3/1/2020 football Edit

Report: David Ballou to leave Indiana for Alabama

Taylor Lehman • TheHoosier

Staff

Indiana strength and conditioning coach David Ballou was offered the Alabama strength and conditioning position at Alabama and will leave Indiana after two seasons.

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Indiana strength and conditioning coach David Ballou has accepted the strength and conditioning position at Alabama, according to FootballScoop.com. He will leave Indiana after two seasons, and it is uncertain if he will be joined by athletic performance coach Dr. Matt Rhea. BamaInsider.com, the Alabama site in the Rivals.com national network, has reported that Rhea will make the move as well. FootballScoop.com did not mention Rhea.

Alabama's strength and conditioning position opened after former strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran accepted the special teams coordinator job at Georgia after 14 seasons at Alabama.

Rumors of Ballou visiting Alabama surfaced Friday evening, and BamaInsider.com listed Ballou as a name to watch for the position Saturday, with names like Oregon's Aaron Feld.

“He has his plan, and the players and staff buy in," a source told FootballScoop.com about Ballou. "He will be a great addition at 'Bama.”

Ballou leaving Indiana is a tough loss for the rising Hoosier program, which leaned heavily on Ballou and Rhea's data-driven program as not only a developmental tool but also a recruiting tool. The attraction to Ballou and Rhea was just as evident in commits and interested prospects' affinity to the Indiana program as Allen himself, and Ballou and Rhea's 2019 raises – Ballou's from $215,000 to $400,000 and Rhea's from $150,000 to $375,000 – were indicative of that significance. Ballou, at Indiana, was making a salary comparable to that of Cochran's ($525,000) in 2019.

Indiana No. 7 2021 prospect Rodney McGraw, who committed to Indiana during the Hoosiers' Jan. 26 junior day event, cited his impression of Ballou and then-defensive line coach Mark Hagen as primary reasons why he committed to the program as early as he did. Now Hagen is at Texas.

Multiple sources had told TheHoosier.com that Indiana's strength and conditioning program was "multiple steps ahead" of some of the top programs in the country, and the program represented one of the best-kept secrets in Bloomington.

It's unknown when Indiana might replace Ballou, but with a junior day event scheduled for March 7 and Indiana owning some recruiting momentum, the next hire will need to maintain as much momentum as possible to partially continue what Ballou began at Indiana.