The new football coach at the University of West Alabama had it all: He had a great family. He was at the pinnacle of his profession. He was blessed with generational wealth. He had the ear — and respect — of the most powerful man in college football at its premiere program. He had an extensive group of friends who were more like brothers than bros.
He also had an ego. He had hubris. And after years of being floored by migraines, he eventually had an addiction.
Anyone that has struggled with addiction knows what comes next: The drug claimed the man. The lifelong discipline he prided himself on was subsumed by the need. The egoism that had always been at the fringes told him the comforting lies that he would be different. And so he began to lie to others. He prioritized the wrong things. His work suffered. His family suffered. His health suffered. He let down his wife, his children, his friends, his professional colleagues, the athletes who entrusted him with developing their career.
It took almost losing it all for Scott Cochran to wander out of the darkness of a dope-sick hell and back into the light. But, addicts are funny. The ones who recover are like many criminals — they are gratified to have the lie exposed, to finally tell the truth, to confess their weakness and their worst moments, to reclaim the humanity lost to a bump or a bottle or boof. It is the measure of a man’s strength to be able to ask for help, to even acknowledge that you need it. And once that page is turned, it takes a daily reaffirmation of your own strength to be able to help others.
That is ultimately what this memoir is about: Going to hell and back, and not only becoming the person you were, but becoming a better man tomorrow than the one you were today.
Skull Session: Mastering the Mental Game in Sports, Work, and Life (Hatchette, 19 August 2025) is Scott Cochran’s first foray into publishing, joined by the best to ever dip a nib at ESPN: Ivan Maisel. At first, it seems an odd marriage. Maisel’s relaxed, deliberative style juxtaposed with Cochran’s frenetic, every-man spontaneity. Somehow, they make it work without Maisel haven taken over Cochran’s story, or Cochran swallowing up Maisel’s readability and clarity. Like staring at a multidimensional being, you sense both at once: Cochran is there, but Maisel’s distinctive drawl lies just beneath the surface. And somehow it not only works, but it seems inevitable: as though that was the only logical way this tale could have been told.
The plot isn’t as important as the candor here. In many ways it seems as though this book is the first time Cochran has ever told the full story. But that story is an interesting one, as he charts his rise from GA to the Saban Whisperer; from Funerals in Athens, to almost dying on the bathroom floor; being swallowed by addiction, as he ran from Alabama to Athens. And then reclaiming himself in series of steps that required accepting that he threw everything away, and lost a career to his own myopic vanity. And, as happened so often in Cochran’s life, having yet another person offer him a break at a time when he needed it the most, as well as making his own fortunes: a coonass Theseus finding long-lost bread crumbs to escape the Labyrinth of his own creation, and in turn, help others find their own way out of the Lament Configuration. He is a fortunate man, and he realizes it…even after losing everything.
Skull Session is an easily digested read. There so many Alabama stories and anecdotes in here to more than justify the purchase for most Gumps. But that does not mean that is is an easy read, not if you’ve struggled with drugs or alcohol, or if you’ve had to watch a loved one self-destruct. For many, it will be a painful reminder of where they were. And for those still struggling, it is a light shining from the shore even as you’re adrift. Yet, it is an engaging read, even during its most painful moments. And it is in those moments — the pathos, the redemption, when Cochran is at his most honest — that Skull Session shines the most.
So, should you read it?
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
