“I need burst!”
University Of Alabama Football Coaches
Scott Cochran yells, “I need buuurrrrrssst!”
It’s a little past 6:30 a.m. on the green practice fields of the University of Alabama, and the assistant athletic director for strength and conditioning is a walking-talking-bouncing verb of a man to the 100-plus players he’s directing through a series of drills and sprints.
It's safe to say Crimson Tide fans let out a collective sigh of relief when quarterback Tua Tagovailoa returned to the football field to help Alabama beat the University of Oklahoma in the Capital. 1 University of Alabama football team scored 28 first-quarter points on the way to a 58-21 win over Tennessee at Neyland Stadium Saturday afternoon. It was the Crimson Tide's most points ever against the Volunteers. The victory also gave Alabama its 12th-consecutive win over the Vols, the longest streak in series history.
He butt-slaps, shoulder-bumps, chest-pounds, growls, curses, challenges, inspires, and wakes up the defending national champs with his workouts and his words.
“Make it happen now!”
“That line means something! That line means something!”
Related: 20 Ways to Stick To Your Workout
“Somebody’s gotta get in the end zone right here, right now!”
“This is the separation game. Separates the men from the. . .”
But instead of the b-word that would normally follow, the 37-year-old Cochran opts for another b-word as the team darts down the field for another sprint.
Cochran has been at Alabama since 2007, but it’s only during the past few years that cameras have zeroed in on him for his high-energy sideline show and for being, in the words of players and coaches alike, “The Man.”
This is the man who’s credited with honing muscle and motivation in a team that’s won four national titles in the past seven years.
The man whose voice has the thunder of a fighter jet and the tone of a blender.
The man whose salary is north of $500,000—more than many NCAA head football coaches earn. Armstrong piccolo serial number lookup.
The man who once rubbed Icy Hot all over his body to fire himself up, literally—and fire up the rest of his team in the process. (“A little dab’ll do ya. The armpit is a beast,” he says.)
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This is the foreman of the Alabama muscle factory, a position he holds not because of any unique approach to fitness but because he knows how to push the right buttons of college kids as young as 18 who are expected to perform at a championship level all day, every day.
“We’re basically doing the same program we’ve been doing for a long, long time,” says head coach Nick Saban, who’s in his 10th year at Alabama.
“It’s someone’s ability to effectively implement the plan with the players that separates the really good guys from the just-okay guys. Scott’s really, really good at that.”
GIACOMO FORTUNATO
“Make today count. Get your mind right! Hate me now, thank me later. Light that fire. Let’s roll!” —ALABAMA STRENGTH COACH SCOTT COCHRAN
In the weight room later that day, Cochran leads the group through a lift while another group of several hundred cheerleaders from out of town are doing their thing next door.
He’s louder than them all, hollering at the guys when they don’t do something right and celebrating them when they do. He meets with some players in his office. He sends them all motivational videos about excellence. Ultimately, Cochran tries to spend individual time with his players. He wants to know about their problems and their lives.
The training challenge comes because every player is different. Some need to gain weight; others need to lose it. They all need to be more explosive.
Related: Fitter, Faster, More Explosive: The Shrednado Workout
Many have psychological hurdles they’ve never had to deal with—like being in the best condition of their lives yet maybe never seeing the field because the Bama roster is stuffed with high school All-Americans.
The strength coach is one of the most important roles on a collegiate staff. He has more contact with players than anyone else because of NCAA regulations imposed on other coaches during the off-season.
He’s with them in summer, though workouts are limited. (Alabama does four runs and three lifts a week.)
Cochran works with a cadre of athletic trainers and nutritionists to prepare the players for competition. But he would argue that while conditioning is about putting on the armor to ready their bodies for football, it’s not all about the reps, sets, and moves.
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True to his more-poet-than-scientist persona, Cochran offers a seemingly random anecdote that helped him gain perspective.
He recalls hearing that when former Alabama receiver Amari Cooper signed with the Oakland Raiders, he had to rely on public transport because he couldn’t rent a car until he was 25.
