LIVINGSTON, Ala. – One hour away from the place that made him well-known, Scott Cochran will get the information from his athletic coach that it is too scorching to put on pads at apply right this moment.
It is an unlucky actuality of the blazing Alabama solar this morning, however he has no selection however to adapt and transfer on. He is aware of it will not go over effectively together with his younger workers — filled with former Alabama stars like Blake Sims, O.J. Howard and Bo Scarbrough. They’re keen for one more alternative to enhance with the season opener looming. Cochran was as soon as the identical — ringleader of these then-Alabama gamers working 110s within the punishing warmth that helped form Crimson Tide groups that by no means backed down.
However whenever you’ve lived the life Cochran has during the last 5 years, you achieve perspective on what actually issues.
Inside Homer Area Home as Division-II West Alabama’s new head coach, Cochran is 60 miles and a lifetime away from Bryant-Denny Stadium, the place he performed a vital function on Nick Saban’s Alabama workers that received 5 nationwide championships. There are none of Tuscaloosa’s waterfalls or ostentatious shows of wealth right here. The services are akin to what you’d see at a big highschool on this state.
When Cochran was flying excessive because the nation’s most well-known and extremely paid energy coach — well-known for his loud “YEAH, YEAH, YEAH,” — this wasn’t what he envisioned when he dreamed of being a head coach. You must hustle for all the pieces right here, and whereas he is extraordinarily grateful for the paycheck and perception in him, he says it is a couple of quarter of what he final made at Georgia.
He used his first three paychecks to get his gamers necessities like new cleats, gloves, and sweatshirts, so they do not should preserve sporting their highschool gear. There have been no huge Nike advertising and marketing sponsorship offers to outfit everybody within the constructing head-to-toe in free gear.
A loud, booming voice and a contagious spirit, Cochran had one way or the other turn into well-known in a task that was usually behind the scenes and out of sight. What number of different energy and conditioning coaches have you learnt who appeared on “60 Minutes”? Or in financial institution commercials? Or proven time and again on huge videoboards earlier than 101,821 screaming followers.
Fame went to his head, and when he noticed associates like Sensible and Lane Kiffin get head teaching jobs, he thought he deserved one, too. He wished the function for all of the fallacious causes – cash, energy, ego.
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Beginning over
Life has humbled him since then.
It was a protracted, winding journey to achieve this level — from NBA assistant energy coach, to Saban’s right-hand man in energy and conditioning, to Georgia’s particular groups coordinator, to being out of soccer and uncertain if he would ever get one other shot. For a lot of that journey, Cochran carried a harmful secret: He was hooked on medication. Not Saban, not Kirby Sensible, not even his household knew.
After leaving Georgia in February 2024, Cochran spent greater than a 12 months telling his story throughout the nation, together with in entrance of loads of school soccer groups. He based a nonprofit group known as American Habit Restoration Affiliation and was contemplating beginning a rehab facility when he bought a name gauging his curiosity in turning into West Alabama’s head coach.
“I get a each day or weekly reminder that God needs me right here,” Cochran instructed CBS Sports activities. “Like weekly, one thing will occur, whether or not it is a child actually struggling or whether or not it is one thing with household, it is like I am speculated to be right here. So I am not gonna reside in worry. I am simply going to take it one step at a time, and if it will get an excessive amount of, I’ve an excellent workers. They may step up.”
It is, partly, what makes this juncture of life so attention-grabbing for Cochran. He is getting ready for his first sport as a head coach in opposition to Fort Valley State on Aug. 30, whereas attempting to take care of his sobriety and preserve his household as the highest precedence. On today, he is even going to overlook a workforce assembly that night time so he can go to his son’s soccer sport — a choice he admits he by no means would have made at Alabama or Georgia, the place he all the time put the job above all else. And whereas he is been open about his struggles, he is readying to point out essentially the most unvarnished model of his story but in a brand new guide, written alongside Ivan Maisel, which got here out Tuesday.
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Sharing his story
In “Cranium Periods: Mastering the Psychological Recreation in Sports activities, Work and Life,” Cochran particulars the management classes he discovered and deployed working alongside two of the sport’s finest in Saban and Sensible. There are many entertaining anecdotes that Alabama and basic school soccer followers will get pleasure from, together with considered one of Saban dancing and dealing with future NFL stars like Jalen Hurts.
