Coach long enough, and things have a great chance of coming full circle.
Look no further than the case of Tom Kaufman and Brian Cochran. They’re Lake Catholic alumni, and assistant football coaches who arrived together in January at Kent State after first-year coach Sean Lewis was hired in December 2017.
Kaufman and Cochran go way back. Way, way back.
They each grew up in Lake County — Kaufman in Willowick, Cochran in Painesville — played football and graduated from Lake Catholic and John Carroll.
The big difference is they earned their college degrees 13 years apart. Kaufman is 37, and Cochran just turned 50.
Kaufman played linebacker for the Blue Streaks when quarterback and former JCU coach Tom Arth — now the head coach at FCS Chattanooga — helped the team to a 2002 NCAA Division III national semifinal. Cochran graduated in 1990, and was an All-American defensive lineman when JCU beat Mount Union in 1989 to earn the school’s first-ever bid to the NCAA tournament.
Football has keep the two connected. It began in 2003, when Kaufman was looking for a job upon graduating from JCU and hoping to fulfill a lifelong dream.
“For me, it goes back to (grade school at) St. Mary Magdalene,” Kaufman said. “I always wanted to be a football coach. When it got real for me was when I was in high school.”
He admired former coach John Gibbons and assistant Scott Niedzwiecki while playing at Lake Catholic, but his first job interview was with another with school ties.
It was with Cochran, who at the time was the head coach at Heidelberg. As first impressions go, it was blurry at best. Kaufman was an hour late for the interview.
“This is before I had a cellphone, before GPS,” Kaufman said. “I took the wrong road. When I finally got there, he could have very easily told me to hit the road. I was very lucky.”
>> Video: Kaufman’s memories of his interview with Cochran
The two hit it off during the interview, and Kaufman became Cochran’s linebackers coach and equipment room coordinator.
“I was hiring him even though he was an hour late,” Cochran said with a laugh.
Kaufman was grateful for that first opportunity.
“You never forget about those things, and we always stayed in touch after we left Heidelberg,” he said.
Kaufman spent the next six seasons at the D-III level with Heidelberg, then at Case Western Reserve (under coach Greg Debeljak) and the University of Chicago, before making seven stops at Mississippi State, Kansas, Texas, Eastern Illinois, Bowling Green, Syracuse and at Chattanooga with Arth as defensive coordinator.
Cochran’s route to Kent State was a bit more stable. Before heading to Chattanooga with Arth after the 2016 season, he spent 10 seasons at JCU as a well-respected defensive line coach and top-notch recruiter.
When Lewis was named Kent State’s coach after last season, he reached out to Kaufman about being his defensive coordinator. In 2016, Kaufman served as special teams coordinator and linebackers coach at Syracuse alongside Lewis
Before Syracuse, Lewis and Kaufman worked together under coach Dino Babers at Bowling Green (2014-15) and Eastern Illinois (2012-13). Kaufman jumped at the opportunity to return to Northeast Ohio with Lewis, but made sure he wasn’t coming back alone.
“It’s the kind of deal that I don’t know if I would have (taken the Kent job) if I didn’t know (Cochran) was coming too. That’s how much value he brings,” Kaufman said. “He’s a phenomenal recruiter. He’s like a cyborg. He doesn’t sleep. I think he goes home and plugs himself in, and recharges for an hour.”
Kaufman said having Cochran on his defensive staff was a must. “He’s the best defensive line coach in the country.”
Together, they helped build Chattanooga’s defense into the best in its conference, despite the Mocs’ 3-8 mark in 2017.
In many ways, football coaches are only as good as their coordinators. In turn, coordinators are only as good as their assistants, which is where Cochran fits alongside Kaufman.
“He has the special ability in that the drills that he does (in practice) always show up on game day, and that’s the biggest compliment you can give an assistant coach,” Kaufman said of Cochran. “He doesn’t waste time on drills that don’t improve his unit. The thing players ask is, ‘Why are we doing this?’ Then they see on film, ‘It’s making me a better player.’ You say, ‘Look, here it is on film.’ Believe it or not, it’s a lost art.”
Long ago, Cochran did away with tackling dummies or cones drills during practices. The approach is different, but it’s paid off. Cochran’s defensive lines during his 10 years at JCU were a strength, and helped anchor many top-notch defensive units.
“What we do in practice pays off because we see it on film,” Cochran said. “They see the plays over and over again.”
Now the trick is bringing that new defensive approach to Kent State, where spring practice recently began. Kaufman and Cochran are building blocks for the Golden Flashes’ defensive side, and they’re doing it close to home.
Kaufman and his wife Stephanie, an Eastlake North graduate, are thrilled their 8-month-old son Jack can meet their entire family.
Cochran is equally excited his family rooted in Painesville is closer to him.
“The opportunity to come back and coach Northeast Ohio, and connect with coaches and people that have been a big part of my life — couldn’t pass it up.”
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