Geoff Collins shares how quickly he started building relationships with North Carolina players

Former Temple and Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins was hired as the new defensive coordinator for North Carolina on January 5 after spending one year away from coaching entirely in during the 2023 season.

Collins spent the year breaking down and analyzing film at the college and NFL levels to prepare himself for his next opportunity so he could hit the ground running. But he’s also hit the ground running in regards to building relationships with his new players, asked at his introductory press conference if he’s been able to spend some time with his defensive players.

“So I’ll take it back even a little bit further, this isn’t on defense, but the first person I called and FaceTimed was Nate McCollum,” Collins said. “So they sent out a TeamWorks to the team before they announced it to you guys and Nate sends me an immediate text, again I’ll save that between us, I screen-shotted it to keep it in my heart. But I FaceTimed before I even called my mom and my in-laws, I called Nate McCollum and had FaceTime with him.”

McCollum serves as a familiar face for Collins, with the wide receiver spending the first three seasons of his college career at Georgia Tech before transferring to North Carolina last offseason.

The two have some history, but Collins also got a head start on creating some new relationships with two of the team’s most impactful defensive players. Linebackers Kaimon Rucker and Power Echols.

“And then I don’t know if it was, I have to check the time stamp, but Rucker, number 25, hits me up within the first 30 minutes and we get on the phone and we talk and start having conversations. He’s come in and watched film, Power’s come in and watched film, long conversations with them,” Collins said. “Obviously us getting on the road recruiting throws a little wrench in there, but we will continue to build those relationships. But those two guys were the first ones and then two they jump off of the tape. When you turn that thing on, 25 and 23, really good players.”

Hopefully, the early efforts of Collins and his players will pay off for the Tar Heels’ defense in 2024, with Collins representing the third defensive coordinator head coach Mack Brown has hired in the last five seasons amid the program’s defensive struggles. As Collins spoke on what his conversations with Rucker and Echols entailed as the Tar Heels work towards improving their defense.

“Just the expectation we have, the standard that we have philosophically on defense, the leadership positions that they’re already in within the organization, but also the things that we need them to do with the guys moving forward and the work ethic and all those kind of things. Empowering them to make sure they step up and set the standard, uphold the standard, and those kind of things,” Collins concluded.