After announcing its latest defensive coordinator to the community earlier this month, UNC football held its first media availability with Geoff Collins on Monday.
Collins arrives at Carolina in the wake of the program parting ways with Gene Chizik on January 3, closing Chizik’s second two-year stint with UNC. He took 2023 off since he was fired as the head coach at Georgia Tech, with the Yellow Jackets deciding to move on from Collins part way through his fourth season with the team. Prior to that, he had success as the head coach at Temple University and as a defensive coordinator at Florida, Mississippi State and Florida International. Now, he will look to lead a defense that was gashed for the third most yards per game in the ACC in 2023 — and last in the conference during 2022.
Collins is known for his energy, some of which was evident as he talked about his existing connections to the UNC football staff and his vision for the team going into next season. Below are some highlights from the press conference, which have been lightly edited for clarity:
On landing at UNC football: Obviously when a College Football Hall of Famer calls, you leave your man cave and come here and get to work. It’s been an honor to be here. I played in this great state at Western Carolina University with [UNC wide receivers coach] Lonnie Galloway. I met my wife Jennifer of 28 years in this great state, was able to coach four years at my alma mater for four years. And then [with] the experiences that I’ve had being in the ACC for as long as I have, [I] always had a tremendous amount of respect for this place, this university, the football program. And having gotten to know Coach Mack Brown for the last seven years, when I was the head coach at Temple… he would call games and I got to know him. Being in the ACC head coaches meetings together, and then him being a mentor to me has been a special experience. And for him to call and offer me the chance to be the defense coordinator for him at this place, I do not take this responsibility lightly. I feel very honored to be in this position and thankful to him and his wife Sally for this amazing opportunity.
On what he saw from the Tar Heels defense in 2023: When this opportunity started to come about after the bowl game, I watched every single game over the year, a couple of times. I’ve known Coach [Gene] Chizik for a while. I have tremendous amount of respect for him. Actually, a couple days ago he sent me a very nice text — so I’ve got the utmost respect for him and appreciation for him. But just some things that we went through the interview process [were] playing a lot of guys, creating chaos from our perspective without being chaotic internally and letting the players play fast, letting ’em play free… those kinds of things [which] I expressed to the defense when I talked to him on Tuesday. And I was also able to watch the returning players. There’s some really good players on this roster. In the bowl game, you got to see a lot of the younger guys get their chance to play. Then I did deep dives into their high school tape and even the transfers’ tape as well. So, it’s just very excited to get to work with them.
On what he wishes to see from the Carolina defense: I think it’s just being aggressive on early downs. You know, one of the biggest pieces is you want to get people into advantageous situations for the defense and creating third-and-longs — that’s where most of the turnovers in college football happen. So, being aggressive in multiple and early downs. The terminology and the way we call things… make it be very easy for our players to learn, so that they can play fast, live in the backfield and cut ’em loose. Then, rotate guys in to create depth, so in case you do ever have a a run of injuries, you have guys that have experience. I’ve kind of done that my entire career, played a lot of guys.
So, it is an aggressive nature, it’s an aggressive mindset that we have in the building. And I think the guys got to experience that in the first defensive unit meeting the other night. [I am] trying to be a lot more tame in front of you guys in the introductory press conference. But you guys will get to see me on the grass and with the fellas. We’re going to create chaos without being chaotic. Let ’em get their feet set, let ’em get the call, let ’em play fast, aggressive, have confidence in what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. I think that all works together.
On the benefits of returning to a coordinator role after game-planning as a head coach and taking a year off: Being in those [prior game] meetings has been invaluable. Even this year, I’ve had a unique perspective to kind of look at the game from kind of an outsider’s perspective [which] has been huge too. I wrote these four principles down that just keep showing that up as I watch ball in the NFL or in college. [First is], obviously, be strong up the middle. Have the ability to set edges. In this day and age, you cannot allow easy access throws — because everything’s an RPO, everything’s quick, get the ball out. And then affecting the quarterback. So, we have to build the system and put the players in position to do those four things on every snap. Those are the things, the takeaways throughout the year that I’ve kind of honed in on.
On building relationships with the veteran Carolina defensive players: I’ll take it back even a little bit further. This isn’t on defense, but the first person I called and FaceTimed was [Georgia Tech transfer and wide receiver] Nate McCollum. They sent out a Teamworks [link] to the team before they announced [my hiring] to you guys, and Nate sends me an immediate text. I screenshotted it, you know, to keep it in my heart — but I FaceTimed him before I even called my mom and my in-laws.
And then… I’ll have to check the timestamp, but [jack Kaimon] Rucker, number 25, hits me up within the first 30 minutes. And we get on the phone, and we talk and start having conversations. He has come in and watched film. [Linebacker Power Echols has] come in and watched film… long conversations with them. Obviously, getting on the road and recruiting throws a little wrench in there. But we will continue to build those relationships. Those two guys were the first ones, and, you know, they jump off of the tape when you turn that thing on. [Numbers] 25 and 23 are really good players.
On getting players snaps during game action to build up depth: We have so many guys here right now that are part of this new wave of players [to the program. We have] 15 practices in spring ball, [we’re] getting to do the extra work that the NCAA has allowed us to do in the offseason with those guys to get them ready to play, and then [there is] pre-season camp. [We’re aiming for] just the experiences of playing a lot of guys, having the way we term things in a simple packaged manner so they can digest it and then go out there and play fast. I think that helps young players. When you have a lot of verbiage, a lot of different terms that aren’t built in families, I think that is harder, for young guys especially, to learn. But the way we package things is set so they can play fast, get on the field early, and go out there and make plays and play free.
They have to be ready to step on the field. We’ve got a brand and a program that we’ve got to play really good defense for, but it’s our job as coaches to get them ready so they can go out there and play at a high level.
Photo via Carolina Athletics Communications.
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