During an interview Monday afternoon, Geoff Collins was asked about when he started to think about a coaching career.
His eyes widened as he got up from the couch in his spacious office at Edberg-Olson Hall and walked over to a shelf to grab a book he referenced on the day he was introduced as Temple’s new head football coach back in December – Sam Ruttigliano’s "Pressure."
The former Cleveland Browns coach’s words struck a chord with a young Collins, who was then a student at Georgia’s Rockdale County High School, about 45 minutes outside Atlanta.
“This is actually pretty cool if I can find it,” Collins said before revealing a worn-down white piece of paper with some slightly-faded blue ink that was nestled inside the book’s binding. “This is what I used as my bookmark, my high school schedule. So I read this book when I was in high school and I was like, ‘That looks like fun. I’ll do that.’”
“Normally people aren’t going to dive into that line of work,” Collins said later. “But for some reason, it resonated with me.”
The 23-year coaching veteran seems to have blended both elements – pressure and fun – to get to North Broad Street. After six successful seasons as an assistant coach in the SEC, including a combined four years as a defensive coordinator at Mississippi State and the University of Florida, Collins arrived at Temple to replace his friend, Matt Rhule, who left the Owls to take the same job at Baylor.
Given the nickname Minister of Mayhem for his downhill, attacking defenses that thrived with players like Fletcher Cox, Darius Slay and Vernon Hargreaves, Collins wants to bring that same energy into his first head coaching job and to an Owls’ defense that helped lead Temple to its first American Athletic Conference championship last season.
It would be fair to say, of course, that the pressure to win is amplified a bit more in the SEC, but there will be pressure for Collins at Temple, too. He’ll look to maintain the success of a defense that finished third nationally in scoring defense and 11th in total defense in 2016, and he’s inheriting a program that posted back-to-back 10-win seasons and went to consecutive bowl games, but one that is ultimately looking to get to – and win- a New Year’s Six bowl game.
When spring ball rolls around next month, Collins and his mostly-new staff will be looking for a new quarterback to fill the shoes of the outgoing Phillip Walker and replacements for future NFL Draft picks in defensive end Haason Reddick and offensive lineman Dion Dawkins. And the 45-year-old Collins will make his head coaching debut on the road on national television at Notre Dame Sept. 2.
So, yes, there will be pressure, but Collins appears to be ready for it.
“In my first team meeting, which was right before my press conference (on the day he was hired), I walked into a room (of) great kids,” Collins said. “They were respectful and all those kinds of things, but you could tell that they were still in a tough spot with the transition. But now in sitting down with them, the kids are excited. They love the things that we’re doing. They love the direction that we’re going.”
In Part I of his conversation with OwlScoop.com, Collins talked about the path that led him to Temple, including his playing career and what he learned under some of his former bosses and coaching influences like Nick Saban and George O’Leary.
You can listen to that interview here.
