The 'Minister of Mayhem': Geoff Collins brings experience, fresh ideas to UNC football

When Geoff Collins began his interview for the UNC football defensive coordinator position, Mack Brown could only think, "Yes, yes yes!"

“In the first 10 minutes, Geoff had everyone eating out of his hands,” the head coach said. 

Suffice to say, he got the job.

While reflecting on Collins’ arrival during a press conference on Monday, Brown pretended to write check marks on a piece of paper. The veteran coach has finally found what he is looking for. Collins checks all the boxes.

Following the departure of Gene Chizik, the former assistant head coach for defense, at the end of the 2023 season, UNC Athletic Communications announced that Collins would be taking over the defensive coordinator position. The “Minister of Mayhem,” as he is nicknamed, previously spent 11 years as a defensive coordinator at programs like Florida International, Mississippi State and Florida with defenses ranking as high as No. 5 nationally. Before 2022, he served as the head coach at Temple and Georgia Tech.

After being fired by the Yellow Jackets in September 2022, it didn't take too long for Collins to return to the game. During week one of the 2023 season, Collins was on the field for pregame warmups during the Central Michigan-Michigan State game to “support a couple of buddies."His wife, Jennifer, looked over to her husband and saw a look in his eyes. 

“She was like, ‘Okay, we’re probably going to end up getting back into this thing by the end of the season,’” Collins said. 

With time on his hands and the drive to get back into the game, Collins dedicated himself to studying. He focused on trends, watched tape and found jobs doing some consulting work with major programs like Georgia to get back to what he missed most — leading a defense. 

The last time Collins was a defensive coordinator was in 2016 during his two-season stint with Florida. During both seasons, he sported a defense that ranked in the top 10 nationally.

“Being a head coach is awesome, but I genuinely miss being a playcaller and standing in front of a defense,” Collins said. 

So, when a Hall of Famer like Brown called, Collins left his “man cave” and came to Chapel Hill.

After UNC's defense ranked just 95th nationally in 2023, and 116th nationally in 2022, Collins is looking to create consistency. To play fast, free and aggressive. To create chaos without being chaotic.

For Collins, this simplicity in combination with his fiery style of play manifests into being aggressive on first downs, getting his players into advantageous positions and creating third-and-longs to force turnovers. Instead of relying heavily on starters, Collins plans to rotate players more frequently and give them a simpler style of play calling so they can “cut loose” in the backfield. 

To Brown and newly promoted defensive line coach Ted Monachino, Collins represents what the UNC coaching staff has been longing for since the head coach’s return — a chance to get to the next level after several disappointing ends to the season. 

“It’s hard to see around corners sometimes and we didn’t do a very good job of seeing around corners defensively here,” Monachino said. “I think that’s going to be a big part of our mission moving forward.”

With Collins on the sidelines, the Tar Heels will have the chance to move past recent late-season struggles and bring a new style of defense to Chapel Hill.  

“We’re close, man,” Brown said. “We just got to take another step.”

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