Scott Cochran, once the most famous power and conditioning coach College Football When Nick Saban’s right hand is back College Football As head coach.
Cochran, who was most recently in Georgia’s staff of Georgia in 2023, has been named West Alabama’s new head coach, a Division II school at about an hour away from where Cochran Saban helped build a dynasty in Tuscaloosa. From his time at LSU, Alabama and Georgia, Cochran was part of eight national championship teams.
Cochran became famous for a thriving voice of his characteristic “yes, yes, yes” Yell and his “fourth quarter program” that was part of the secret sauce of the success of Alabama. He was the rare power and conditioning coach who was prominently characterized by the program on his video cooker before and during games. Cochran appeared in commercials, was shown in National Profiles about Saban, because one of the few staff employees was allowed to talk to the media and built up an important supporters.
He was the yin of Sabans Yang, the good agent who could put an arm around the shoulder of a player and help him find a way out of the doghouse of the head coach. His interpersonal skills were his most valuable feature and the way in which he could keep players in the Sisyphean mission to chase Perfection. Cochran had a special capacity to know exactly what Saban wanted and to translate the requirements into a way that was logical for players for players and coaches.
Cochran, who was part of Saban’s first staff in 2007, left Alabama in 2020 to become coordinator of special teams on the field for the Georgia program of Kirby Smart. One day Cochran wanted to become a head coach and believed that he needed assistant experience on the field and chose to work with Smart, with whom he worked closely in Tuscaloosa. Former Alabama players who knew first-hand, the impact he had on the success of the program worried about his departure.
“The more I was in the program and saw things and then to be on the other side, I thought he is a really important coach for that program and a really integral piece for everything,” said former Alabama offensive Linid Blalock Me in time. “He was like an older brother – he was your coach, but he was also your friend.”
Cochran helped Smart to win two national championships (2021, 2022), but eventually left the program to struggle in February 2024 with a decade -long hidden drug addiction. He told ESPN Last year he became addicted to Vicodin and Oxycontin and at one point sniffed 20 to 25 pills a day. He was co-founder of the American Addiction Recovery Association and began to publicly tell his painkiller addiction story. In the past year he spoke with university football programs such as Georgia Tech and Maryland, a meeting with high school students and talked to companies about his journey.
“My own personal struggles have given me a unique perspective with which I can develop players professionally and prepare them to go to the next level,” Cochran said in a statement. “I get to know players better than they know themselves, and I have the feeling that I have something to give back through head coaching. This is more than just a job for me; it is a calling to help young men both on and outside the field to grow. “
Cochran takes over a program that went 9-2 in 2024 and lost in the first round of the Playoffs of Division II. A number of very successful players have come from the school, including Miami Dolphins Star recipient Tyreek Hill and former New England Patriots Cornerback Malcolm Butler.
Cochran has worked closely with the largest coach of the University Football ever (Saban) and his nearest Protege (Slim) that could be the best active coach in the sport. Now he will use everything he has learned with his personal experiences to lead his own program for the first time.