I have no idea what sort of on-field coach Cochran will make, but I do know what sort of knee-capping that move represents for the ‘Bama program. Woo, boy.
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UPDATE: The sharks are already circling.
https://twitter.com/finebaum/status/1232029891400478729
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UPDATE #2: He’s being brought on to coach special teams.
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UPDATE #3: Sad face.
In the excellent HBO documentary aired last fall, Nick Saban and Bill Belichick spent time lamenting how their many, many assistants try to build their new operations by hiring away the foot soldiers that helped build the dynasties that catapulted the newly-hired head coaches into those jobs in the first place.
Get The Picture 
Lil’ Nicky won’t have time for this crap if it becomes reality.
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This is glorious.
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I’ve been mashing the refresh button on GTP for the last 5 mins. Thanks for being Johnny on the Spot, Senator.
I can’t help but think that he’s going to be one hellacious recruiter.
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“Holy Mother of Crap” INDEED!
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Tuscaloosa looking toward Athens: “that’s no moon”
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Woof.
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Exactly
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This is clearly a punch to the gut of the Bama program. Kirby wanted him in 2016, but I believe Saban increased his salary and made it possible for him to vest in the Alabama Retirement System.
He must have vested and told Saban sayonara.
F-bum should be priceless today.
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I think he became the first not-on-field coach got get over $500k/year.
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Yes and I’d have to Google but he was close to being fully vested or some other contract milestone. Kirby did get him a nice raise by trying to hire him.
He is a big part of the Bama program. He was sort of like Pitman, more critical and known in the program than the title alone would indicate.
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I believe the most important gear in the Alabama Dynesty. Way to go Kirby
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Really? The MOST important one ….
Nick Saban is still at Alabama and he doesn’t appear to leave Tuscaloosa for Athens.
However,, I am excited he is coming here but we need to keep things in perspective.
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Hell fucking yes.
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Cue the “we didn’t need him anyway/ good riddance/ it’s addition by subtraction / no more leg injuries,” BS from the Bama faithful in 3….2….1
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Oh, it’s better than that. Apparently, Nick’s been trying to engineer Cochran’s departure for over a year now.
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Senator browses the Rant!
What a legend.
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I think the “Kirby is a traitorous bastard that has the gall to challenge Saban” and “Whatever, 1980” crowds are more pervasive at the moment.
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Can’t wait to see our punt unit physically throwing Bama players around, all the while being undeniably onsides
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This comment made my day.
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Good Lord what a time to be a Georgia fan. I feel sorry for the people that can’t enjoy this ‘cause “no natty since 1980.”
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On the one hand, I’m excited for what he brings. On the other, I’ve never been a big fan of copying programs vs making your own path. Bama has always done a pretty good job of staying ahead of the curve and it’s won them a lot of titles. I’m not saying it’s bad because this off-season has been the exact opposite of the Georgia Way we’ve come to know for the last couple decades. We’ll be out of excuses before long.
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Two thoughts… the first person I thought of was Kevin Ramsey — but immediately shoved that out of my head because flashbacks — bringing in a guy who – while unquestionably superior at what he does – hasn’t done the thing you hired him to do (or am I wrong? Has SC coord special teams?) just to take a rival down a peg.
The second thought was — special teams is important and should be treated as such. Again, maybe he can coach it and has – I don’t know – but this on the surface looks like treating special teams as a balancing wheel and not an important facet of the game. And that on top of “hey we’ve got a new placekicker this year!” angst.
But, what? Me? Worry?
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I’m with you as I failed to mention my concern of having him as ST coordinator. Maybe it’s not all that difficult or maybe it’ll be a joint venture of some type. I’ll defer to Kirby, though, as he’s done little to show me that he makes bad staff decisions.
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I have the same concern. I’d think RB coach would be a better fit for a recruiter/motivator with limited on field experience.
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Cochran will have arguably the greatest college kicker to call on at almost any time in Kevin Butler. Throw in the fact he could probably give Drew a call to help Carmarda in a pinch.
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Staff coaching just hit another uptick….lead, follow or get out the way….
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Well, he has to have a title. And he has to be an on the field coach so that it isn’t a lateral move. I am guessing that he probably knows a little about ST, just because he has been at Bama for 12 consecutive years. I also think that he will have ultimate responsibility for ST, but that he will also have help, just like the S & C coach may be able to pick his brain about a few things. It is a coaching staff: everybody has responsibilities, but all pull in the same direction.
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I’m betting this is more of a move to knee-cap Bama than it is to get a special teams expert on staff. I don’t hate it, but Monken better be an ace when it comes to coaching QB’s. That said, I’m getting two full bags of popcorn and heading over to RBR tonight. Don’t let me down Gumps!
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The Bamastans coming out and saying this is no big deal because of the injuries the last two seasons are coming out strong for this news. They’re magnitudes louder than the, “Kirby is a traitorous, cheating mf-er.”
That’s how you know just how big a deal it is.
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“Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!”
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QUICK!! TAKE A PHOTO OF THE RECRUITING BOARD SCOTT!!!
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That doesn’t work anymore, because these days our recruiting board is the same as Alabama’s.
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Apparently it’s just a skosh better. Zing!
