Bradley Cochran (born June 17, 1963) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

as a

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

for the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

from 1981 to 1985. As a senior, Cochran was recognized as a consensus first-team defensive back on the

1985 College Football All-America Team The 1985 College Football All-America team is composed of college football players who were selected as All-Americans by various organizations and writers that chose College Football All-America Teams in 1985. The National Collegiate Athletic Assoc ...

. He also received the 1985 Toyota Leadership Award. He signed to play professional football with the

Los Angeles Raiders The Los Angeles Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994 before relocating back to Oakland, California, where the team played from its inaugural 1960 season to the 1981 season and then agai ...

, but injured his back during the preseason of his rookie year, ending his football career.

Early years

Cochran was born in

Royal Oak, Michigan Royal Oak is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Detroit, Royal Oak is about north of Detroit's city limits. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 57,236. Royal Oak is located along th ...

, in 1963. He attended Brother Rice High School in

Birmingham, Michigan Birmingham is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Detroit located along the Woodward Corridor ( M-1). As of the 2010 census, the population was 20,103. History The area comprising what is now the c ...

University of Michigan

Cochran enrolled at the

in 1981 and played

as an

inside linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

for head coach

Bo Schembechler Glenn Edward "Bo" Schembechler Jr. ( ; April 1, 1929 – November 17, 2006) was an American football player, coach, and athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Miami University from 1963 to 1968 and at the University of ...

Michigan Wolverines football The Michigan Wolverines football team represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the most all-time wins in college football history. The team is known for its ...

teams from 1981 to 1985. Cochran left the Michigan team early in his career after "screaming uncontrollably" at coach Schembechler for perceived injustices. He was diagnosed with severe depression caused by a hormonal imbalance that was subsequently treated with medication. He briefly transferred to the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

, but he returned to his home in Royal Oak after several weeks in Colorado. In June 1983, Michigan assistant coach

Lloyd Carr Lloyd Henry Carr Jr. (born July 30, 1945) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Michigan from 1995 through the 2007 season. Under Carr, the Michigan Wolverines compiled a record ...

contacted Cochran and invited him to return to the University of Michigan. After returning to Schembechler's good graces, Cochran started all 12 games at strong side

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such offensive running plays as sweeps and reverses. They create tur ...

for the 1983 Michigan Wolverines football team that compiled a 9-3 record, played in the 1984 Sugar Bowl, and finished the season ranked #8 in the final

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...

. He moved to weak side cornerback as a junior, again starting all 12 games for the 1984 Michigan team. As a senior, Cochran was a team co-captain started all 12 games as the weak side cornerback for the 1985 Michigan team that compiled a 10-1-1 record and a #2 ranking in the final

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

poll after beating

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

, 27-23, in the

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been playe ...

. The 1985 Wolverines defense gave up only 75 points in 11 regular season games — an average of 6.8 points per game. At the end of the 1985 season, Cochran was selected as a consensus first-team defensive back on the

. He was named first-team All-American by

UPI United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th c ...

and

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

and second-team All-American by the Associated Press. Cochran also received the 1985 Toyota Leadership Award for "outstanding performance in the areas of team contributions, academics and citizenship." Over the course of his career at Michigan, Cochran started 36 consecutive games from 1983 to 1985 and compiled 184 tackles, 17 pass breakups and 11 interceptions. The University of Michigan's

Bentley Historical Library The Bentley Historical Library is the campus archive for the University of Michigan and is located on the University of Michigan's North Campus in Ann Arbor. It was established in 1935 by the regents of the University of Michigan. Its mission is ...

described Cochran's contributions this way: "Consistency and excellence best describe Brad Cochran's tour of duty with the Wolverines. Possessing exceptional speed and agility, he proved extremely durable, never missing a start over the final three years of his brilliant career."

Later years

Cochran was selected by the

in the third round (80th overall pick) of the

1986 NFL Draft The 1986 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 29–30, 1986, at the Marriott Marq ...

. Cochran signed a three-year contract with the

in July 1986, but he injured his back during the fourth pre-season game, underwent surgery to remove a disc and perform a two-level vertebrae fusion, thus ending his football career. He later became involved in a contract dispute with the Raiders over the team's claim that he failed to report for the

1987 NFL season The 1987 NFL season was the 68th regular season of the National Football League. This season featured games predominantly played by replacement players, as the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) players were on strike from ...

. Cochran later worked as an assistant football coach responsible for the defensive secondary at his alma mater, Brother Rice High School.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cochran, Brad 1963 births Living people American football defensive backs Los Angeles Raiders players Michigan Wolverines football players High school football coaches in Michigan All-American college football players Sportspeople from Royal Oak, Michigan Players of American football from Michigan

Early years

University of Michigan

Later years

See also

References