Geoff Collins' College Football Odyssey: From Walk-On to Head Coach

speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, fire up the grill, crank the speakers loud. Saturdays feel holy in this college crowd. Sethin' James on the mic, preaching gospel true, talking rivalries, legends, red, black, old and blue From dead valley lights to the camp, Randall Cold, they're telling stories, they never get old, ain't no bench warm hearts on the show tonight. They're walking on proud on the stadium lies. Little preferred walk on, no scholarship still putting it on from the church until gate

speaker-1: Welcome to the preferred walk-on show, the People's College Football Show. I am your host, Seth Saunders, and this is episode two in our summer interview series. And I could not be more fired up to welcome our guest today. He embodies everything that this show is all about. He started his journey as a walk-on at Western Carolina. No guarantees, no shortcuts, just belief, grit, and a willingness to go out and make the deposits every single day. Which led to him earning a scholarship and becoming a three-year starter. When his playing career ended, he transitioned to coaching with the same walk on grit. He climbed the ranks, GA, high school coach, D3, FCS, FBS, all the rungs of the coaching ladder, unto the brightest stages in the sport. He understands leadership under pressure, culture building in an era when the landscape is moving and shifting daily. His story is one of resilience, reinvention, and perseverance. I could not be more excited to welcome one of our own former walk-on, proud Western Carolina catamount and college football coach with over three decades of experience and enormous preferred walk-on welcome to Jeff Collins. Coach, welcome to the show, brother.

speaker-0: It it is an absolute honor. I I'm a huge fan of all that you do. ⁓ obviously I'm a huge fan of that hat and T shirt and you know, hopefully to get one in the mail here soon.

speaker-1: Yeah, man. It's coming. It's coming. I told Coach these are prototypes and he'll be one of the first ones to rock them. So coach, we're fired up to talk to you. I want to ⁓ I want to start with you like this today, okay? You wore two numbers at Western Carolina. You wore 92 and you wore five. What stories could those numbers tell and how do they embody your path in color week?

speaker-0: Yeah, you know, I I take a lot of pride in that. You know, I I walked on to Western Carolina. I was a defensive back, which makes that jersey number ninety-two a little even further more disrespectful. ⁓ but walked on to campus, no guarantees of anything. They threw number ninety-two on me. And of my entire freshman class, it ended up being some really good players. There were only two of us that didn't red shirt. So me and Andre Rosebar played in every single game. So I start on every single special team as a true freshman, blue collar, hard working, some would say a little crazy, but I still remember my f very first college football game. We go to eastern Kentucky and DBs go out for the pregame warmups. And there's me doing backpedal drills with n number ninety-two and the student section was just destroying me the entire time. But I I was just happy to be on the squad and get to play and then as you said, I earned a full scholarship after the season, ⁓ jersey number five, single digit, and ⁓ ended up being a three year starter.

speaker-1: Yeah, well I I know that's such a special place to you, not just 'cause of play in there, but ⁓ there are other reasons as well, right? I I think a another personnel decision that worked out quite well for

speaker-0: Yeah. Yep. I I met my wife, Jennifer, after I was done playing, thankfully, ⁓ where I had a little bit more sense. ⁓ but met her and then that that was the ⁓ best decision that I ever made, ⁓ was marrying her. And we've been, you know, married thirty years going on, thirty one now, and she's been with me every step of the way. And ⁓ the best thing that ever happened to me was meeting her in a little hole in the wall ⁓ bar in Silva, North Carolina. Thirty two years. I love

speaker-1: That. Well, I know you're a proud catamount and what a proud program. I had a fantastic year last year. Coach Bell does an outstanding job there. They had for me, Coach, probably my favorite player to watch, maybe independent of level. And that was quarterback Jeron Dickens. I mean, what an electric factory that kid was. I thought that the Western Carolina Mercer game last year may have been, I mean, game of the year with the amount of points those two squads put up, you know, conference title in the line, like, gosh, it was fantastic. So

speaker-0: No question.

speaker-1: Unfortunately for us FCS fans, Tehran hit the portal and he's at UNC now. But man, I you know, I I think if you're a fan of the tar heels, you gotta be fired up about that. So

speaker-0: Yeah, absolutely. A great player.