However what makes it greater than only a management or soccer guide is it’s juxtaposed with Cochran’s deep plunge into drug habit that derailed his profession and nearly killed him. In a single notably harrowing passage, Cochran particulars overdosing in April 2020 and his spouse, Cissy, discovering him slumped over and unresponsive in his chair after he accomplished a piece Zoom name.
It will get darkish, at instances, and Cochran would not spare himself the embarrassing particulars. The habit to OxyContin, prescribed initially for debilitating migraines, bought so unhealthy that Cochran snorted medication throughout Alabama soccer video games in Saban’s personal workplace.
That is what life was like for Cochran as a profitable addict — doing all the pieces he might to look regular whereas getting bolder and bolder about getting his repair. Years later, when he entered a drug rehabilitation facility for a second time, Cochran anticipated to check constructive for Oxy, however was shocked when Chris Herren instructed him he had solely fentanyl in his system.
The closest he got here to getting caught was on the Capital One Bowl in opposition to Michigan in 2020. Cochran went into the coaches’ locker room at halftime and used a stall to snort his tablets off the plastic shelf above the bathroom paper dispenser.
The following day, Ellis Ponder, the director of soccer operations, requested Cochran, “Did you snort one thing within the stall? Somebody heard a sound such as you have been snorting one thing.”
“It is liberating to let go of that,” Cochran says. “To enter Coach Saban’s workplace throughout halftime, lock the door, and inform all people I am taking a deuce and snort tablets. It is liberating to let that go, to not have that behind my thoughts like God, that is so shameful, that is so gross and so ugly. You let it go, you let it go.”
He hopes his story will assist others who may be in their very own darkish interval — perhaps even somebody like him, too afraid to ask for assist. In soccer, there’s stress to be robust and powerful in your gamers, usually placing their wants forward of your individual. A number of high-level coaches have instructed CBS Sports activities that the occupation faces a little-discussed however severe epidemic: 100-hour work weeks the place psychological and bodily wellness usually fall by the wayside. Some self-medicate with alcohol. Cochran believes misuse of Adderall — a stimulant meant to deal with ADHD — is one other concern not getting sufficient consideration. Perhaps it can now, he thinks, when folks hear his story.
When he overdosed, he had combined a “speedball” of three 30-milligram Oxy tablets with one Adderall and snorted them.”I’ve by no means seen Nick or Kirby (do it) however I’ve seen a variety of others that Adderall is their go-to, whether or not they’re prescribed or not,” Cochran mentioned.
He feels good about the place he’s however understands that he has to always work at it. He talked to his sponsor for an hour the earlier night time and appears like he has the assist system in place now that he did not when earlier makes an attempt at sobriety failed whereas nonetheless teaching at Georgia.
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The CEO
With sobriety comes a new-look Cochran. Sitting throughout from him, Cochran is mellow, even barely soft-spoken at instances, in a manner one by no means might have imagined when seeing him hopping round Alabama practices and yelling on the high of his lungs. That fixed yelling, the necessity to all the time be filled with enthusiasm and spirit, is what bought him right here within the first place. He was yelling a lot it brought about tortuous migraines he could not ameliorate. He tried shoving his head in ice buckets and taking Tylenol however it was solely a quick respite from ache that would not go away. It wasn’t till a health care provider prescribed OxyContin that Cochran lastly felt freed from the ache’s intense grip on him.
Cochran’s story from there’s a acquainted one: His tolerance went up and he wanted increasingly more tablets to get reduction. As he ran by his prescriptions, he began sourcing tablets from drug sellers and blew by hundreds of {dollars} to maintain up with an habit that worsened each day. The habit pushed him to get bolder and fewer strident on the place he bought the tablets, leading to Cochran finally turning into hooked on fentanyl.
Now as a head coach, Cochran makes use of a microphone to save lots of his voice and keep away from the complications. There may be nonetheless loads of power from “Coach Yeah” however he envisions himself as a program CEO and would not should — and should not — be the person he was again at Alabama.
“I haven’t got to go on the market and placed on a present,” he says. “I can simply go on the market and coach. I haven’t got to be the juice man whereas I assumed previously they would not have juice if I did not carry it. I believed that; there is no manner they’re going to be prepared for apply until I’m.”
