Alabama fans did not react well to the news on Twitter, going into meltdown mode, while Georgia fans erupted with excitement. 

The salt levels in Bama are high right now, and that apparently goes beyond just the fans, as Kyle Henderson of Rivals is reporting that Saban may be a bit salty about Cochran’s departure as well.

Per Henderson’s report, Saban held a team meeting at 3 p.m. Central time today, but Cochran, who the meeting revolved around, was not present.

However, it was not by choice.

Seeing as how Cochran has been at Alabama since 2007, you’d think he’d receive a bit more love on his way out than he’s been show so far.

Coaches come and go, that’s how college football works. For Saban not to allow his right hand man to say goodbye to the team just shows me that he is really not happy with this move.

Which in turn only makes Georgia fans even happier with the hire.