speaker-1: Yeah, great, great player. Well, well, tell me this. How did being a walk-on shape the way you viewed work, your relationship with opportunity and leadership when you eventually stepped in the role of becoming a coach?

speaker-0: Yeah, just the the walk-on mindset is just been everything throughout my entire coaching career. Just having to earn every single thing that you get, no sense of entitlement. You know, there's no job that's too small. You're gonna go attack every single thing and every single day. And knowing in the back of your mind, there's always somebody that is more highly regarded, that is gonna get a shot to take what what you've earned and worked so hard for. So just that constant edge and chip on your shoulder. ha has never left me. And, you know, I've been on some of the biggest and brightest stages and, you know, coached in SEC championship games and, you know, coached in the swamp and Eeland Stadium and o on and on and on. But the the attitude, demeanor, grit, resilience, all those kind of things, I think is, you know, stayed with me the entire way. Do you

speaker-1: think given the landscape of how things are so rapidly shifting in in the sport that that we both love, A, is there still a role for the walk on? And and probably more importantly for me, if you're a kid like you were who was looking for an opportunity, loved the game, knew you had the talent to do it, it's just everybody else didn't know yet. How do you encourage kids like that or what message would you give kids like that who are fighting and clawing and want to stay in this game and get their shot?

speaker-0: Yeah, I think the, you know, you just look at it, you know, almost weekly in the off season during preseason, you know, coaches stamping their program and the program's identity with the giving a scholarship to a walk-on. You know, ⁓ Mike Elko just did it yesterday or the day before with the young man. And I don't know anything about that kid, but I do know this. He embodies every single thing that the Texas ANM 12th man football ⁓ program stands for. I don't know anything about it, but that act by Mike Elko, I think, just stamps what he truly believes in. And for it's an aspirational goal for every single player in the organization from Marcus Reed, the start or Marcel Reed, the starting quarterback, ⁓ to whoever else. This is what this program embodies with that simple gesture. And some of my favorite moments ⁓ being a head coach are the times that I got to award. scholarships to guys that earned it. And there'll be times that I'll even go back through my social media feed and just go and watch ⁓ because we made a spectacle out of it too. Yeah. You know, so I I just watch and remember. And like ⁓ my fullback at at Temple, Rob Richard Vado, affectionately known as Nitro, when we gave him his scholarship, Zach Mesdi, just on and on and on, those moments were not only obviously big for them, big for their families. But what it says to the football team, the the other guys that are in the locker room, this is what we should try to embody as players and guys in the locker room.

speaker-1: Is there a specific moment you realize my playing days, I'm cognizant, are eventually gonna run out. But I know in my heart of hearts that when that's done, I'm meant to coach.

speaker-0: A l a little bit. I mean, even high school, you know, I read Sam Rattigliano's book, Pressure. ⁓ I mean, this was in the eighties, and just for some reason it just resonated with me. But then I go to college, earned a scholarship after my freshman year. They started me at safety and then they signed, I think, three safeties in that recruiting class. So I knew they were trying to out recruit me. So I put on some weight. I couldn't get faster, so I put on some weight and started outside linebacker. Then after that season, they obviously brought in Couple outside linebackers tried to out recruit me. I gained a little bit more weight, moved inside linebacker. Anyway, I realized that my role and the reason that I got to play as much as I did wasn't because I was a great player. I was a good player, 200 tackles, but when I was on the field, everybody around me played better. I made sure I knew every single player's job. And you would see me during, you know, after we got the call from the sidelines, I'm telling 10 other guys what to do. And so my value and my role. was to make other people better, know the game plan like a coach. And the day of graduation, my head coach Steve Hodgin, we had that little after graduation ceremony with the athletic, whatever. And I'll never forget he grabbed me by the hand and he said, Jeff, if you ever decide to coach, you have a job on my staff. And that is really my first job offer. So I did some other things and I'm like, you know what? I've got an offer to do this. I'm gonna go do that. And ⁓ it it ended up working out for me.

speaker-1: How meaningful is it to get affirmation like that from the guy who's been your leader and the guy that's coached you to kind of go, man, I I I didn't never really thought about this. But you kind of breathing that life into me or seeing that light into me then sets me up for something that eventually changes my life.