Because the dialog wraps up, Cochran grabs a Cowboy hat to guard his shaved head in opposition to the Alabama warmth and will get able to information his workforce by one other apply. He is calm as he begins the stroll to fulfill his workforce
Along with his workforce in shorts and shells, it wasn’t what he had deliberate for however in a small manner emblematic of the place he’s in life now. After an almost-deadly detour, Cochran is again the place he belongs, at peace together with his calling of serving to younger males.
Three noteworthy anecdotes from Cochran’s guide
With the garments on his again
Whereas working because the New Orleans Hornets’ assistant weight coach, Cochran bought tipped off that Saban was going to name him about becoming a member of his new Alabama workers. Saban instructed him he wished to interview him for his head energy coach place and to be in Tuscaloosa the next morning.
Just one downside for Cochran: All he had on him have been Hornets velour warm-up fits and the remainder of his garments have been in Oklahoma Metropolis after Hurricane Katrina displaced the workforce out of New Orleans. May he return to Oklahoma Metropolis and get some actual garments, Cochran requested Saban.
“I am not hiring you to be a f—— banker,” Saban instructed him. “Be right here within the morning.”
The remainder was historical past.
Rat poison
After Alabama misplaced to LSU within the “Recreation of the Century” in 2011, the Crimson Tide wanted assist to get into the BCS Championship Recreation. No. 1 Baylor dropping helped Alabama transfer as much as No. 3 within the rankings, however No. 2 Oklahoma State nonetheless stood within the Tide’s rematch with LSU.
That was till the No. 2 Cowboys misplaced to Iowa State in a wild double additional time sport Friday night time. When Oklahoma State misplaced and the trail opened up for Alabama, gamers wildly celebrated of their lodge the night time earlier than a sport in opposition to Georgia Southern.
Saban, sensing his workforce wanting forward of its opponent, unloaded on his workers that morning and did the identical for the workforce later that day.
“He went nuts, completely loopy on us,” Cochran wrote. “He instructed us we weren’t within the playoff but, and that we have been taking our eye off the ball. You identify it, he accused us of it.”
Not lengthy after Saban let everybody on the workforce have it, Cochran ran into Saban’s uncle, Sid Popovich, on the sector earlier than the sport.
Sid instructed Cochran: “Man, you must have seen Coach final night time. After Oklahoma State misplaced, oh my God! He was so blissful! He was standing on his chair; he was dancing. I’ve by no means seen him so blissful! It was the perfect. He was in such temper.”
If solely we might get footage of Saban dancing on a chair after Oklahoma State misplaced. However him turning off his inner emotions for the larger good is what made him so nice as a frontrunner. He additionally proved to be proper that Georgia Southern was to not be taken calmly because the opponent rushed for 302 yards in opposition to a protection that solely allowed 938 speeding yards all the season. Saban would later famously say “Georgia Southern ran by our protection like shit by a tin horn.”
Trapped between Saban and Sensible
Cochran confirms what I and others reported on the time: He was going to comply with Kirby Sensible to Athens again in 2016 earlier than Saban made him a proposal he could not refuse.
When Sensible, Alabama’s then-defensive coordinator, bought the Georgia job, he wished to carry Cochran with him as his energy and conditioning coach. Cochran was on board, writing that he “shook his hand and instructed him I might include him.” However he needed to finally name Kirby and renege on his promise after Saban’s supply got here by.
When Cochran finally left for Georgia in 2020, Saban wasn’t thrilled that his high lieutenant would go away for his largest competitors within the SEC.
“As soon as I instructed him I meant to depart, what Coach Saban noticed is that I meant to depart to go work for Alabama’s rival for SEC and nationwide supremacy. He held me to the buyout clause in my contract.”
Cochran owed Alabama $600,000 when he left, although his attorneys have been finally in a position to get that negotiated all the way down to $300,000. Cochran paid $100,000 of that earlier than Saban forgave the rest when his former right-hand man needed to take a go away of absence from Georgia to go to a rehab facility.
Cochran’s spouse, Cissy, known as Saban and instructed him they’d honor their buyout funds however requested for an extension so he might pay for rehab. The following day Saban known as Cochran and instructed him, “Hey, you have paid sufficient of the buyout. Get wholesome.”
