Jamie Collins Imparts NFL Knowledge To Tar Heels With First Coaching Opportunity

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Jaime Collins spent his first year of retirement from the NFL playing golf and spending time around the house — “soft living,” he called it.

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Collins, 35, spent 10 seasons in the NFL as a linebacker, earning Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro honors with the New England Patriots in 2015. He was a member of one of Bill Belichick’s Super Bowl-winning Patriots teams in the 2010s, as New England brought home Super Bowl XLIX with a victory over the Seattle Seahawks.

After a while, he said his wife, Katrina, told him to find something to do in retirement. So upon getting a call from Belichick, who had just accepted the North Carolina head coaching job, Collins decided to give coaching a try.

“I thought about it for, like, two seconds, but it was a no-brainer,” Collins said on Thursday. “He is the greatest coach, and it would have been ignorant for me to not accept it. So, yeah, it was very easy. It was very quick. Chopped it up with the wife. It was real quick, but it was an opportunity that I just had to take.

“Football is my life, man. That was the experience I got, all the knowledge I picked up. It’s only right to give it back. It’s only right to let it back out and share my experiences and my trials and tribulations with the game to somebody else. And what better group would it be than a bright, up-and-coming group of talents here at UNC? So it was just like, why not? I have a lot to give, so let me go out here and give it a shot.”

Belichick brought on Collins as the team’s inside linebackers coach. This season is Collins’ first foray into coaching, and he’s begun to see the differences in approaching the sport as a player versus as a coach.

“When I was playing, I let a lot of the skills take over, so I didn’t need every single detail when I was playing,” Collins said. “But when you’re coaching, you have to slow it down. You have to break it down. And on this level, some of the guys don’t understand certain things. So coaching and playing is very different, and now I’m getting better at the details, breaking down every single thing.”

In his 10-year NFL career, Collins spent three separate stints with the Patriots. New England drafted him out of Southern Miss in 2013 in the second round with the 52nd overall pick. Collins also played for the Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions while in the NFL. He recorded career totals of 708 tackles, 26.5 sacks, 12 interceptions and 19 forced fumbles.

While at Southern Miss, he was coached by Larry Fedora for three seasons. Fedora left after the 2011 season to coach at North Carolina. Collins credited Fedora for his upbeat style of coaching, saying Fedora and Belichick are two of the coaches he learned from the most over the years.

“Fedora, he was super energetic, always happy, kept us having a good time,” Collins said. “And I liked that, because it always took away from the toughness and the hard times in football. And then Bill, just the ultimate brains, the details, every single detail and all the special situations and stuff like that. I definitely try to mimic and pick up on stuff like that from a lot of guys.”

Collins gave coaching a thought during his last season in the NFL. He described himself as a player’s coach at the time, giving his teammates bits of advice here and there.

Collins learned his share of lessons from Belichick in the 79 games he spent with the franchise across seven seasons. Belichick hasn’t changed much on the field since leaving the NFL, Collins said.

“The only difference is college and NFL,” Collins said. “He’s still Bill, and that’s what you’re gonna get with him: consistency. And that’s what I appreciate the most, is being consistent. As long as somebody’s consistent, then you can’t judge them. You can’t say anything about him. He’s gonna give you his best every day, all day. He’s always gonna be the same dude.”