speaker-0: Yeah, it's it's very special in this day and age where you can screenshot messages, screenshot exchanges with with former players. I find myself doing that a lot. You know, I actually sent a message this morning. It's actually one of the first messages that saved in my phone from Josh Forney. And he sent me a message, this was fifteen years ago, the impact that I made on his life because I believed in him. And I sent that to him. It popped up on my phone. I sent it to Josh this morning because what that impact Steve Hodgin made on me, I want to try to breathe life into that for, you know, other young men as that as I'm getting blessed to coach them. And, you know, one of my greatest success stories, I mean it's really his success because he did it, is Fran Brown, who's now the head coach at Syracuse. He played for me at Western Carolina University, came from Camden, New Jersey, rough background. He'll tell you all the the stories about how he was raised and the things that he went through. But Believing in him, seeing all the talent that God had given him physically, but more importantly spiritually and in his heart and soul. And to see him on the stage that he's on, it it is absolutely amazing. Blake Harrell, the head coach at East Carolina, played for me at ⁓ Franklin High School, my first year coaching. So just on and on with th those stories are very special to me.

speaker-1: Man, that that's incredible. I did not know the Nexus with you and Coach Brown. That's incredible. He is one of coach he's one of my favorite leaders currently in college football. You you cannot hide passion and you cannot hide authenticity. And I I just feel like he's ripe with it. And yeah, he he he's one to watch.

speaker-0: His his ⁓ oldest son Franny is my godson. And I I'll try not I'll try not to get emotional, but that I mean, having that kind of relationship impact, all those kind of things. When Franny was first born, my wife Jennifer and I we didn't have kids yet, we didn't have kids till we were later in life. We used to babysit little Franny. And so just he he's special to me and I'm so excited, ⁓ you know, to go up there during preseason camp to watch and coach. And ⁓ that's my dude.

speaker-1: Man, that's beautiful, Coach. Well, I'm so grateful that you shared that. I I mentioned this because walk-ons usually, I think, develop a different relationship with whatever their game is, right? And I think it's one with less entitlement, more ownership of the day-to-day process. Do you think that gave you an edge, gave you a step ahead that maybe the guys that you were competing against in the coaching space didn't even realize later down the road when you were recruiting and then becoming a head coach?

speaker-0: Sure. I I think just the knowing that you had to be on edge at all times. Yeah, you had to have a drive, be the first one in the building, be the first one in the weight room, the last one to leave. I carried that with me throughout my career. When I was a baby coach, I was a young GA for George O'Leary at Georgia Tech in the late 90s. Somebody in the organization almost burnt down the building with the coffee machine. So I took it upon myself. To every single day beat George O'Leary into the building and to have the coffee machine rocking, rolling, ready to go because that was the first spot he hit every single day. And so I wanted to make sure that, hey, this is important to the head dog. I'm gonna make sure that I'm gonna make sure that that is gonna be taken care of. Now I made sure he knew that I was the one doing it too, but just those kind of small details as you're growing and developing, I think are are massive.

speaker-1: Let's go to Reading, Pennsylvania, nineteen ninety seven and nineteen ninety eight. How did your time at Albright shape you and what is your fondest memory of your time there?

speaker-0: There that there's too many and there I don't know how this show is rated on the the made for children or not. There there's some stories that I will never be able to tell in a public forum, but it was, you know, going to coach division three. And I think there's there's some things that are missed with guys that have never experienced being a walk on or coaching lower levels. Sometimes you've got to take a step back to catapult yourself forward. I'm twenty five years old and I'm the defensive coordinator. I'm a college football defensive coordinator. I'm two or three years older than the guys that I'm coaching. I mean, I'm still Uber close with with most of the guys on the defense. But just it was me. I was the defense coordinator, D B coach. Matt Rule was my linebackers coach. ⁓ and then Sean Padden, one of our closest friends in the world, was our D line coach. And he worked for Matt at Nebraska. And just the the passion, the intensity. You'll love this part. I and I sh I found unpacking my my office in our new house about three weeks ago and I found our preseason Albright College camp manual. We did four a days. Like two a days don't exist anymore. But we did four a day four practices in a day during preseason camp at Albright College. And just to be wired and dialed in for that length of time. And you know, we we did some things that were there was no cameras on us. There was no social media We got to experiment, we got to do crazy things that we had always dreamed of, you know, doing and were able to execute them. And they ended up being building blocks of how I played defense when I was the defense coordinator at the University of Florida. When I'm the defensive coordinator for the number one team in the country at Mississippi State, harkens back to the experiences that I had at Albright College. But a lot of times these days, there's so many analyst roles and you know, di quality control and different ways you can enter the highest level of football. Go go coach division two. Go call a game. Go have that pressure on you instead of, you know, being the eleventh man on one side of the ball at an elite program, you know, that kind of thing. So that's just my two cents on that.

