Geoff Collins walked to the podium looking like one of his players.
UNC’s new defensive coordinator was drenched in sweat. It was the end of another intensely muggy practice in an intensely muggy month. In Chapel Hill, August means misery.
And yet, it was hard to shake the notion that Collins had never been happier.
“It has been wonderful for my career. Wonderful for my soul,” he said of his first seven months on the job, “[to] come out here every day and pour into these young men in a culture and a program that is set up for success.”
It’s readily apparent that Collins’ disastrous tenure at Georgia Tech and his ensuing year out of college football challenged the veteran coach. Collins was coming off successful stints as defensive coordinator at Mississippi State and Florida and two consecutive bowl berths as head coach at Temple when the Yellow Jackets hired him prior to the 2019 season. When he was fired four games into the 2022 season, Tech had slogged to a 10-28 record, having won just three games in each of his first three full campaigns. His predecessor Paul Johnson didn’t mince words about Collins’ tenure, with Johnson saying he tried to “distort history” and that “I got no respect for the guy.”
Those were the clouds swirling around Collins when he took a year off, his first without a coaching role since his playing days at Western Carolina in the early 1990s.
“In my entire career, it has just been consistent success,” he said. “And then you go through that. And you become very reflective.”
Collins readily admits he analyzed himself with an unflinching eye. His failure in Atlanta – and the Jackets’ seeming rebirth under successor Brent Key – isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement for another head coaching job, which is what Mack Brown says Collins is aiming for.
But if his sweat-stained gear is any indication, the year off has Collins as fired up as ever to prove his worth at the ACC level. His challenge is immense: Collins will be UNC’s third defensive coordinator in the last four seasons. Carolina’s lackluster play on that side of the ball necessitated the firings of Jay Bateman in 2021 and Gene Chizik in 2023, both of whom were respected football minds before coming to Chapel Hill.
“All I’ve done is try to infuse some enthusiasm, infuse a standard and belief,” Collins said. “Set goals that we need to attain internally, and the guys have done the rest.”
That word, “standard,” has come up often when discussing the UNC defense. At the ACC Kickoff event in July, star defensive end Kaimon Rucker said it was the lack of any type of standard which had led to the Tar Heels’ struggles. With Collins, though, Rucker said things are different.
“We never established a bar that we need to jump over,” he said. “And I feel like the bar that he set on day one is that we want to be the best defense in college football.”
Rucker is one of several Tar Heels who hail from the state of Georgia. Collins tried to recruit him to Georgia Tech during his stint in Atlanta (he emphasizes the use of “tried”) before the then-three-star prospect chose Carolina. Safety Will Hardy, originally from the Atlanta suburb of Norcross, also held a scholarship offer from Collins’ Yellow Jackets. Collins was so intent on Hardy joining his program that he even conducted an in-home visit. Hardy eventually committed to the Tar Heels, and two years later, Collins followed him.
“I loved him when he was [at Georgia Tech]” Hardy said. “Loved his energy, his passion for the game. So when I saw he got the job, I was really excited. It’s always good to have some sort of relationship with a coach, but obviously we weren’t as close as we are now. He carried that energy. He’s the same guy he was when he recruited me.”
And then there are the Tar Heels who played for Collins at Georgia Tech: receiver Nate McCollum and offensive lineman Jakiah Leftwich were both Yellow Jackets before coming to Chapel Hill through the transfer portal. If there was any awkwardness there, it apparently dissipated quickly.
“He’s a great relationship guy,” Hardy said. “If he sees you, he’s not gonna turn his head and walk by you. He’s gonna say what’s up, which is really cool.”
As if a coaching resume stretching back to the Clinton administration wasn’t enough, Collins has taken graduate-level courses in education and psychology (he is very careful to point out that he does not, in fact, own a graduate degree). His eagerness to forge a bond with every player on the team, defense, offense or special teams, can be seen in his ritual of marching up and down stretching lines and greeting his pupils.
“That’s probably the piece that I enjoy the most,” Collins said. “I love Xs and Os, I love scheming it up. But the relationships, and watching guys get better, and finding ways to connect with them, that’s close to my heart.”
No amount of success in Chapel Hill can erase what happened at Georgia Tech. But for someone who seeks to sit in the “big chair” once again, rejuvenating a once-woebegone unit would be a decent start.
So as Collins grasps the podium like a blocking sled and tries not to perspire all over the press scrum’s microphones, one can more easily understand his intensity. His love of the game – and perhaps his career in it – is back on track.
Featured image via Inside Carolina
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