Scott Cochran on working so well with Nick Saban: ‘It’s like firing the perfect bullet’
For years - and a two different major college football programs - where Nick Saban was, so was Scott Cochran.
West Alabama coach Cochran, Saban’s former strength and conditioning coach, was, at times, bigger than life. Perhaps even bigger than Saban.
How did the two co-exist?
“I think it’s through trial and error,” Cochran told The Beat Everybody podcast.
Cochran started as a volunteer at LSU under Saban, then as a graduate assistant before graduating to assistant coach.
“I think he kind of got to see me grow up,” Cochran said of Saban. ... The first two years (at Alabama), I felt liek it was a boot camp. He was training me to learn his standard, to learn the way he weants it exactly done."
Cochran credits that mentality for Saban’s success.
“I never had to worry about what the offensive coordinator was doing, what the wide receivers coach was doing.
“I didn’t have to worry about those guys because coach Saban had a standard for them also.”
In short, Cochran could do his job without worrying if everybody else did their jobs.
“In my mind, I was just another voice for him,” Cochran explained. “If I knew the message before he gave it, I could teach the players over and over and over again. It’s like firing the perfect bullet, and it’s gonna hit some kids dead and they’re gonna catch it right away.
“But other kids are gonna be like, ‘I don’t know if I can buy into that.’ My job was to fire the same bullet, just another way.”
