Scott Cochran, once the most famous strength and conditioning coach in college football as Nick Saban’s right-hand man, is back in college football as a head coach.
Cochran, who most recently was on Georgia’s 2023 staff, has been named West Alabama’s new head coach, a Division II school about an hour away from where Cochran helped Saban build a dynasty in Tuscaloosa. From his time at LSU, Alabama and Georgia, Cochran has been a part of eight national championship teams.
Cochran became famous for a booming voice of his trademark “YEAH, YEAH, YEAH” yell and his “Fourth Quarter Program” that was part of the secret sauce of Alabama’s success. He was the rare strength and conditioning coach that was featured prominently by the program on its videoboard before and during games. Cochran appeared in commercials, was featured in national profiles about Saban as one of the few staffers allowed to talk to the media and built a significant following.
He was the yin to Saban’s yang, the good cop who could put an arm around a player’s shoulder and help him find a way out of the head coach’s doghouse. His interpersonal skills were his most valuable trait and the way he could keep players bought into the Sisyphean mission of chasing perfection.Cochran possessed a special ability of knowing exactly what Saban wanted and being able to translate the demands into a way that made sense for players and coaches alike.
Cochran, who was part of Saban’s initial staff in 2007, left Alabama in 2020 to become an on-field special teams coordinator for Kirby Smart’s Georgia program. Cochran desired to become a head coach one day and believed he needed on-field assistant experience, opting to team up with Smart, who he worked closely with while in Tuscaloosa. Former Alabama players who knew first-hand the impact he had on the program’s success were concerned about his departure.
“The more I was in the program and got to see things and then being on the other side, I thought he’s a really important coach for that program and a really integral piece to it all,” former Alabama offensive lineman David Blalock told me at the time. “He was like an older brother — he was your coach, but he was also your friend.”
Cochran helped Smart win two national championships (2021, 2022) but ultimately left the program in Feb. 2024 after struggling with a decade-long hidden drug addiction. He told ESPN last year he became addicted to Vicodin and Oxycontin and at one point was snorting 20 to 25 pills per day. He co-founded the American Addiction Recovery Association and began telling his painkillers addiction story publicly. Over the last year, he has talked to college football programs like Georgia Tech and Maryland, met with high school students and spoken to businesses about his journey.
“My own personal struggles have given me a unique perspective that allows me to expertly develop players 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 feel that I have something to give back through head coaching. This is more than just a job for me; it’s a calling to help young men grow both on and off the field.”
Cochran takes over a program that went 9-2 in 2024 and lost in the first-round of the Division II playoffs. A number of highly successful players have come out of the school including most notably Miami Dolphins star receiver Tyreek Hill and former New England Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler.
Cochran has worked closely with college football’s greatest coach ever (Saban) and his closest protege (Smart) who could be the best active coach in the sport. Now, he’ll get to deploy everything he’s learned with his personal experiences to lead his own program for the first time.