speaker-1: I'm so glad you bring this up, and I'm so glad you shared that story, especially the piece about getting to experiment. And and the reason I'm happy about it is we had the privilege of talking to Coach Craig Stutzman, who is the current offensive coordinator at San Jose State right now. And he developed the spread and tread offense, and they have had outstanding success there. Well, coach, that all started at Emory and Henry, D three Emery and Henry. Yep. And he went there, needed a shot, and he told this same story. Man, I had a chance to experience. We weren't on TV. If it didn't work, so what? Didn't work. But he got to be free and figure something out and then created something that has eventually become an offense that's hit different stops and kind of changed the way offense is being played. And then you want to know the guy that took his place when he left? Head coach at Hawaii, Timmy Chank, who was his quarterback in college. So It's I I I just I'm I'm so thankful for you to share that perspective because I do think this gets lost today. You know, we so much live now in a microwave society. And sometimes the slow cooker, the food is just better, brother. And there's just space to to evolve and develop. And like, man, there's awesome, awesome football at the D3 level, awesome football at the D2 level, one double A, like all of it. And I just to your point, I feel like people try to jump that when it really is an opportunity and people should go.

speaker-0: Chase it. And then I I was the coordinator of Western Carolina for four years. My alma mater. And just the the experimentation that we did at that level. You know, we played ridiculously good defense the four years that I was there. Matt Rule, again, was my linebacker's coach at Western Carolina and Cullowe. And I still remember we played App State. They were the number one team in the country. Their star receiver had like was leading the nation in receiving yards. And so I developed a defense where I put Fran Brown man to man on that kid the entire day. He played press man bully ball on that kid for the entirety of the day. And I played a three-three stack hybrid around him, irregardless of where Fran was. Fran, you got one job. You take that kid out of the game. And we won the old mountain jug for the first time in forever. And it might actually be the last time it's been won. Yeah. But You I wouldn't have been able to do that at Florida or Mississippi State 'cause there's so many eyes and so many cameras and so many opinions and so many talking heads. And with the advent of social media, it is what it is. But just having the faith to do that, so that when we're playing old Miss in the Swamp and you know, it's a five versus three battle, I I've called a million games before that moment and so it wasn't too big for me.

speaker-1: Yeah, I mean it's it's no different to being a player, right, coach? It's it's reps. Like the more reps you have, the better prepared you're gonna be for whatever situation ends up coming across. And so yeah, I I just find so much so much value in that. And so I I just love that perspective from you who's had so much experience, right? And seen so many things. Well, look, you've touched on this. You you've coached at some incredible places and been on staffs with world class coaches and and coached guys who have become world class coaches. Which ones shaped your philosophy the most. And I don't just mean schematically and on the whiteboard. I'm more talking about building programs, leading men, helping foster young men into the guys they can become, the guys you can see that they could be.

speaker-0: Yeah, so I'll I'll I'll go through a series of name drops if that's okay. ⁓ the first head coach at the divisional one level was George O'Leary. Old school, hard nose, Irish, no nonsense, no fluff, complete organization. Was unbelievable at all those things and w had a tremendous amount of success. Then I go ⁓ go work for Nick Saban in Alabama, and his process and his mindset and his relentlessness.

speaker-1: Yes, absolutely.

