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Mac & Bone Show - Geoff Collins Interview · Mac & Bone Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We're going to talk to a man, get a little
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: feisty as a coach, man. What a resume as a coach.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I know a lot of Tar Heel fans remember him
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: as a D.C.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: In 2024.
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: Part of the Gamecocks staff last year as well.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Part of the Gamecocks staff.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: A lot of us remember him for his head coaching
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: job at Georgia Tech, Temple before that. If I read
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: off his whole resume in coaching, bone, the interview would
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: be over. We'd be out of time. He is an
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: accomplished coach, and he's doing the media thing right now.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: And this is some stuff you might want to check
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: out on his YouTube channel, at Coach Jeff Collins. He
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: is Jeff Collins, and he joins us to talk some
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: college football here on the Mac and Bone Show.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Coach, it is a pleasure. Thank you for coming on.
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: Heck, yeah, I appreciate it. I love the intro. And
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: just make sure people understand when they spell the name,
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: Coach Jeff Collins, it's G-E-O-F-F. As George Washington said, there's
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: going to be two ways to spell that name, G-E-F-F
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: the wrong way, G-E-O-F-F the right way.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: So, Coach Jeff.
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: Collins, if you're tuned, like and subscribe, and let's go.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Let's get that straight. Let's get that straight. Coach, I
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: never knew this. Are you also called Scooter? That's on
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: your Wikipedia page.
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: I have no idea, man. Nobody's called me Scooter to
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: my face, so I have no idea.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Look at that. It says Scooter Collins, and it's your bio.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: It says William Jeffrey Scooter Collins. What the heck? Get
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: that off Wikipedia.
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: I've got to talk to my PR team. I've got
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: to get South Carolina to take it off. I've got
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: to get Scooter to take it off, too.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: I'm glad I asked you before saying Scooter, because that
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: would be awkward. You're like, who the hell is Scooter?
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: That is hilarious. That is hilarious.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: All right, so let's talk about what's going on in
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the world of college football. I want to start with
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: the Clemson situation. Dabo had that thing. And listen, we're
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: comparing Dabo and the program to where only he has
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: had it, right? Like he had it to where they
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: were right there, 1-1-A with Nick Saban's Alabama. But it
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: clearly has dropped off. What do you think are the
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: reasons for the drop-off at Clemson?
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: So I think that everything that happened Saturday night in
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: Death Valley against LSU, I do not know that there
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: are many teams in college football that would have walked
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: into that environment and had success last Saturday night. Like,
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: I've coached in Death Valley at night. I've coached in
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: Death Valley during the day. It's two different environments. But
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: then you add LSU at night and the can of gasoline–
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: that Frank Kiffin poured on it, there ain't a lot
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: of teams that are going to go in that environment
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: and have a ton of success. So I think people
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: need to have that perspective a little bit as well.
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: And I do think Dabo's had a great run. He's
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: a phenomenal coach, maybe even a better person. But I
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: just think there's a new age of college football, and
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: there's a lot of us, and I might be included
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: in this, that do remember the days of five, 10
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: years ago and how you build a program, how you
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: build young men within your program, the values and the,
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: you know, things that take to run a great program.
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: I don't know that they're the same in this present
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: day and time. And I think just the adjustment for
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: some places has been harder than the others because there's
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: such a, We had so much success. We won two natties.
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: We had all of these, you know, number one draft
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: picks and first round draft picks. And it worked for
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: a long time. And just that change is harder for some.
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: And I completely get it.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: Coach, we mentioned you were around the South Carolina program
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: last year. When it comes to this year, how much
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: do you think the addition of Kendall Bryles to the
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: staff will really finally unlock maybe the most they can
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: get out of Lenore Sellers?
