Editor’s Note: It may be time for the Georgia Bulldogs to take back the SEC East in 2017. We’ve featured the most important UGA players, coaches, fans and staff for the upcoming season in a 20-part video series, which you can binge-watch right here.

ATHENS – He’s a bit of a mystery man when it comes to members of Kirby Smart’s coaching staff. But, from most accounts, few coaches have made more of an impact on Georgia’s football team than Scott Sinclair.

Sinclair is the Bulldogs director of strength and conditioning. He joined Georgia’s staff in January 2016. He was Smart’s first call after considerable overtures to Alabama’s Scott Cochran.

Sinclair never has been made available for an interview at UGA. But he came highly recommended. He came to Georgia from Marshall University, where he served as director of strength and conditioning.

But it was at Central Florida where Sinclair began to earn his strong reputation. In 2012, he earned the highest honor of his field. He became a certified master strength and conditioning coach (MSCC).

That’s all well and good. But, at the end of the day, all strength coaches know how to make their players stronger, and they routinely share training information. But where Sinclair may have made an even bigger difference is in the area of injuries. Smart won’t share specifics, but he credits Sinclair’s training methods for limiting the number of knee and hamstring injuries the Bulldogs suffered last season.

Sinclair’s most important role, however, may be as “get-back” coach. During games, Sinclair is charged with holding onto Smart’s belt and making sure he doesn’t get too far off the sideline. That has become even more important this season as the SEC has vowed to strictly enforce a new rule that will result in an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty against the team of an offending coach who comes onto the field to argue a call with a referee.

Whatever Sinclair is doing, he must being doing it well. Smart gave him an $80,000-a- year pay raise – to $300,000 – before this season.

Click here to see more of “Own the East,” our 2017 season preview of the Georgia Bulldogs in video form.