speaker-0: all of the things that have made him arguably, with not much argument, the greatest coach in our game's history. I mean, he's phenomenal. And that experience was wonderful. Then I get to go work for Mario Cristobal, his first time as a head coach at FIU and we won a conference championship together. And then I work for Dan Mullen, his first time as a head coach at Mississippi State and had a ton of success. And all of those experiences shaped me a great deal from a process, from organization, from ideas of structure and how I want the program to be run, but and I don't know how much you've personally followed, but my personality isn't like theirs. So even though I was learning so much philosophically, organizationally, all those other things, the the personality that I always brought and the energy and the outside the box thinking wasn't being modeled. And so I just I read a ton and the person that I always admired so much was Pete Carroll. So As I was learning from these tremendous coaches, I was also searching for somebody that I could learn how they did it that was a little more similar to my personality. Mm-hmm. So then I'm putting that and I'm downloading that and I'm building my policy manual of how it's gonna be when I'm a head coach using all those great coaches and an influence from Coach Carroll. Then I go work for Jim McElwyn at the University of Florida. And Jim McEl, we we won back to back SEC East Championships, play great ball. He's one of the greatest coaches I've ever been around. But his the confidence that I gained from him was you better be yourself. So when I went and got the head job at Temple, it was completely, this is who I am, this is what I believe in, the energy, the juice, the social media presence, all those things came out and it was very authentic to who I was, taking the lessons that I'd learned and then applying them through a a lens and having the confidence, you know, through Jim McIne and You know, since then I've worked for another Hall of Famer in Mac Brown, who's a who's the GOAT. Like his in my phone, the emoji is just the goat emoji. Like I could have Mac Brown, that'd be cool, but I have the GOAT. So whenever he texts me or calls or whatever, there's a quite literal goat pops up on the Mac Brown message.

speaker-1: ⁓ that's outstanding. Yeah, we ⁓ we had the privilege last week of talking with new Montana head coach Bobby Kennedy. And Coach Kennedy was Coach Brown's ⁓ wide receivers coach during those magical runs. And ⁓ Coach Kennedy spoke so fondly of Coach Brown. And you could just tell that, you know, it the and and we told Coach Kennedy this too, is the beauty of of doing this podcast and getting to meet folks like you and getting to meet folks like Coach Kennedy is it's such a perspective shift from loving the game to starting to love the people that make the game what it is. And it's just made I feel like the tapestry of following college football so much richer because now I watch games for guys that we are now rooting for because we know their story, you know? And I don't know. It's it it's just a beautiful system. And like I I I love that two straight weeks now we're getting to hear Coach Brown get his flowers. So that that's fantastic.

speaker-0: So and I'm gonna go so this season, I I've done this you painstakingly said how old I am by saying I've done this for three decades. So I did thirty years of college football, loved it. But this year I'm just gonna go enjoy the game. Yeah. Like I'm gonna go see thirty plus camps in thirty days during preseason, go to places that I've never been to see games. And one of the places, as you just mentioned, I wanna go out to Montana because I visited Coach McIwain this summer for July fourth. Yeah. I wanna go see Montana, Montana State. I think that's a far off bucket list 'cause I'm sure it's on Thanksgiving weekend and I know that'll be hard, but I gotta go see some ball being played out in Montana, man.

speaker-1: All right. Well, look, I'm gonna tell you this. When you do Brawl of the Wild, you call me, I'll go do it with you, because that's tops on my list. All right. I had I'm still kicking myself a little bit for it. I had the chance to go to the super Brawl of the Wild. They played in the FCS semis this year and they were kind enough to credential us for it. And I I just couldn't make the logistics work with family stuff. But gosh, it was snowing. It was a battle. Like they I I have told anybody who will listen, like I will put that rivalry up against any at all levels of college football. Like number one, they all they both think about it all year and they loathe each other. Capital L.

speaker-0: You can you can feel it. Like we landed in the Bozeman Airport and then we went up to ⁓ Glacier Lake or whatever it is, and then we went to Flathead Lake to see Coach Mac. Yeah. And coach, so we met the the there's a company, clothing company called Up Top Clothing. And maybe I can get some free gear off of this plug. Yeah. Yeah. But I met all the dudes that run up top clothing. And it's just a Montana, Montana State clothing brand. Yeah. And it's phenomenal. Like my wife's favorite hoodie is an up top clothing a Montana hoodie. ⁓ man.

speaker-1: That that's out saying look, Washington Grizzly and I I don't want the Montana State fans to get upset 'cause Bobcast Stadium is apparently fantastic as well. But that vista at Washington Grizzly, it's it's unreal, man. So well yeah, well I'm on board with that. That

speaker-0: So we drove by we drove by it on the highway and you can drive eighty on the highway out in Montana because this is a wide open road. Yeah in the state you can see it and the hem up on the side of the hill. Phenomenal.

