Former UGA assistant football coach Scott Cochran reveals battle with addiction

He has joined with fellow addiction survivor and Georgia political veteran Jeff Breedlove to launch a new recovery advocacy organization. It is based in Georgia, but with national ambitions.

Cochran and Breedlove spoke exclusively to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as they headed to meet with members of Congress in Washington, D.C., early Thursday morning to rally support, make connections and raise money for their venture. This article is based on their account.

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Their organization, called the American Addiction Recovery Association, or AARA, has some initial donor funding and aims to amplify the voices of addiction survivors and their families, something Breedlove said hasn't been done before on a national level. The organization will advocate for better private sector addiction recovery programs and funding for addiction recovery.

That's not what Cochran thought he would do in Georgia. In fact, Cochran said the reason he left Alabama after 13 years as Nick Saban's head strength and conditioning coach was to leave his addiction behind. He arrived in Athens in February 2020.

Pandemic plot twist

Cochran's addiction had been a long time in the making. Even before taking a job with the Alabama Crimson Tide football program in 2007, Cochran was taking painkillers to combat crushing migraines. Nothing helped; he pushed for more and better drugs, and eventually doctors gave him opiates. And then those with higher strength. In 2015, he started crushing and snorting them to get them into his bloodstream faster. At his level in football, people didn't seem to question him or see that he had a problem. Eventually he started getting his drugs off the streets.

In 2020, Cochran wanted to kick his addiction. It was expensive and he was tired of it. So he accepted an offer from UGA's coach Kirby Smart. reporters from Alabama wrote that Cochran's loss to Georgia stunned the Alabama fan base. Forbes wrote it could be the historic event that puts Nick Sabans' dynasty in jeopardy.

For Cochran, though, it was a chance to leave all that stuff behind.

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But almost immediately after he arrived in Georgia, the pandemic shut everything down.

That spring, he didn't recruit players face-to-face as he thought he would, or with teammates in an office in Athens. Instead, he found himself back in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, trying to sell his house. Back around his old contacts, and use them again.

When he collapsed and Cissy discovered the truth about an addiction that had by then lasted more than a decade, they decided he would go to a rehabilitation center in Massachusetts founded by a friend, former basketball star Chris Herren.

Cochran kept the secret even from his colleagues and continued to work. He held recruiting meetings with players via FaceTime from his rehab room, with the background blurred so they wouldn't see his surroundings. He wasn't allowed to lock the door to his room, so he placed a do-not-disturb sign outside.

The ruse worked because students and staff were all barred from campus due to COVID-19. UGA employees believed he was working virtually from Tuscaloosa.

He spent his 28 days in the facility and came home still only himself and his wife aware. Pandemic restrictions were lifted and the family moved to Athens. In September 2020, with the Bulldogs logo in the background behind him, he gave a virtual press conference.

The recruitment was crazy because I expected to hit the road, he told reporters.

But for me, I think what I bring is what I've always brought: I'm going to be real, he said. There's no other way to say it.

In fact, he was already using again. After my recovery I lasted about two months, he says now.

Cochran coached through the 2020 football season. That's when he told his wife he had to go back to rehab. He says he fooled himself, thinking he just needed a 10-day refresher course. Then he got the results of his drug test upon admission: It's not Adderall, it's not Percocet, it's 100% all fentanyl in my system, he said. And they said, Hey, you're going to die. And I thought, okay, what do I do?

They say, let's call Kirby and tell him what's going on so you can get real help.

Breaking down

Cochran says he burst into tears twice in his years of conversations with Smart. Once, when he first turned down Smart's request for Cochran to come to Georgia, because he knew Smart needed him then. He cried again during that June 30, 2021, phone call to Smart.

I literally said the words: I am a drug addict. And you could just hear the air coming out of his voice.

And I started to get emotional. I said, I've been fighting this for a long time.

