The University of Alabama’s athletics department announced Tuesday that David Ballou and Dr. Matt Rhea will be joining the ranks of assistant coaches to head football coach Nick Saban.
Ballou will serve as the director of sports performance and Rhea will be the director of performance science. Both men’s roles will deal directly with the strength and conditioning of Alabama’s players.
“Just as with any other area, we feel that it is imperative that we adopt and integrate advancements in the field of strength and conditioning that will provide elite training, while better protecting our players from injuries and helping them develop and perform at a higher level,” Saban said in a statement.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, a former defensive coordinator for the Tide, poached longtime Alabama strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran earlier in the offseason. Cochran had been with Saban since the coach’s first season at Alabama in 2007 and was widely regarded as one of the best in the nation at his role. Cochran will be the Bulldogs’ special teams coordinator.
David Ballou joins the Crimson Tide from Indiana University, where he has spent the last two seasons as the director of athletic performance.
In a release from the UA Athletic Department, Ballou said that he “can’t wait to get to Tuscaloosa and begin working with some of the best athletes and football players in the nation.”
Before his new job in Tuscaloosa, Rhea was a full-time professor of kinesiology at A.T. Still University. He has a bachelor’s degree from Southern Utah and advanced degrees from Arizona State and American Public University.
Rhea, who has spent the last 22 years studying how to best develop athletes, said he is excited to be “teaming up with one of [the] best strength and conditioning coaches in the world, we can target those limiting factors during training.”
Alabama Associate AD and Director of Sports Medicine Jeff Allen stated Tuesday, “The addition of Coach Ballou and Dr. Rhea to our program will allow us to take full advantage of our sports science center. The data they will generate on our athletes, through their unique training methods, will allow us to know exactly how to manage our team to ensure we are performing at our best each Saturday and make sure we are doing all we can to prevent injuries.”
Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: [email protected] or on Twitter @HenryThornton95.
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