speaker-1: Yeah. That's aces, man. Well ⁓ yeah, that that's fantastic. Well, I'm serious. You tell me. I I'll I will make the pilgrimage out 'cause that that's on top of the list. I'll ⁓ I'll get all geared up, I'll go cowboy hat the whole fan coach. I'm interested in this from you because you've been in a position that not many people have, because being a head coach in college football is enormous pressure and tons of public criticism. And I I'm selfishly asking this so I can give the counsel to my own kids, but when you've had to deal with adversity, how do you navigate that? How do you How do you kind of get yourself in a place where you're still able to make the deposits you've got to every day and keep controlling your controllables without being affected by all of this outside influence, all of this external environment?

speaker-0: Right. So that it's a phenomenal question. I I don't know if I'm gonna give it service to to to the answer, but the the first thing is the belief in yourself. Mm-hmm. You know, you've got to have a strong belief in yourself and a conviction and success that you've had in the past is gonna replicate through the process that you're you know, teaching, you know, the young men that are in your program and under your care. And when things go bad, everybody's looking at you how you're gonna respond, whether that's a As a position coach, as a coordinator, as a head coach, everybody's looking internally. How are you going to respond? Are you going to start treating people different? Are you going to lower your standards? Are you going to change your standards? Those kind of things. So having that built within that I'm going to be the same dude every day, same energy, passion, standard, all those kind of things. But also having an outlet, a trusted person that you can talk through this the realness of the situation. And I was I was blessed that throughout my career, it just was on a constant upward trajectory. I mean, every single move was just building on another one and then success after success after success. And I really didn't have a downturn until I took the Jordan Tech job. And everybody knew that was going to be a tough transition with the triple option, all those other things. But the the things that we walked into, and I won't get into any of those specifics. But just having somebody that you can trust, that has your best interest at heart, that you can tell the raw, unfiltered truth to that you can't say publicly, you know, because there's things that I've never complained about, will never complain about, things that happened that nobody really needs to know, that I had to deal with. Well, who can you trust that's gonna give you support, that's gonna give you counsel, that's gonna be honest with you, that, hey, dude, you're complaining about this? It's probably your fault. So let's get over it and move on. Or that is a real problem. What are we going to do to fix it? And what are the avenues to fix it? And that person was my wife. You know, she's been with me. She knows me. She loves me. She believes in me. And that's the one person where she's going to tell me the truth sometimes that I don't really want to hear, but I need to hear it so that I can advance and develop. And the people that are under my care, I can give the most. ⁓ to them as well. And the other piece that I would highly suggest, and this comes from watching Wreck It Ralph 2. So Wreck It Ralph 2, my man is blowing up on social media, right? That's so huge. He's the hottest thing. Well then he reads the comments. Don't read the comments. Wreck it Ralph lost his mind when he read the comments and they do no good for you, right? So just do what you're doing, have a belief and go and Give all you can to help people from a genuine spirit improve, and then good things will happen for you.

speaker-1: Yeah. That's that's great counsel, coach. I I think one of the things I'm concerned about as a parent and as a parent of young athletes is there is so much external influence and so many areas of noise and so many outlets of noise. And, you know, we try to be as consistent as possible in our messaging of we're going to control our controllables. And the things that we always control are effort, attitude, and the kind of teammate that we are. And as long as we're doing those three things, we can self evaluate on that and say, How did I show up in those areas? The rest of the things are the rest of the things. But if you have, I feel like those internal check boxes like you mentioned that you can stay consistent with each day, gosh, man, I just think it sets you so far ahead of your peers and and keeps the peace of mind where it can be. So

speaker-0: I mean, who and who whose opinion are you gonna let in? That's right. You know, there's there's like the the people that, you know, are doing great things in this world aren't on social media bashing others. Right. If anything, if they see someone that is struggling or has a downturn or whatever, they want to lift them up. Right. So make sure that you, you know, whose counsel or whose opinion you let in. Like I did a show last week or whatever, and somebody sent me a Kind of funny but kind of mean comment that somebody posted was a Georgia Tech fan. It's fine. And they sent it to me and kind of laughing, you know, and I read it, you know, I I typically don't, but in the same 10 minute span, the defensive coordinator from Indiana University, who just won the Broyles Award, who just won a national championship, texted me positively about the same episode and how something I said resonated with him. So whose opinion are is gonna are you gonna let in? Like are you gonna let the positive ones from somebody that's one of your peers and somebody that's having tremendous success? Or are you gonna so I would make sure I I am very careful of the counsel and the opinions that I let get into here and to hear.

