FootballScoop is proud to announce that Scott Sinclair (Georgia) is the 2021 FootballScoop Strength & Conditioning Coach of the Year presented by AstroTurf as selected by prior winners.
Since Kirby Smart arrived in Athens ahead of the 2016 season, Georgia is annually among the strongest, fastest, and meanest teams in college football. A large part of that is because Smart and his staff out-recruit the competition. And another large part of that is because of the work Sinclair and his staff do in the offseason.
Georgia's inherent strength and power advantage most obviously manifested at the line of scrimmage. The Bulldogs rank fourth in the nation in rushing defense (82.4 yards per game) and rank fourth in yards per carry (2.66). Three opposing ball-carriers have rushed the ball past the goal line thus far, a number that not only leads the nation, but is tied for the third lowest in the past decade.
When Georgia runs the ball, the Bulldogs pound out 194.7 yards per game and 5.29 per carry, a top 15 number nationally.
The Bulldogs also own a plus-34 advantage in sacks and a plus-47 edge in tackles for loss. They rank fourth nationally in sacks and 22nd in tackles for loss, while placing third in both sacks and tackles for loss allowed.
Georgia returns to the CFP National Championship for the second time in Smart and Sinclair's tenure after a near 4-decade absence. The Bulldogs sit at 65-15 with two SEC titles, four SEC East crowns and five consecutive AP top-10 finishes with Sinclair on staff.
A Guilford College graduate, Sinclair joined the profession as an assistant at UCF, where he also picked up a Master's degree. From there, Sinclair arrived at Marshall, in 2013, where he worked with football and track & field. He's been Georgia's director of strength & conditioning since Smart's hiring in 2016.
The FootballScoop Coaches of the Year awards presented by AstroTurf are the only set of awards that recognize the most outstanding position coaches in college football. The prior winners selected this year's winner.
Previous winners of the Strength & Conditioning Coach of the Year award are Don Sommer (TCU, 2008), Joey Batson (Clemson, 2009), Kevin Yoxall (Auburn, 2010), Shannon Turley (Stanford, 2011), Kaz Kazadi (Baylor, 2012), Pat Ivey (Missouri, 2013), Zac Woodfin (UAB, 2014), Ken Mannie (Michigan State, 2015), Tim Socha (Washington, 2016), Zach Duval (UCF, 2017), Lew Caralla (Buffalo, 2018), Tommy Moffitt (LSU, 2019), and Chad Scott (Coastal Carolina, 2020).
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