Scott Cochran has been through the worst of it and come out stronger on the other side. A former strength coach for LSU, Alabama and Georgia, he was on top of the world from the outside while winning a total of eight national championships at those three stops.
But behind closed doors, he was battling some powerful demons. Cochran developed an addiction to pain killers that slowly grew over the years to the point that he stepped down from Georgia in 2023. At the height of his addiction, he was snorting 50 pills per day according to ESPN’s Marty Smith.
“I was the worst of the worst addicts,” Cochran told Smith in a recent feature story. “I was down deep in that dark, dark, dark, embarrassing place. But you don’t have to stay there. Recovery is real.”
Cochran was known for his energy and enthusiam at Alabama and Georgia, earning the nickname “Coach Yeah” for how often he yelled. But that yelling took a physical toll on him as he started to develop migraines.
Doctors first prescribed him blood thinners before moving him up to Vicodin after they proved ineffective. But after the Vicodin also wasn’t helping to relieve his migraines, they prescribed him OxyContin. Despite knowing about the risk for addicition, he didn’t think anything of it, figuring he’d be fine.
“I’m not gonna get addicted to something,” he recalled thinking. “Come on. I’m winning. I’m winning everything. I’m financially successful. Life is too good for something like that. So I’ll be fine. …Sure enough, I had to get more and more and more. By the time 2020 comes I’m like, ‘OK, I gotta put this down. I gotta stop.’”
Scott Cochran left Alabama in 2019 to join Kirby Smart‘s staff at Georgia. However, the 2020 pandemic that caused a shortened college football season took a toll on him.
The coach began to double the number of pills he was taking on a daily basis. Up to this point, he had been able to keep it a secret from everyone, including his wife, Cissy. But one day, she came home to find him slumped over and not responding. He had overdosed.
“He was doing video work upstairs and I found him and he was kind of slumped over just not really responsive,” Cissy said. “So I tried to kind of like rouse him up and I couldn’t get him. Then I called 911.”
Doctors were able to save Cochran’s life and now he had to face his addiction with honesty. He went to a rehab center in Massachusetts for 28 days but still did not tell anyone at Georgia.
Coachran wanted to believe that he could still get past this mostly behind closed doors. Two months later he was back on the pills.
Things only began to get worse than they were before. Because he was not able to get a prescription for OxyContin anymore, Cochran began to go through drug dealers to buy Fentanyl, an opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.
In July of 2021, Cochran returned to rehab and was advised to stay for 100 days. This time, he was forced to come clean to Smart.
“I called Kirby and he was blown away. Like, ‘What?’” Cochran said. “I was like, ‘Yeah. I’ve been having this problem and I need real help this time.’ I said, ‘You hired a drug addict.’”
Gerogia allowed Cochran to stay on staff and he seemed to find positive momentum from his second stint in rehab. He was clean by the 2022 season and his sobriety continued into 2023.
However, before Georgia was set to play in the Orange Bowl in December of 2023, Cissy began to see some worrying signs from her husband again. She pulled him aside and sent him a stern message.
“My wife grabbed me at the bowl game,” Cochran said. “Literally grabbed my face and said, ‘I know you are struggling. This can be our last football game.’”
Scott Cochran resigned from Georgia following the 2023 season to focus on his sobriety. He began speaking at football programs around the country to share his story.
Giving back and sharing his message also ended up being a powerful tool for helping him stay sober. Nearly a year after he had left Georgia, he began to think about getting back into coaching.
Cochran was then caught by surprise when he received a call from West Alabama, a Division II school in Livingston, Alabama. The school wanted him to be its next head coach.
Cochran had never been a head coach on any level before, but this opportunity spoke to him. He looked at it as an opportunity to further spread his positive message while also getting back to doing what he loves.
The coach was also struck by how willing West Alabama was to bring him on in spite of knowing of his past. That belief in him also affirmed his belief in himself, and he accepted the job. Now after going through the dark, he is ready to share his light.
“They knew about my addiction,” Cochran said. “They knew I was in recovery. They were not ashamed of that. So there was no shame in hiring me. They took a chance on me, so I’m gonna give them my best.”
