Alabama has moved quickly in replacing longtime strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran by reaching an agreement with Indiana‘s David Ballou, it was announced Tuesday.
Cochran, who had been Alabama’s strength coach under Nick Saban since Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa in 2007, left last week to join Georgia’s staff as its special teams coach.
Ballou, who played fullback at Indiana, has been the director of athletic performance for the Hoosiers’ football team the past two seasons. Prior to joining the Indiana staff, Ballou was the Notre Dame co-director of strength and conditioning for the 2017 season and also had stops at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, and Avon High School in Avon, Indiana. He was the head strength and conditioning coach at Avon High for 14 years.
“Player development is my passion” Ballou said. “We can’t wait to get to Tuscaloosa and begin working with some of the best athletes and football players in the nation. We will attack all avenues of performance to make sure we are optimizing the physical abilities of every player on the roster.”
Dr. Matt Rhea, Indiana’s athletic performance coach, will join Ballou at Alabama.
“Just as with any other area, we feel that it is imperative that we adopt and integrate advancements in the field of strength and conditioning that will provide elite training, while better protecting our players from injuries and helping them develop and perform at a higher level,” Saban said. “Our program has been working toward these type of advancements with the development and construction of our own sports science center, and with the addition of David and Matt, we believe our student-athletes will be better equipped to reach their goals for many years to come.”
Saban told ESPN last week that he planned to conduct a nationwide search for Cochran’s replacement and was confident that Alabama’s new sports science center, scheduled to open this fall, would help attract some of the top candidates in the country.
Ballou and Rhea will work closely with Alabama head athletic trainer Jeff Allen, who is the lone remaining football staff member who came with Saban to Alabama in 2007.