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: Coach, it's amazing. I was with Shane. Shane and I
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: GA'd together at Georgia Tech 27, 8 years ago, so
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: one of my closest friends in the world. So I
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: was so blessed to be with him last year because
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: I know how lonely that seat can be. Like, it's
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: not lonely when you're 9, 10, 11 wins. Like, everybody's
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: your friend, right? But when you're having a year that
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: is not, you know, you're having a lot of close
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: losses and the record ends up being what it is,
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: even though you are playing really good football against a
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: great schedule, coach, that chair gets lonely. Everybody disappears on you.
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: And so I feel blessed to have been in the
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: seat that I was in and to kind of help
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: him through all the changes that he had to make
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: during the season, then helping through that transition with finding Kendall,
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: hiring Kendall. And I think you look at game one,
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: I know it's a small sample size, but Kendall Brown's
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: success as an offensive play caller over the years is
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: next level great, right? And then you pair him with,
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: Lenora Sellers, who's a frequent athlete and a great kid,
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: I think was the perfect hire at the perfect time.
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: And the last piece of the puzzle is the schedule piece.
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: They've got a three-game run that they get to create some,
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: put up some big numbers, you know, put up some
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: great performances defensively, get a lot of positive energy coming
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: back before they go down the tough SEC stretch. Not
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: all those teams have that kind of setup. Like some
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: teams that are, you know, in positions that fan bases
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: are worried, they open up with top five teams, top
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: 10 teams, top 15 teams. And, you know, like if
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: you look at Mike Norvell, they play a top 20
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: SMU down to the wire. The energy is still not
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: great because they lost. If they had played a FCS
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: or a group of six, they might win by four scores.
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: the conversations are tempered for a little bit. So I
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: think all of the things coming into play these days
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: in college football, but I'm so fired up for Shane,
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: Clayton White, the defense coordinator, one of my dear friends,
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: that they get a great start to the season and
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: enroll into SEC play, clicking on all cylinders.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: We're talking with longtime college football coach Jeff Collins. Check
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: him out. Check that YouTube channel out. At Coach Jeff Collins,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: he says he spells Jeff the right way. G-E-O-F-F. Find
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: his YouTube breakdowns. It's really good stuff, and he's just
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: getting going with it. He's going to grow this. I
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: love your passion, Coach. I want to talk to you.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: I thought another example of how good Kendall Bryles was
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: was on display in Ireland when the TCU offense, without him,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: scored only 10 points. I know the weather was rough,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: but that was a big win for North Carolina.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: We got a lot of Heels fans listening. There's a
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: lot of noise off the field. What did you see
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: from Carolina in that football game, and do you expect
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: it to be an improved season, improved team this year
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: at UNC?
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: The positive that you can take away is they won
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: the game. However ugly it may have been, it was
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: typical Ireland weather. It's in another country. There's a lot
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: of things, but They pulled it out in a typical
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: Bill Belichick fashion. If they can keep doing that, that
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: bodes well. But the thing that I was impressed with
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: being a defensive guy is I thought the front four
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: in the Carolina blue was dominant. So regardless of whatever
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: else happened, you know, good ball, bad ball, whatever, that
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: defensive line and that jersey number nine, the defensive end,
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: they're really, really good. And I think if you can
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: lean into the strengths of that defensive line, I think
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: Bill called the defense or obviously was heavily involved in
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: the game planning. I'm a really good defense coordinator. I'm
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: not Bill Belichick. To see him having his blueprint and
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: his fingerprints on it accompanied with a tremendous front four,
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: I think they're going to be in a lot of games.
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: Coach, we now have a fight between Jeffs on the
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: text line right now of the J-E-F-Fs versus the way
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: you spell it.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Oh, my goodness. It's a whole feud. I didn't know
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: there was a whole feud like this, Coach.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: Now, for as well as it went for UNC Week Zero,
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: the next game did not go well for, if you're
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: a Pack fan, how surprised were you that Virginia dominated
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: the way that they did against NC State? And having
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: seen State, what do you think is fixable from that
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: performance going forward?