“I looked into it and found the brain isn’t really fully developed until the age of 25,” he says.
“They’re still young and they make mistakes. We’re here to help them learn from those mistakes. The players already have the thought that they want to be great, but what does that even look like?”
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What he’s learned is that pushing buttons boils down to trust. “You’ve got to know who you’re talking to. I have to know them to help them if they’re fighting injury or dealing with personal problems,” he says.
Cochran makes sure the players know him and realize that what he’s doing is in their best interest.
“They’re all trying to get somewhere because they love the sport,” he says. “A lot of times they haven’t seen a male figure in their lives consistently. When they see the consistency that Coach Saban and I bring every single day, they thrive off it.”
Because the guys talk to Cochran about their physical and mental struggles, they trust those “push it” screams on the field and in the weight room.
They understand that those exhortations come not from some rah-rah motivational book but from having a genuine relationship.
“It’s the intangibles: effort, mental toughness, being responsible for doing what you need to do,” Saban says.
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“It does require a tremendous amount of physical conditioning to sustain those things. People loaf when they’re tired. Fatigue makes cowards of us all. That’s Vince Lombardi’s saying.”
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Cochran, who learned his craft at Louisiana State and with the New Orleans Hornets, says when he was about 10 he told his father he wanted to go into strength coaching.
He’d seen a Michael Jordan interview about what it takes for a team to achieve goals, and he said he wanted to help athletes do that. But Cochran’s brothers were all physical therapists and he figured he’d be one too.
His dad, though, said no: “You’re going to volunteer at the high school because you told me that you wanted to do this and you haven’t even tried it yet.”
It wasn’t long before Cochran was hooked.
He says, “I saw a kid doing a power clean wrong and it drove me up the wall.”
The players have responded.
When 6 a.m. rolls around, Cochran is their set of jumper cables.
“Man, this guy is always into it. Autocad 2010 ita crackers online. He’s always intense,” says O.J. Howard, a tight end who has packed on some 30 pounds of muscle during his time at Alabama.
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While ultimately Cochran oversees the plans that get players bigger, faster, and stronger, the details of how they do it are less important than getting them to believe they can do it.
“There’s no magic,” Cochran says. “It takes what it takes.”
THE MUSCLE METHODOLOGY
The King-of-the-Beasts Warmup
“Have you ever seen a lion grab a band and stretch before he gets up and chases a gazelle?” Cochran asks. “Hell no, son.” They just do enough to get the body ready to move. After all, you do need a little to get going. Moves that mimic the exercise at a lower intensity for 3 minutes prepare your muscles to roar.
The Most Important Muscle Builder
The bench press is the glamour lift, but it’s all about the glutes for these guys. Glutes bring strength, speed, power, and more. That’s why they do back squats—one day of light weights (5 sets of 10, 8, 6, 4, and 2 reps) and one heavy day (5 sets of 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 rep). “Little ass, unemployment line. Big ass, big paycheck.”
How to Hit the Wall and Keep Going
To build stamina and the will to push past fatigue, the players do 16 sprints (110 yards each) with a 45-second rest. “Number nine is harder than 15,” says tight end O.J. Howard. “When you get that second wind, you need to know what it feels like. That way when you hit the wall, you know what it feels like to get past it.”
Will You Get Hurt? A 30-Second Test
The coaches use GPS data and detailed metrics to evaluate the players, but they also use a 30-second single-leg wall sit. “The inability to hold a single-leg wall sit—or a discrepancy between right and left leg—for 30 seconds reveals an increased risk of soft-tissue injury,” says head athletic trainer Jeff Allen.
GIACOMO FORTUNATO
The Fantastic Four
These four players exemplify the program’s transformational power
GIACOMO FORTUNATO
PACK ON NEW MUSCLE
O.J. Howard came to Alabama hungry—for knowledge and to add muscle. It’s taken the 6'6' tight end four years to bulk up from 220 to 250 pounds. His lifts in the gym mimic his role on the field. “Every time I power clean, I think about going up to catch the ball,” he says.
Put nutrition first.
