Football
- Title:
- Run Game Coordinator / Tight Ends Coach
One of the top up-and-coming coaches in college football, Josh Cochran enters his fourth season as a charter member of Joey McGuire’s staff at Texas Tech where he serves as the Red Raiders’ tight ends coach. He is in second year in the role of run game coordinator.
Cochran is the lone member of Texas Tech’s offensive staff who joined McGuire upon his hiring in 2022. Since then, Cochran has been part of three bowl appearances with the Red Raiders, including victories over Ole Miss in the 2022 TaxAct Texas Bowl and Cal in the Radian Technologies Independence Bowl. Texas Tech has won 16 games during Big 12 play during that span, joining Kansas State as the only two teams with a winning conference record each of the past three seasons, regardless of league affiliation.
Cochran was credited with developing many of the run schemes that helped Tahj Brooks become Texas Tech’s all-time leading rusher behind back-to-back 1,500-yard seasons in 2023 and 2024. Brooks pounded opponents on the ground, ranking among the national leaders in rushing yards both seasons en route to becoming only the third player in Big 12 history and the first Red Raider all-time to post multiple 1,500-yard rushing seasons. Cochran’s tight end room was essential to Texas Tech’s success on the ground as Brooks set the Texas Tech record with 23 career 100-yard games, including 19 that came during those final two seasons alone.
The Red Raiders are coming off their best season offensively during Cochran’s tenure as Texas Tech ranked in the top 10 nationally for passing offense, total offense and scoring. The Red Raiders averaged 37.6 points per game – the fourth-highest clip in the country – while also averaging 452.7 total yards and 296.7 passing yards, which both finished ninth in the FBS. It was the second time already in Cochran’s tenure that Texas Tech averaged at least 30 points per game as the Red Raiders previously averaged 302.0 passing yards and 34.2 points per game as one of the nation’s top offenses during Cochran’s first season in 2022.
Cochran has coached three NFL free agent signees during his tenure as Baylor Cupp joined the Kansas City Chiefs following the 2023 season, while Jalin Conyers and Mason Tharp were signed by the Miami Dolphins and Houston Texans, respectively, this past spring. Cupp was on Kansas City’s practice squad throughout the 2024 season for a Chiefs team that appeared in Super Bowl LIX.
In his short time already in Lubbock, Cochran has already been recognized as one of the nation’s promising young coaches as he was tabbed to the 30 under 30 list compiled by 247Sports in 2022 as well as the 40 under 40 honor roll put together by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football. He was also selected to the AFCA 35 under 35 Coaches Leadership Institute out of a field or more than 200 applicants.
The 2022 campaign marked Cochran’s first overseeing tight ends as he previously spent two seasons as the co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Austin Peay. In his two seasons on staff, Austin Peay was a combined 8-4 in Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) play and had three wins over ranked opponents, which included No. 7 Jacksonville State and No. 13 Murray State during the 2021 spring slate.
Cochran's unit ranked among the best in the conference as he had five offensive linemen recognized on the All-OVC teams during his tenure, including a two-time selection to the first team in Bucky Williams. Colby McKee was also a two-time honoree on the second team for an offense that led the OVC in scoring (32.5 points per game) and total offense (419.2 yards per game) during the 2021 season.
Austin Peay was Cochran's first full-time coaching role at the FBS or FCS levels after previously serving in various roles at both North Carolina (2020) and Baylor (2017-19). His tenure at North Carolina reunited him with his former college coach Mack Brown as he was an offensive quality control coach for an eventual Orange Bowl participant up until his hire at Austin Peay in November 2020.
Cochran was a graduate assistant and offensive quality control coach during his three seasons at Baylor, assisting with the Bears offensive line during that span. He was a member of a Baylor staff that appeared in two bowl games, first at the Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl in 2018 and then the Allstate Sugar Bowl a year later following an 11-win campaign and a berth in the Big 12 Championship game.
Prior to Baylor, Cochran spent one season at East Texas Baptist University in 2015 where he was the offensive line coach, mentoring four All-American Southeast Conference selections during that year alone. East Texas Baptist featured the top-ranked scoring offense in Division III that season, averaging an impressive 49.9 points per game.
Cochran began his coaching career like several other members of the Texas Tech staff in the high-school ranks as the offensive line coach at Lindale High School in East Texas. He is a former member of the Texas High School Coaches Association, an important aspect of Texas Tech’s football program.
A three-year letterman on the offensive line at Texas, Cochran was tabbed a Freshman All-American by Yahoo! Sports in 2011. He played in 31 games over his Longhorn career, making 23 starts before ending his playing career early in the 2013 season due to a chronic shoulder injury. In addition to his success in the trenches, Cochran was also a first team Academic All-Big 12 selection in 2012 and a four-time member of the Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll.
A native of Hallsville, Texas, Cochran earned his bachelor's degree in kinesiology from Texas in 2014 and then his master's in sports management from Baylor in 2019.
He is married to the former Olivia Dietrichson. The couple is parents to two children in daughter Campbell and newborn son Carter, who was born in April 2025.
JOSH COCHRAN COACHING HISTORY
2024-present – Texas Tech Run Game Coordinator (Tight Ends)
2022-23 – Texas Tech Assistant Coach (Tight Ends)
2020-21 – Austin Peay Co-Offensive Coordinator (Offensive Line)
2020 – North Carolina Offensive Quality Control
2019 – Baylor Offensive Quality Control
2017-18 – Baylor Graduate Assistant (Offensive Line)
2016 –East Texas Baptist Run Game Coordinator (Offensive Line)
2015 – Lindale High School Assistant Coach
2014 – Texas Student Assistant
Appreciate @dctf for the honor! Don’t deserve it but have been blessed to work with some incredible coaches and players. Lucky to have the greatest job in the world!!! #WreckEm https://t.co/UnpzlYVLaJ
— Josh Cochran (@CoachCochranTTU) July 13, 2022
