Georgia Football is replacing another coach this offseason. It was announced on Wednesday that. Scott Cochran is leaving his position as Georgia’s special teams coordinator to pursue other opportunities. Kirk Benedict, who has been on staff as a special teams analyst for the past two seasons, will now be the special teams coordinator.
Georgia announces special teams coordinator Scott Cochran & analyst Darrell Dickey have resigned to pursue other opportunities.
— SEC Mike (@MichaelWBratton) February 14, 2024
Kirk Benedict, who has served on Kirby Smart’s staff as special teams analyst the last two seasons, will be promoted to special teams coordinator.
Cochran was hired by Smart in 2020 to serve as the special teams coordinator. Cochran was one of the more prominent strength and conditioning coaches in college football when he was at Alabama. But Cochran wanted to be more involved with on-field, and Smart gave him the opportunity that Saban could not.
Later that summer, in August, it was announced that Cochran would take time away from the football program. This led to Will Muchcamp going from analyst to co-defensive and special teams coordinator. Cochran rejoined the Dawgs in October of 2021 and helped bring back-to-back national championships to Athens.
Cochran has been open about his battle with addictions and has even posted a few times on social media about his sobriety.
Proud to be 1 year sober. This one means a lil more than the rings pic.twitter.com/rgP08fpxFj
— Scott Cochran (@CoachYeah) July 4, 2022
I sat on this story for a few days because it is odd that a coach, especially someone of Cochran's stature, would leave in the middle of February. I thought that more of the story would come out about why he was leaving or what caused him to leave. But, as of Friday afternoon, there has been little information about the subject matter.
Fair or unfair, this has led me to speculate why Cochran left the Georgia program seemingly out of the blue. When I initially saw the news of Cochran leaving, I assumed it was health-related. It is not a far jump to make that conclusion.
But when I met with the boys at the coffee shop, they said that Cochran could have left because, for whatever reason, his role just did not work out for him. Which given the fact Cochran did not have a job right after leaving Georgia, it made me think there was some validity to that theory. But again, this is all pure speculation on my part.
Whatever the reason for Cochran leaving, he is a great coach. Look at all the championship teams he has been a part of, and tell me he is not a valuable assist! I would find it hard to believe this is the last we will hear from Cochran, and he will be back in coaching in the near future.