Georgia coach Kirby Smart has a couple openings on his football staff this week following resignations Wednesday from special teams coordinator Scott Cochran and offensive analyst Darrell Dickey, the school announced. Dawgs247 reports Cochran is leaving to pursue other opportunities and Georgia is promoting special teams analyst Kirk Benedict to the same role.
Dickey, who served as Texas A&M’s offensive coordinator under Jimbo Fisher prior to his one season in Athens, also resigned. Cochran spent more than a decade on Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama as the Crimson Tide’s strength coach — and nine total years alongside Smart, who was on defense — before arriving between the hedges ahead of the 2020 season.
Smart said in a statement released by the school that he “wished them all the best moving forward” in their respective careers.
The Scott Cochran departure seemed to come out of left field, and it remains to be seen what the former Alabama strength coach will do next,” Dawgs247 insider Jordan Hill told 247Sports. “Dickey, meanwhile, feels like a veteran coach who took a one-year sabbatical in Athens and will now try and be an on-field coach somewhere else in 2024. Georgia has already promoted special teams analyst Kirk Benedict to replace Cochran. It remains to be seen who would replace Dickey, who helped coach the tight ends.”
Georgia’s special teams units were elite under Cochran while the Bulldogs’ offensive attack last season with Dickey assisting under coordinator Mike Bobo averaged 40.1 points per game, led by rising superstar quarterback Carson Beck.
