ATHENS – Georgia coach Kirby Smart didn’t say much about Scott Cochran’s absence in the extremely brief statement he released on Sunday. But the fact that he referenced both “health” and “mental health” in the two sentences he issued confirming the assistant coach’s absence is notable.
Ultimately, it means Cochran could be back.
Rumors circulated wildly this past weekend when observers noticed that the Bulldogs’ second-year special-teams coordinator was not present at the first two practices of preseason camp Friday and Saturday. The truth is, Cochran has been away from the Georgia football team since mid-July, persons with knowledge of the situation told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday. Even before Smart and the Bulldogs took their turn at SEC Media Days, Cochran was seeking outside help.
For that reason, it seems as though Georgia has a good handle on this situation. Former South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp, who has been working for the Bulldogs in a defensive analyst role since late January, has at least temporarily assumed Cochran’s roles on the team. In the meantime, tight ends coach Todd Hartley, receivers coach Cortez Hankton and defensive backfield coach Jahmile Addae will carry a heavier load of the on-field special teams work they already were doing.
But the possibility remains that Cochran could return before Bulldogs open the season against Clemson in the Dukes Mayo Classic on Sept. 4 in Charlotte (7:30 p.m., Channel 2 Action News). And that appears to be Cochran’s intention.
One of the keys to this being labeled a mental health-related absence is an individual’s health always can improve. Also, it’s protected.
All health issues, mental or physical, are federally protected by Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). A person can’t be fired because of a mental health condition unless it can be proven they can’t perform their job even after “reasonable accommodations” have been made, according to the EEOC website. That, of course, would include treatment.
Mental health, increasingly, has become a focus of UGA Athletics. Since 2017, the Bulldogs have employed a full time doctor of psychiatry, three clinical psychologists and two social workers. Lovie Tabron was named Georgia’s coordinator of behavorial medicine in 2017.
“It’s something we’ve been trying to put a great deal of emphasis on,” Georgia sports medicine director Ron Courson said after an athletic board of directors presentation on mental health support in 2018. “We’re excited about what we’ve done so far, but we’re really excited about what else we can do to get better.”
Courson said their mental health professionals treated 130 UGA athletes and had 895 individual “encounters” their first year. That did not count group meetings, which are held regularly for all 21 of Georgia’s teams.
Quarterback JT Daniels credits Georgia sports psychologist Drew Brannon for helping him through his transition from Southern Cal, where he’d suffered a season-ending knee injury and lost his starting job, to Georgia, where he was having to undergo an extensive recovery while buried on the depth chart.
During an appearance on the Marty & McGee Show while in Birmingham at SEC Media Days, Daniels told ESPN’s Ryan McGee and Marty Smith that he was in a poor mental state of mind when he arrived at UGA in June of 2020.
“I’d never been tested with adversity until I’d gotten to college,” Daniels said. “The first two years I was down on myself mentally. I was not doing great. But Drew Brannon, UGA sports psychologist, is a really close friend of mine now. He helped me a lot with my mental space. Coach Smart, too. A lot of people in this place really changed my life around for me to the point I was able to go in and really take advantage of an opportunity I was given.”
Daniels did not get a chance to play until the Bulldogs’ sixth game of last season. But Georgia went 4-0 in those last four games with Daniels passing for 307.8 yards a game with 10 touchdowns and just two interceptions.
“I had to reach out,” Daniels said of consulting a psychologist. “I was at a point where I had to reach out.”
Cochran reportedly has reached out for help, too. By all accounts, he’s now getting it.
He could be back.
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