01.29.17
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5 Reasons To Get Excited About Geoff Collins

The only thing that would make Geoff Collins more appealing to Temple fans is that John Chaney’s love for, success at and loyalty to Temple rubs off on that handshake and exceeds any dollar signs tossed in front of him.

collins

We were not able to photoshop a Temperor hat on this graphic.

In this cyber world, you detect clues about what is happening by simply reading a man’s twitter feed and that is certainly true with new Temple football head coach Geoff Collins.

Taking out the retweets, the last five original Collins’ posts thank Under Armour (an apparel company) for a welcome package; another is about how he is proud of a former player (Brian Poole), for making the Super Bowl, a tribute to Temple academic excellence at and a posting a graphic about Temple TUFF.

Compare that to former head coach Matt Rhule’s last five tweets and all are welcoming new recruits.


While Saint Matt Rhule
might have been demoted
to a more middle class
part of Heaven by poaching
a pair of Temple recruits,
the fact that Collins did
not poach Florida recruits
is a good thing, not a bad
one. Even the vilified Steve
Addazio promised he would not
go after the Temple guys
he recruited on the way out
the E-O door and at least Daz
kept his promise. Taking two
Temple commits is unethical
and a pretty classless way
to thank a school that gave
you so much.

No one can really say that translates to Rhule recruiting success versus Collins’ recruiting success in essentially the same time frame, but the clues are the clues. Rhule has filled the 25 scholarships he has this year and most of them are three-star talents and above. Collins is sitting on 15 right now after having lost a couple of Temple commits, one a three-star.

Of the five things we can get excited about for our new coach, recruiting—at least this year and at least a few days ahead of National Signing Day—does not appear to be one of them. As Cubs’ fans used to say, wait until next year.

We’ve always wrote we’d be honest with you and this would not turn out to be Matt Rhule Pravda and we kept that promise and we will keep it that way with Collins. Had Collins brought with him a couple of Florida commits, like Rhule did with two Temple commits, we might be singing a different tune. You can talk all you want about this being Collins’ first recruiting class and most of them were Rhule’s guys but, to be fair, Rhule walked into the same new situation at Baylor and was more successful.

Addazio, Rhule and Al Golden’s first classes will probably all be rated higher than Collins’ first class.

We’re calling it as we see it and he did not hit that first recruiting drive straight down the middle.

There are, though, five things to get excited about :

rhulepromise

5—The Man Appears Principled

While Saint Matt Rhule might have been demoted to a more middle class part of Heaven by poaching a pair of Temple recruits, the fact that Collins did not poach Florida recruits is a good thing, not a bad one. Even the vilified Steve Addazio promised he would not go after the Temple guys he recruited on the way out the E-O door and at least Daz kept his promise. Taking two Temple commits is unethical a pretty classless way to thank a school that gave you so much. If Collins would have retaliated by taking two Baylor commits, that would have been impressive. Still, there is something to be said about the man not raiding his fellow employer.

4—He Was Rhule’s Boss

As Rhule’s boss, both at Albright and Western Carolina, you can assume that he had the answers and Rhule had the questions back then. Now Temple is getting the guy with the answers.

3—He Knows The Program

When he was hired, Collins said he followed the Temple program closely over the last four years and actually participated in key philosophical changes in the program. Since the only key philosophical change in the program was going from a spread with multiple wide receivers to a pro-type play action using a fullback, Collins can theoretically be credited for curing the Owls’ anemic offense. He will come in and hit the ground running, literally.

2—Hit Home Run With Key Assistants

Both Dave Patenaude (pronounced Patton Nude, which is not a pretty picture) and Taver Johnson seem to know what the plan is to take Temple the next level. Patenaude is going to continue to use the fullback and two tight ends, but add slinging the ball deep to the formula. Johnson should continue the success on the defensive side of the ball and was a better  DC at Miami (Ohio) than Phil Snow was at the same level (Eastern Michigan).

1—Game Day Coaching

This was a weakness of Rhule’s first two years. We do not know for sure, but Collins’ understanding of the program and the offensive and defensive philosophies sets him up as a better game day coach that Rhule was, who fumbled and stumbled in his first two seasons.

Tuesday: What To Expect

19 thoughts on “5 Reasons To Get Excited About Geoff Collins”

  1. Mike I’ll continue your policy of honesty. The only thing we ‘know’ about coach Collins is that he’s not as good a recruiter coming in the door as his predecessors. This may be because he’s more principled than some other coaches or it may simply be he was fishing in the Florida pool of 4 and 5* talent and they don’t want to come to Temple.

    The rest of the article is pure conjecture. We haven’t seen him coach a single down when at the helm and his assistants also need to step up under the bright lights of South Bend. I hope this guy comes in and kicks butt and isn’t the Bob Diaco but the proof will be in the pudding. That’s how I see it.

