By: Kenneth Harrison Jr.

GeorgiaSportsEdition.com news services

By now, we are all aware the Paul Johnson has stepped down as Georgia Tech’s head coach. He was replaced by Geoff Collins. I’m not sure how I feel about this hire so let’s take a look at Collins and his coaching history.

Collins is from Conyers, Georgia so he’s back in his home state. He played linebacker at Western Carolina (1989 – 1992). After graduation, he coached at his alma mater during the 1993 and 1994 seasons.

Following a year coaching high school, Collins became the linebacker coach for Fordham in 1996 before becoming the defensive coordinator at Albright College from 1997 through 1998. Collins would leave Albright to become a graduate assistant at Georgia Tech under George O’Leary for the 1999 and 2000 seasons.

He was promoted to tight ends coach at Tech for the 2001 season. Collins would return to his alma mater to become Western Carolina’s defensive coordinator from 2002 through 2005 before returning to Georgia Tech in 2006 as the Director of Player Personnel. The following year he became Director of Player Personnel at Alabama.

He became a defensive coordinator at FIU (2010), Mississippi State (2011 – 2014) and Florida (2015 – 16). Then he took over as head coach at Temple for the past two seasons.

One good thing is that Collins has experience coaching at Tech. He’s also a much better recruiter than Paul Johnson. The current recruiting class ranks 48^th nationally and 10^th in the ACC. For Johnson’s recruiting classes that is typical. The highest recruiting class under him was 41^st.

Collins is aware that there are recruiting challenges unique to Georgia Tech but he is already aware and prepared for that. As the Yellow Jackets director of player personnel his 2007 recruiting class was ranked 15^th nationally and included Morgan Burnett, Jonathan Dwyer, Derrick Morgan and Joshua Nesbitt.

The Ramblin’ Wreck has been outmatched from a talent standpoint under Paul Johnson. The gap in talent has only gotten wider between them and the upper echelon programs like Clemson and Georgia. If Collins can consistently bring top 20 recruiting classes in, he can close that gap and make them more competitive against their rivals.

In his two seasons coaching the Temple Owls his record was 15 – 10. That does not sound very impressive on the surface. Temple has been a struggling football program for as long as I can remember. They have only become respectful recently. In his first year in 2017 they were 7 – 6. In 2018 he improved to 8 – 4.

From strictly a coaching perspective, I think Collins is slightly above average. His Owls lost the season opener to an FCS team, Villanova. They are cross-town rivals but he should never lose to FCS competition.

I think this is a good hire mainly because the fan base has grown tired of Paul Johnson and it’s time for a change. His triple option scheme has hindered recruiting. Collins is bringing a pro-style offense and that will help with gaining recruits that want to play in the NFL.

He is also a defensive coach and the Jackets have been abysmal on D. In 2018 Temple ranked sixth nationally in yards per play and are tied for third in takeaways. Only time will tell but I believe Georgia Tech should improve under Collins.