Category Archives: Geoff Collins

12.16.16
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Mayhem’s Already Here

footprint

Temple’s defense is No. 1 in the nation in DL havoc rate and No. 9 in overall havoc rate.

Funny how one of college football’s best nicknames can originate essentially in the basement of a Vanderbilt University grad student, but that’s what led to Temple head football coach Geoff Collins being called the “Minister of Mayhem.”

A couple of years ago, Collins was pouring over some defensive statistics that he especially liked and stumbled upon the mayhem stat, which was developed by Stephen Prather, a student going for his Master’s at Vanderbilt.

ranking

Temple is No. 3 in overall defense.

Simply put, the “Mayhem” stat counts the percentage of plays on defense that end in a sack, fumble, tackle for loss or interception and those are the kind of stats Collins gears his defensive scheme to achieve. His players then started calling him the “Minister of Mayhem” and the nickname stuck.

If Collins is the “Minister of Mayhem” then he probably already met the “Kings of Mayhem” and they are our own Temple Owls. Temple’s DL is No. 1 in the nation in “Havoc Rate” which is a team’s total tackles for loss, passes defensed, and forced fumbles.

The defensive footprint stats, which roughly parallel Prather’s and Collins’ favorite stats, already have Temple has the nation’s No. 1 disrupting defense. Since Collins will probably not be his own defensive coordinator, he probably has a guy in mind right now to implement his system.

Who that will be is only known to him, but he will probably come from a group of coaches he met along the way in stops that started at Albright, went to Georgia Tech, Alabama, Mississippi State and Florida.

Meanwhile, he should be observing and taking notes at the Military Bowl because whatever he has in mind for the Owls’ defense are things they already are doing very well.

Sunday: Dodging Bullets

Tuesday: A Coach Collins Primer

Thursday: Eyes On The Prize

12.14.16
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Winning The Press Conference

Temple-made Morgyn Seigfried talks with Geoff Collins

So far, we can say new Temple football coach Geoff (pronounced Jeff) Collins is 1-0 after having won his opening press conference.

Certainly, it was a more impressive introduction than the last two.

Rhule also won his, but stumbled on the question of “wanting to sign a 15-year contract, if Bill would let me ” which does not look all that sincere in retrospect. Steve Addazio got a loss because just about everyone in the crowd smelled his loving “South Philly macaroni” comment as the baloney it was then and turned out to be after a two-year stay.

Why Collins won it was mostly because of the things he did not say, not the things he did say.

Collins never mentioned the macaroni or the 15-year commitment and that was just as well. Everybody in the room, or at least most, knows what the landscape of college football is these days and Temple is just a stepping stone to further greatness. Really, any Group of Five school is and some Power 5 schools are as well. Ask Vanderbilt fans if they felt like a Power 5 team when their head coach left for another Power 5 school.

That’s the world we live in, where the bigger schools who draw the biggest crowds eat their young.

If Collins is a tasty morsel in a couple of years, then he will have done his job here and Temple and its fans will be better for it. Anyone who has spent recent stops in Mississippi, Georgia and Florida probably does not plan to put down roots in Philadelphia and the room knows that and Collins did not try to toss the bull bleep at them.

Collins deftly avoided the “Elephant in the Room” which was the revolving door of head coaches at Temple. It’s best to avoid promises you cannot keep. They might have well keep a revolving door at the E-O office Collins will occupy for at least part of his five-year, $2 million-per-year deal.

It would have been nice for Collins to have said it was his goal to be the next Wayne Hardin at Temple, a guy who spent 13 mostly great years here but that was the college football of yesterday and that’s history. For another subject, at least Collins knows the geography, having worked close by in Reading.

“Me, Matt Rhule, Sean Padden at Albright College,” Collins said. “I was the defensive coordinator, Padden was the D-Line coach and Matt Rhule was the linebackers’ coach and we had a blast.”

If he keeps winning in his coming days like he did the first one, this stop along the way on the Collins Train should be another, albeit higher-paying, blast.

Friday: Mayhem’s Already Here

 

12.13.16
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Learning From History

collins

Geoff Collins looks like Dan Klecko in this photo.

Already, the testimonials are pouring in as a great Power 5 defensive coordinator is hired by an AAC school.

Got to love this quote from his former head coach:

“He’s a top-notch recruiter, a tremendous leader of young men and a brilliant coach.”

A quote about new Temple head coach Geoff Collins from Florida head coach Jim McElwain?

Could be, but that quote was uttered three years ago yesterday by Brian Kelly, the head coach at Notre Dame, about Bob Diaco, the new head coach at UConn. On that day, Notre Dame long snapper Scott Daly called Diaco “an incredible coach and an even better man.” Future All-American linebacker Jaylon Smith reacted with a “No!” when he heard the news.

Despite all the accolades, Diaco turned out to be a terrible hire for UConn, and no amount of lipstick can make that pig look good.

The point being that hiring assistant coaches—more than head coaches, certainly—is an inexact science. There is a Peter Principle involved—some guys rise to their respective levels of competence. For some guys, like Diaco, and maybe Steve Addazio, the best jobs they’ve ever done might have come as assistant coaches and that might be the best job they are capable of doing.

For some, like Matt Rhule, the best jobs they have done were as head coaches.

Maybe Collins is more like Rhule than Diaco but the point is, no one really knows. Everything about hiring an assistant coach with no track record as a head coach at the level Temple currently plays is a crapshoot.

It’s no coincidence that the best head coaching hire in Temple football history, Wayne Hardin, was a great head coach at a Top 10 team before he ever came to Temple. That market is now too rich for the Owls and they are forced to take chances because they do not have the millions to hire away Top 10 head FBS coaches anymore.

On Wednesday, at an 11 a.m. press conference, Temple rolls the dice on another assistant coach, like it rolled the dice on a Clemson DC named Ron Dickerson in 1992 and another Florida coordinator named Steve Addazio in 2010 and Matt Rhule in 2012. The testimonials will come pouring in shortly after that.

The Owls will blow hard on that pair of dice as they introduce Collins. They can only hope to be as lucky as they were on the last roll.

Tomorrow Night: Reaction From Presser