Cochran would not make it to the start of the season on August 1. Smart's response was to ask if his family was okay, to tell him to do what he had to do. Smart later flew to the rehabilitation center in Seekonk, Massachusetts, to check on him, Cochran said.

That second time in rehab was different. His absence was public, an official leave of absence. Will Muschamp was there to perform his duties. UGA and Smart told Bulldog Nation that Cochran was dealing with some health issues.

UGA announced his return as a special teams analyst in October.

That time the recovery took longer; Cochran made it over two years. He posted his sobriety medal on social media.

Smart said that Supporting Cochran during his struggle was the first time he had to do so as a leader of an organization.

A few months later, in the 2023 season, Cochran relapsed. But this time he had security around him. His wife noticed something was wrong and cried out. He called a rehab clinic in Athens and said, I need help. They immediately offered him a spot, but he said he wanted to finish the season. He went to the local rehab facility in January.

Something had come to a head. The team had missed out on the College Football Playoffs and a chance at a third straight national championship that year. When UGA ended its season in Miami in the Orange Bowl in December 2023, my wife literally grabbed me… and said, “I don't know if you're using. But I know you're having a hard time. It's okay if this is our last football game.

And a kind of burden was lifted from me.

The conversation with Smart was more difficult. He felt like a failure. Feelings like shame and stigma are something he works through. He hopes to help others fight the idea of ​​stigma with AARA. For starters, he doesn't say addict anymore; it is a person, either in recovery or in active addiction. The AJC reached out to Smart to confirm Cochran's story, but he did not respond by deadline.

Cochran believes God helped him in those moments with his wife, with Smart, with others who lifted burdens or made unexpected calls that gave him space to change.

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The news of his dismissal became public at the beginning of this year on February 14 and caused a lot of headlines in the sports news. Smart issued a short statement wishing him well. Cochran thought he would somehow move into the recovery room full-time.

About a month later, he was one of the featured speakers at a recovery event when he met Breedlove. They talked in a parking lot afterward. Breedlove was unaware Cochran had resigned and said he was shocked by the news. And he saw an opportunity.

Breedlove was a well-known political campaigner and staffer in Republican circles, working for officials such as former Congressman Bob Barr and former Georgia Governor Nathan Deal. He had started abusing crack cocaine at the age of 20 and continued to do so in secret. He was fired and hired for new jobs. When he was arrested with a crack dealer in 2016, it all came out.

Breedlove said he has been in recovery for the past seven years. Now a well-known counselor and lobbyist for addiction recovery, he started talking to Cochran about filling a gap he saw in the world of recovery advocacy.

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Cochran is president of AARA and Breedlove is CEO. They have already raised some seed money and are in the early stages of raising more money. Their staff consists of people in recovery and family members of people with addiction, Democrats and Republicans. They are registered as a nonprofit and are planning a public launch event on June 26 at the Georgia Capitol.

The emotions that exist between addiction survivors and their families run deep, Breedlove says. Science can trace addiction back to childhood trauma within families. Families have had to deal with the lies and abuse that comes with addiction. Breedlove says he's seen these divisions play out in legislative discussions, such as when family members argue for mandatory minimum sentences, but addiction survivors say it would be counterproductive. Breedlove hopes he and Cochran can help unite members of both camps.

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More than that, they hope to change the culture of businesses, houses of worship and other non-governmental institutions so that they are open to recovery assistance.

Cochran says he can't wait. He is famously energetic. And this is evident from his interview about the new company.

He and Breedlove had to end their interview with a reporter to rush to rallies on Capitol Hill, starting with U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia. Next would be Sen. Katie Britt, R-Alabama.

“I am more excited about our mission at AARA than I was when Coach Saban called me in 2007 to be his strength coach at Alabama,” he said. We would stand up straight instead of stooping. Instead of living in fear and manipulation, we would stand our ground. And we started wearing recovery as a badge of honor.

We came together as a group across the country to say, Hey, recovery is real.

AJC staff writer Chip Towers contributed to this story.