Howard eats five times a day — “good things, like steak, salmon, and potatoes.” He supplements with three protein shakes.
Work your legs more.
“You’ve got to attack the legs,” Cochran says. Twice a week, the squad does lots of power cleans and back squats.
Sprint stadium stairs.
He does short snakes—sprinting up a short side and jogging down. Those five seconds of explosive power lead to gains.
GIACOMO FORTUNATO
“I’m not the tallest or biggest or strongest,” says Dalvin Tomlinson, a 6’3”, 305-pound defensive lineman. “Somebody’s always going to be stronger or faster.” That’s why technique is so important. For Tomlinson, improving technique means generating lights-out power.
Perfect the power clean.
Work with a trainer to master this Olympic lift. It requires you to focus on technique, which eventually leads to strength gains.
Master the clapping pushup.
This move helps integrate power training into a strength builder. The big guys do 3 sets of 10; skill guys do 3 sets of 20.
Have a jammer session.
The team uses a jammer machine—a total-body thrust—because it requires simpler technique than an Olympic lift.
GIACOMO FORTUNATO
A quarterback in high school, ArDarius Stewart switched to receiver at Alabama. The 6’1”, 200-pound junior added about 15 pounds of muscle and now boasts a faster time in the 40-yard dash. In the SEC, the “littles” have to balance strength and speed.
Add resistance to moves.
He does three rounds of pullups, the first two with a weight vest to failure. The third is with no vest. His target: 50 reps.
Box-jumpstart for speed.
Spark fast-twitch muscles with box jumps. In spring, players do 5 descending sets (5 reps, then 4, 3, 2, 1) from a 28”-to-48” box.
Hop to it.
In the rabbit drill, players face each other in pairs; the rabbit side-shuffles and jukes; the other player mirrors him.
GIACOMO FORTUNATO
In high school, Da’Ron Payne weighed about 345 pounds. The 6’2” defensive lineman now plays around 310. The biggest changes came in his diet. He replaced the junk with real food. “When I left the house, my momma and my grandma weren’t cooking for me,” he says.
Redefine “rest time.”
When guys have to lose weight, Cochran has them jump rope between weightlifting sets. Most guys can do 100 reps.
Do more cardio.
Guys will walk, bike, or swim. The key is finding an activity that is low-impact. That’s why swimming is so popular.
Calibrate your eating.
Everyone lifts, no matter what. The weight gainers eat 8,000 calories a day while the maintainers stick to 4,000.
Cochran vital to Tide in leading 'fourth-quarter program'
Published on Dothan Eagle - Alabama Sports | shared via feedlyAlabama football players work under the constant glare of Nick Saban and his coaching staff for one month in the spring and from August through the end of the season. The rest of the year, they work under strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran, who oversees and administers the offseason conditioning and lifting regimen that Alabama calls the “fourth-quarter program.”
Players often call it something else, particularly when they are gasping for breath. Perhaps that is why the Crimson Tide’s first spring practice Friday was, according to Saban, linebacker Nico Johnson and tight end Michael Williams, so sharp.
“It was kind of a relief,” said Johnson, the rising senior from Andalusia. “I mean, we’ve been going through the fourth-quarter program for about a month almost, just doing a lot of running. Just to get back to going through some plays, being around the coaches and just getting back into the whole football thing, it was exciting.” Williams, the rising senior from Reform, was a bit more direct.
“Once you go through fourth quarter, you’re ready to just see a football,” Williams said. “Fourth quarter is probably the worst thing you’ll ever do in your life. It’s terrible.”
“It was kind of a relief,” said Johnson, the rising senior from Andalusia. “I mean, we’ve been going through the fourth-quarter program for about a month almost, just doing a lot of running. Just to get back to going through some plays, being around the coaches and just getting back into the whole football thing, it was exciting.” Williams, the rising senior from Reform, was a bit more direct.
“Once you go through fourth quarter, you’re ready to just see a football,” Williams said. “Fourth quarter is probably the worst thing you’ll ever do in your life. It’s terrible.”