Texas A&M Football: Aggies Hire Mark Hocke As New Strength Coach
It didn’t take Coach Kevin Sumlin long to find his new strength coach. On Wednesday he hired current FSU assistant, and former Alabama staff member, Mark Hocke.
The Texas A&M football team put a job posting online last week for a new strength and conditioning coach. That was all the warning that fans got that the current staff was looking to move on from Mark Jackson. By all accounts Jackson hadn’t done a bad job, but after several seasons that waned in November it was time to make a change.
Hocke served under current Alabama strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran. Cochran has been at Alabama since 2007 and was a member of Nick Saban’s staff in LSU as well. Many Alabama assistants have come and gone, but Cochran has been a staple for one of the most successful programs in college football for a decade.
When Kirby Smart took the head coaching job at Georgia he brought Hocke, Cochran’s former Co-associate Football Strength and Conditioning Coach with him. For whatever reason that didn’t work out and Hocke moved to to Florida State after one season with the Bulldogs. He must not have been too comfortable in Tallahasee because the university still has his named spelled incorrectly in their staff directory.
When the news came out that the Aggies were looking to find a new strength coach I jokingly suggested the should hire someone from Alabama. Turns out that jest became reality. If you can’t beat them, hire them? Just ask John Chavis.
Did Hocke see the posting online and apply like the rest of us average joes do? Who knows. What does matter is that the Aggies have another reason to be optimistic for the 2017 season. Will a new strength coach translate directly into more wins in November? Probably not. But it can’t hurt.
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