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This comment literally made me LOL.
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This is too much fun. Just when I think Kirby can’t surprise me anymore…Boom!
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He is THE master motivator on the Bama staff. Special teams can’t get so geeked up they blow assignments, but if I’m a special teams guy I bet I’m not going to want to let Cochran down and I bet the celebrations if they blow somebody up are going to be epic!
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Seems odd the nation’s #1 S&C coach for well over a decade would want to take a special teams OJT position. Not sure what to make of this other than to wish Cochran the best.
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Maybe he’s getting job security before the king retires ?
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Now that the last on-field coaching position is set, what do you do with Faulkner who took a pay cut to come here? This whole thing doesn’t make sense. Some help here would be appreciated Senator.
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Kirby doesn’t always tell me what he’s up to. 😉
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Quit lyin’ 🙂
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The subtraction from Tuscaloosa is undeniable.
But if Cochran were on-field quality, he’d have been there a loooooong time ago. Saban assistants move up and out by the bus load.
This is Kirby hiring a friend. Remove Tuscaloosa from the equation, and honestly, I would hate the hire.
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So he doesn’t make it on the field — his fallback is arguably the greatest S&T coach in the land. Regardless of Tuscaloosa — this is a GREAT hire!
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It’s true that Cochran’s on-field coaching is a complete mystery to us. Presumably he will be strong as a recruiter, we’ll see. We lost a substantial amount of recruiting firepower when we lost Coley, so maybe this is partially to recoup that.
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re: Update #3
Let me break out the world’s smallest violin for poor, poor Nick.
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I think that Cochran and Smart must know something about how long Saban plans to stay at Alabama.
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SIC ‘EM, Kirbs! woof woof woof!
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It certainly looks like Cochran with be the ST coordinator. Let’s not forget, however, that Hartley was also the ST coach while he was at Miami. I expect he’ll still be involved too.
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Man, what a lede from Aaron Suttles/Seth Emerson in the Athletic:
“If Georgia’s 2018 recruiting class was the blockade in the first signs of hostility between Alabama and Georgia and the hard-fought matchups in the 2017 College Football Playoff national championship game and 2018 SEC title game were shots across the bow at Alabama’s decade-long run of dominance, then Monday afternoon was a 42-pound cannonball slamming into the side of the S.S. Crimson Tide.”
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Well according to all the Bama fans, the man that they have billed as second only to Saban in importance suddenly was “good riddance” the moment he decided to leave. Funny how yesterday he was a genius in Tuscaloosa and today he is behind the times and it was time for new blood.
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Like any Georgia fan, I certainly hope this works out well. As an observer trying to be objective, I am not a fan. I find this confusing for multiple reasons. Of course, if it trips the Tide fans’ paranoia switch, it isn’t all bad!
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The guy has been around arguably the best coach in college football so I suspect he knows how to coach. Pretty sure he was on the field observing at every practice. I’m excited – Kirby keeps stalking the giants armed with more than a slingshot.
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For all you guys talking about how this doesn’t make sense, do you think it’s barely possible that we don’t know all there is to know here and Kirby likely wants it that way? Kirby knows what he’s doing.
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Thank you !!
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There is potential for egos to clash in the weight room and in special teams personnel decisions….at least Kirby knows what he is dealing with beforehand.
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Based on what?
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Georgia’s S&C program is already well-established and successful. Cochran’s S&C reputation is stellar but that’s not his role here.
Special teams coaches don’t often get first dibs on personnel when dealing with the other coordinators and position coaches. Cochran will have to make the adjustment from being the top-dog to being the new-dawg.
It’s a necessary adjustment if the career goal is to become a head coach, but it’s not easy on the ego.
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I get what you’re saying but I think that has an icicle’s chance in hell of happening. I’m of the opinion that an ego clash between the ST coach and another coach on the staff is a worse case scenario that has about a 0.0001% chance of actually happening. But even if it does happen, I’d imagine it would be even less likely to have any lasting effects on the team/staff. The more likely occurrence would be a situation where two coaches have a blowout argument that ends the day that it happened. Cochran has been under Saban for more than a decade and everyone knows that his staff takes his word as gospel. He doesn’t have time for that shit. So for one of his longest tenured disciples to have a ego problem that he can’t keep in check and act like a professional seems far fetched. I get that it’s a new environment, in a new position, with new co-workers, and all of them definitely have some sort of ego. But these guys are professionals getting paid at least 6 figure salaries and they all have an unquestioned leader at the top. Kirby doesn’t have time for that shit either and he knows Cochran really well so I believe Cochran will have no problem falling in line just like he has for the past 12+ years. Not to mention the fact that Kirby has demonstrated he doesn’t have any reservations when it comes to playing the best players on ST’s. So that scenario, in which you laid out where their egos clash due to who is allowed to play on ST’s, doesn’t hold water.
The bigger concern is how good of an on the field coach is Cochran? I don’t have the slightest clue as to how that’s going to work out but I do have faith in Kirby. So I’m excited to see what this hire brings to the program.
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around bama football for 12yrs, running the offseason program all the while, great motivator with tons of resources at his new digs, kinda think this is a home run.
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