What will Geoff Collins role be at South Carolina?

One day after reports surfaced that former Georgia Tech head football coach Geoff Collins was joining the South Carolina staff, Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer confirmed the news on Sunday.

The veteran coach will serve as a senior defensive assistant coach, according to a release from the school.

Collins spent last season as Mack Brown’s defensive coordinator at North Carolina after serving for four years as the Yellow Jackets head coach.

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TheBigSpur’s Hale McGranahan was first to report the expected move on Saturday.

The release from South Carolina continues below:

In total, Collins has six years of head coaching experience and 12 years of experience as a defensive coordinator at the collegiate level, including six years in the SEC. He has recruited and/or coached more than three dozen players who have gone on to play in the National Football League, including six NFL draft picks in his four seasons at Georgia Tech.

During his lone season in Chapel Hill, Collins’s Tar Heel defense recorded 41 sacks, tying for the sixth-best mark in the nation.

An accomplished recruiter, Collins produced back-to-back top-25 recruiting classes. His first full recruiting class in 2020 was the first top-25 class at Georgia Tech since 2007 and just the second in school history. His second recruiting class at Tech in 2021 was a top-20 class. In all, Georgia Tech added 34 four- or five-star recruits and 18 of the 50 highest-ranked high-school recruits in program history.

Prior to taking the reins at Georgia Tech, Collins put together the most successful first two seasons by a head coach in Temple’s 121-year football history in 2017 and ‘18. Collins compiled 15 wins and led Temple to two bowl games. The Owls win over FIU in the 2017 Gasparilla Bowl, was just the third bowl win in school history.

Prior to becoming head coach at Temple, Collins was one of the nation’s most respected defensive coordinators, serving in the role at Florida (2015-16), Mississippi State (2013-14, co-DC: 2011-12), FIU (2010) and his alma mater, Western Carolina (2002-05).

Highlights of his career as a coordinator included ranking among the nation’s top 10 in total defense in each of his two seasons at Florida (No. 8 in 2015 and No. 5 in 2016), ranking among the top 25 nationally in total defense (18th – 2013) and scoring defense (23rd – 2014) during his two seasons calling plays at Mississippi State and leading the Sun Belt Conference in total defense, scoring defense and turnover margin in his lone campaign at FIU (2010).

At the time, Collins was the only coach to ever be nominated for the Broyles Award, given to college football’s top assistant coach, at three different schools (FIU – 2010, Mississippi State – 2014 and Florida – 2015).

Collins’ coaching career also includes a pair of prior stints at Georgia Tech. He first came to The Flats as a graduate assistant (1999-2000), then tight ends coach (2001) under head coach George O’Leary from 1999-2001, followed by a year as director of player personnel under head coach Chan Gailey in 2006.

Collins has also served on the staffs at Western Carolina (student assistant – 1993-94), Franklin (N.C.) H.S. (assistant coach – 1995), Fordham (linebackers coach – 1996), Albright (defensive coordinator – 1997-98), Alabama (director of player personnel – 2007) and UCF (linebackers coach/recruiting coordinator – 2008- 09).

As a student-athlete, Collins totaled 194 career tackles as an outside linebacker and defensive back at Western Carolina (1989-92).

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