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, let me just say this real quick. Some people
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: like to be ordinary and be very common, and the
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: way they spell their name is just very common. Others
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: like to be unique, like to be different, like to
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: stand out amongst the crowd, and that's fine. You can
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: choose which way you want to be. I get it.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Which type of Jeff do you want to be?
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: I'm fine. You can be like everybody else, or you
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: can be unique, and I'm good either way. But interestingly,
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: so I did a road trip during preseason, I went
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: to 30 different camps during preseason. It was phenomenal. My
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: first two stops because of week zero, the number one
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: stop on the tour was in Charlottesville. The number two
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: stop on the tour was in Raleigh to go see
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: both practices. Most practices are closed to everybody. I'm blessed
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: that I was able to get in. And the thing
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: that I took away, I thought, both had very talented programs, right?
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: And the defense that I saw in Charlottesville that day
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: was impressive. I was like, this is going to be
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: a really, really good defense. and like Bo, whatever his
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: name is, Pribula, the kid that ran for Missouri, right? Well,
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: you can't touch the quarterback in practice, so I couldn't
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: really get a sense of who he was, right? So
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: I left the practice. It's going to be a great defense.
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: I don't know about the quarterback. I go to NC
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: State's practice. I thought Dave Dorn ran a great practice, physical, competitive,
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: and I didn't see a lot of holes on the team.
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: But the thing that stood out was the quarterback at
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: NC State was noticeably great and different and special. But
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: then you turn on the game and the things that
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: went head-to-head, Virginia's defense, I thought, had a dominant performance, right?
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: And then you look at what Virginia did offensively, they
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: did so many things that Des Kitchens, the offensive coordinator,
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: has never done before. Things that Bo, the quarterback, didn't
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: do at Missouri. So I can see how NC State
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: wasn't ready because it was a completely different scheme. And
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: once that quarterback for Virginia's dot starts blinking like on
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: EA Sports or Madden, it's hard to stop and shut
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: that down. And that's exactly how it played out.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Man, that's a great breakdown.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Great perspective from you, Coach, being at those two practices. Coach,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: you mentioned you were a senior defensive assistant on Coach
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Beamer's staff in South Carolina last year. Now you've got
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: all these media things going on. Do you want to
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: get back into coaching, or do you kind of feel
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: like this stuff has gotten a little too crazy, like
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: the game's changed too much?
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: What do you think?
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: So that's very interesting. So since I was the head
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: coach at Georgia tech, I've been presented so many things
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: to be a head coach again, to be a coordinator
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: at elite programs across the country. I've been asked to
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: be a, you know, calling games on ESPN in studio analyst,
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: all of those kinds of things have been presented to me.
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: And I know those will be presented again, come December,
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: January with the coaching, but this thing is a lot
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: of fun. Like I get the, Hang out on a
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: Thursday morning, Wednesday morning, watching my daughter in a horse
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: lesson and talk football with you guys. This is fun, man.
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: And like in this YouTube content space, there's nobody that's
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: like me with my resume that is doing this. And
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: when they presented it to me, I can sit in
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: the studio in a suit and tie or I can
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: sit in my man cave rocking a sleeveless hoodie. Hey,
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: I kind of like the choice B. And so I'm
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: just going to go with this and just see where
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: it takes me. And I'm having a ton of fun.
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: I get to watch a ton of ball. I get
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: to talk ball. I get to spend time being a
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: girl dad, be spending time with my wife. Right now,
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: life is pretty good. But I got to imagine come
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: December and January when, you know, some big names come
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: call and I'm definitely going to have to listen because
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: I do love college football, but I'm going to have
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: fun with this while I'm doing it.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: We've been doing this for 20-plus years each, Mac, for
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: 30 years over here. We can tell when guys just
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: naturally have that gift of communication for explaining the game.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: If you stay with this, man, you're going to absolutely
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: crush the media thing.
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: I appreciate it, man.