Ballou And Rhea Officially Announced

Alabama has officially announced the hiring of David Ballou and Dr. Matt Rhea to replace Scott Cochran in the strength and conditioning role for the football program. Ballou’s official title will be Director of Sports Performance and Rhea’s official title will be Director of Performance Science. Coach Nick Saban commented in his statement about Cochran’s departure that he would like to see the replacement be able to fully utilize the new sports science complex that is currently under construction adjacent to the Mal Moore Athletic Facility, that is exactly what he accomplished by hiring this pair. 

Ballou has a strength and conditioning background and has both high school and college experience at IMG Academy, Notre Dame and Indiana. Dr. Rhea has several academic degrees in exercise science and philosophy. Rhea has published several studies in performance enhancement and launched a consulting company centered around speed training, injury prevention and performance optimization. Rhea worked with Ballou at IMG and then joined him at Indiana. 

The Indiana Hoosiers football team improved its speed by an average of three miles per hour per player while Ballou and Rhea were in charge. The team won eight games this past year, the most the Hoosiers have won since 1994. In 2016 at IMG the football team went unbeaten and only lost one starter all season due to injury. 

Ballou and Rhea have been officially announced as the replacements for Cochran just in time for the upcoming junior recruiting day. Keep it locked in with Tide 100.9fm, tide1009.com/listen-live and the TIDE APP for all your updates on the Alabama Crimson Tide.