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    • Fair points with the ‘not poaching Florida recruits’; that would have been akin to Rutgers fans saying ‘Ash has principles becauae he didn’t poach any Ohio State recruits when he came to Rutgers.’ With recruiting though, you’re not really going to know how Collins recruits until this time next year.

      Joe P.

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    • Conjecture based on results. With the exception of Jim Cooper Jr.being spooked in the kicking game, almost all of Matt Rhule’s gameday coaching problems stemmed from stumbling for a winning philosophy on offense and Snow talking 2 years to put his defense in… don’t think it will take Collins two years to put a defense in (he put a good one in right away at all of his stops) and he seems on board with the play-action heavy run game offense and he won’t be the bumbler stumbler right out the gate that Rhule was. That’s how I see it.

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  2. Temple has done a phenomenal job with walk ons, no stars and two stars by redshirting and developing their hidden talents. Developing alent that no one else sees like Reddick, Hairston, Dawkins, etc. is a hallmark of the Temple program.
    There is enough current football talent on the 2017 roster to give Collins breathing room for this year while his new coaching staff develops bonds with future 2018 recruits. Next years style of play and record will also be huge recruiting factors going forward. Rhule had that in his favor at Baylor, as a head coach with two 10 win seasons. Collins will have that next year if the Rhule recruited players and the new coaching staff deliver the goods. One thing for sure it will be fun to watch. Bill B.

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  3. Would rather have had a coach that tried to pry kids from FLA. Until a kid commits, they’re open game. All being a good guy gets you is fired.

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    • The thing that worries me about this class if the effect four years down the line on Temple football. If you are the AAC champion, even with a coaching change, you should have the best AAC recruiting class, not the worst. Rhule didn’t have to assemble a coaching staff because he took Temple’s, so we’ve got to cut Collins some slack on recruiting this year at least.

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      • The only bright spot is that Rhule redshirted a bunch of kids. Have to hope that those kids and the kids in subsequent classes make up any deficits in this year’s class.

  4. Do they have some undecided 3 star recruits that may commit on National Signing Day?

    Sent from my iPad Rich Mitola Janssen Pharmaceutical

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  5. How do u feel about Raheem Blackshear’s flip flopping?

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  6. You think Rhule will Miss Temple after the 51 lawsuits against the program. SMU got the football death penalty.

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  7. 2 things: If Rhule was such a great recruiter why is this crop not very good especially after 2 10-win seasons and a conference championship? And while its crappy Rhule brought 2 Temple recruits with him, how can anyone expect Collins to bring Florida recruits with him – none of those kids would want to leave a program like FL to go to a Temple program after being good enough to be recruited by an SEC school, even if they don’t play.

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    • The crop was very good if we could have held onto Tyler Sear, Ja’Sir Taylor, and Raheem. Now we have to go grab recruits from FCS schools.

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    • Not unrealistic to expect Collins to flip a few Power 5 recruits (not necessarily from Florida) because Golden (Adrian Robinson, among others), Rhule (Russo, among others) and Addazio (Nate L. Smith,among others) got guys to flip from Pitt, Rutgers and West Virginia. Temple has had plenty of P5 flips under its past three coaches. Right now, our only “flip” is a New Hampshire flip and, to me, that’s not a flip. Maybe something will happen in the last 48 hours. I’m willing to give Collins that. He’s recruiting off a Temple championship. That has to mean something.

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  8. Someone is erasing posts from today by the way. Temple is ranked 112-103 by 247 sports and last in AAC. http://247sports.com/Season/2017-Football/CompositeTeamRankings

    I am appalled by this. The school and coach can sugarcoat it all they want. I don’t think that a school that won a championship, even with a coaching change, has fared so poorly in recruiting. One of the posts erased stated that stars don’t matter all that much as TU has shown in the last few years. I submit while it doesn’t matter with some kids because the rankings change depending on who is recruiting a kid, it certainly does matter because the schools with the most four and five stars are always in the top ten. The only hope is that this is just an aberration and recruiting will improve. It had better or else TU is back to two win seasons.

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    • No erasing from this end, John. Went into the comments que and all of the comments from totally have been automatically approved with none pending. Collins did a poor job recruiting this month and there can be no reasons for that, only excuses. Other coaches who were hired at the same time got the job done. While it’s nice what Temple has done with two stars, it would be nicer to see that the AAC trophy elevated Temple to a point where they would be hauling in 3-4 stars this year.

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      • I may have confused the posts I commented to. In any event, this recruiting class, as it’s ranked, cannot be sugarcoated because it’s ranked last in the conference. Anyone could have done that, not a so called expert like Collins. I thought that southern Tony Soprano could have made at least one deal with a kid that the kid couldn’t refuse.

      • when Daz does a better job at a) hiring assistants and b) recruiting in essentially the same time frame Collins had to work with, it does give one pause. He has a real understanding of the talent in this program. As I see it, it’s a 7-win team next year. If he exceeds it and wins the title again, he can be gone in a year and that’s why I don’t think he’s as focused as he should be on recruiting.

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