Tag: Scott Cochran

Georgia football special teams coordinator leaving the program

Georgia football special teams coordinator Scott Cochran is no longer with UGA

In Georgia football’s latest coaching staff move, Georgia Bulldogs special teams coordinator Scott Cochran is no longer with the team. Cochran, who had served as Georgia’s special teams coordinator since 2020, helped Georgia have one of the top special teams units in the country. In fact, the Georgia special teams did not allow a punt return all season in 2023.

Cochran is widely known for being a memorable strength coach under Nick Saban at Alabama. Cochran has been on the staff of eight national championship teams (five at Alabama, two at Georgia, and one at LSU).

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, who has coached with Cochran for 13 seasons, was able to lure the former Alabama strength coach to Athens, Georgia, with an on-field role. Georgia’s special teams played well under Cochran, but should continue to excel in the future considering Georgia’s recruiting prowess and returning players.

Additionally, former Texas A&M offensive coordinator Darrell Dickey will no longer be on Georgia’s coaching staff. Kirby Smart released the following statement thanking Dickey and Cochran.

I want to thank Scott and Darrell for their contributions to Georgia football. We wish them all the best moving forward.

Georgia is promoting Kirk Benedict to be Georgia’s new special teams coordinator.

Mark Ingram says UGA can thank Saban for national championship

Mark Ingram didn’t hold back when talking about UGA’s recent National Title win.

The NFL hosted a Twitter space on Tuesday evening with guests [autotag]Mark Ingram[/autotag] II, [autotag]Daron Payne[/autotag] and [autotag]Jonathan Allen[/autotag] to discuss the draft process, talk about the brotherhood that is Alabama Football and tell a Saban story along the way.

Mark Ingram jabbed on the spaces that even UGA is ‘Built By Bama,’ and the only reason they won a national title is because their head coach, Kirby Smart, came from Bama.

Smart was on the staff as a defensive back coach and defensive coordinator from 2007-2015. Along with Smart, former strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran made the move to Athens after the 2019 season. Cochran had been in Tuscaloosa with Saban for a dozen years.

Alabama will likely make a strong push to be back in the national title game, everyone knows that, but who knows about Georgia. Seeing as the Bulldogs have only played for two national titles in the last 40 years, he’s probably right.

Many coaches on the recruiting trail will tell you what you want to hear, but Saban will tell it as it is. Ingram recalled the honesty Saban had with him when on the recruiting trail, he told him that he will be great if he comes to Alabama. If not, and Ingram chooses to go elsewhere, it’s your fault you wasted this opportunity. Ingram said he respected the honesty.

Roll Tide Wire will continue to follow former Alabama players in the NFL.

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Kirby Smart shares why he gave Scott Cochran an opportunity to coach

DawgNation spoke with Kirby Smart, who shared why he gave Cochran an opportunity to become an assistant coach with the Bulldogs.

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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Report: Scott Cochran tried to get job with Giants

Before departing Alabama and joining Georgia, Scott Cochran reportedly tried to land a job with Joe Judge and the New York Giants.

When Alabama’s long-time strength and conditioning coach, Scott Cochran, up and left for Georgia, many members of the Crimson Tide and their fan base had their jaws hit the floor. To them, it was a stunning development.

However, Cochran had become obviously frustrated in recent years and made his desire to become an on-field assistant abundantly clear.

That wasn’t happening under Nick Saban, so Cochran went out on his own in an attempt to find an on-field job, even if it meant taking a substantial pay decrease. And before landing with the Bulldogs, he made several other stops around the country, including East Rutherford, New Jersey.

John Talty of The Birmingham News reports that Cochran tried to get a job with the New York Giants, where former Alabama assistant Joe Judge had recently been named head coach.

Saban, meanwhile, had concerns about numbers and results from a strength and conditioning standpoint and wanted tweaks made to the program. Sources said Saban began “riding Cochran mercilessly in front of staff.”

At this point, Cochran was even more determined to find an on-field opportunity elsewhere. Cochran pursued job opportunities with Michigan State and the New York Giants but neither worked out, per sources.

Cochran’s name did not come up while Judge was compiling his coaching staff, but it’s clear there was at least some communication between the two. Why things did not work out however, is another mystery.

Ultimately, Cochran was hired as Georgia’s special teams coordinator, which is the on-field role he so desperately desired. Meanwhile, Judge kept Thomas McGaughey on staff as the Giants’ special teams coordinator, also bringing back Tom Quinn as the assistant special teams coach.

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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.

REPORT: Alabama is hiring Indiana’s David Ballou as new strength coach

According to reports, including ESPN’s Adaam Rittenberg, Indiana’s David Ballou will be named Alabama’s new strength & conditioning coach. 

Since Scott Cochran’s departure from Alabama, many wondered who would be the one to fill his shoes. According to reports, including ESPN’s Adaam Rittenberg, Indiana’s David Ballou will be named Alabama’s new strength & conditioning coach.

Ballou has been the director of athletic performance for the Hoosiers’ football team the past two seasons. Before arriving at Indiana, he spent one year at Notre Dame as the co-director of strength and conditioning. He was also the strength and conditioning coach at Avon High School in Avon, Indiana for 14 years.

Alabama offers Strength and Conditioning position to Indiana’s David Ballou

The Alabama football program has been hard at work trying to find a suitable replacement for longtime strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran, who left for an on-field coaching position at Georgia earlier this week. Well, it looks like that …

The Alabama football program has been hard at work trying to find a suitable replacement for longtime strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran, who left for an on-field coaching position at Georgia earlier this week.

Well, it looks like that search could be coming to an end soon.

According to Tom Brew with Hoosiers Now, the SportsIllustrated site covering Indiana athletics, David Bullou was recently offered the job, and he’s expected to accept it by the end of the weekend:

What makes this move even more interesting is that Indiana’s athletic performance coach, Matt Rhea, is expected to join Ballou on the Crimson Tide’s staff.

Here is what Brew had to say about Ballou:

It would certainly be a home run hire for Alabama, especially considering the timing of Cochran’s departure.
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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.”