It all started to fade when Scott Cochran left.

How many quaterbacks ran over our defense when he was there?

How many times did you see our defense get trucked by a qb last night?

We are weak.

When Scott Cochran ran Alabama’s strength program, the entire identity of the team came from the weight room. He built offensive and defensive linemen who were as close to factory-made first rounders as college football has ever seen. During his time, Alabama produced seven first round offensive linemen: Andre Smith, James Carpenter, Chance Warmack, D. J. Fluker, Ryan Kelly, Jonah Williams, and Jedrick Wills. On the defensive side, he turned out four more first rounders in Marcell Dareus, Jonathan Allen, Da’Ron Payne, and Quinnen Williams. That is eleven trench players in twelve years. Those guys weren’t just talented recruits. They were physically transformed. Cochran’s room emphasized raw power, heavy lower-body strength, violent explosiveness, and the mental edge that comes from being pushed past your limits. That is why Alabama could run the ball whenever it wanted and why the defense could suffocate opponents at the line of scrimmage.

When Cochran left and the sports-science model replaced him, the difference showed up almost immediately. The training became quieter and more clinical, built around load management, speed tracking, and injury reduction. The players looked faster, but they did not look or play like the old Alabama bullies. And the NFL draft exposed the truth. Since Cochran walked out the door, Alabama has produced only one first round offensive lineman, Evan Neal, and he was recruited during Cochran’s tenure. There has not been a single true defensive lineman drafted in the first round who developed entirely under the new system. The assembly line that once produced monsters simply stopped.

That is why the program’s physical identity faded. You cannot bluff the line of scrimmage. You cannot out-scheme being unable to move another man. Cochran’s Alabama lived off that power. His teams controlled the because they controlled the trenches. Once he was gone, so was the force that created those players, and the draft numbers make the whole story hard to deny.