speaker-1: We we tell our kids there are two types of people on your path. There are flame keepers and there are fire ex there are fire extinguishers. You wanna surround yourself with the people that are gonna give oxygen to your flame and keep the people out who are trying to blow it out. And if you can do that throughout life, you're you'll be just fine. So

speaker-0: So outside of our daughter's bedroom, we have two huge, like I'm I mean, they're portra a poster size of here's a good friend, here's a friend we want to stay away from. And it lists number one is those two differentiators and making sure that mindset and you gotta be that too. You gotta be somebody that sparks belief and supports and you know, some of my favorite times watching my daughter.

speaker-1: You do.

speaker-0: is when she's supporting others. You know, when she's going to one of her friends' dance competitions and hyping her up. Or if she's at a horse lesson and one of her friends does something really cool, well, let's gas it up. Let's hype hype it up. Yeah. And be excited for and those moments that she does that, I couldn't be more prouder, even above and beyond the cool things that she does personally. But when she hypes someone else up, it's awesome.

speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah, that's fantastic, coach. Well look, last question today, okay, and we appreciate you being so generous with your time, but you've got access to Doc Brown's DeLorean, all right? And you can go back to to Color Wee, your last game as a catamount. What advice would you give young Jeff as he closes one chapter of his life and is about to embark on another?

speaker-0: Well and you said my last game and my last play. I literally in my last play of college football tackled Scott Satterfield, who's now the head coach at Cincinnati. He was playing quarterback for App State, our rival. They ran a little Delly G lead. I tackled him and that was my last play of college football. He and I've since become tremendous friends ⁓ with that. But the the biggest piece of advice was I the in my entire career, I was just hell bent going in thousand miles an hour, next move, next job, next promotion, next big opportunity, what was how I ascended and got to where I got as a head coach at two different Division I schools. But I would say slow down. Yeah. Slow down the process. Like still have that fire, still have that energy. But every single move is not going to be the thing that brings you happiness or joy. Make sure if you finally find a place where you're in a good place, your family's in a good place, you're doing something where it's making a true impact. It's okay to sit in that space for a while. You know, I had that when I was the head coach at Temple University and you know, the old saying, you don't know what you have until you don't anymore. You know, I I'd say just, you know, slow down and, you know, still coach as hard as you do, energy, all those kind of things and pour into the game. But just, you know, we don't have to rush through this thing. Like just enjoy coaching at Albright College. Enjoy coaching at Fordham, you know, enjoy being in the swamp and on those stages. Those are cool. Don't be in such a hurry to move on to the next one. Take your time and sit in it a little bit.

speaker-1: Yeah, my dad told me when we had our first kid, he said, just remember, the days are long, but the years are short. And so that was kind of his way of saying, like, hey man, just take it in. All all the things, take it in, because it's all going to be a gift and a blessing. Well, well, look, coach, I I can't tell you how thankful I am for the time today. I I loved getting to hear your story. And I'm gonna tell you this, man. If you're if you were still coaching, I'd sign up to play for you tomorrow. I mean, I'm I'm all behind it. And and please tell our listeners how they how they can support you.

speaker-0: I appreciate it, man. Just go go enjoy this great game, man, because I am going to this year. Like I am going to enjoy it. ⁓ you know, I've never been to a college football game with my daughter, really with my family. So I'm gonna I'm gonna do that this year. And I'm gonna go to some places I've never been. ⁓ I'm gonna go see my boy rule at Nebraska. I've never even been to the state of Nebraska. I'm gonna go watch him coach. I've never been to ⁓ a game at State College, Penn State. I'm gonna go. I I'm I'm fired up, man. So I just gonna I'm gonna give back to the game because the game has given so much to me. And ⁓ so I'm just gonna sit back and and enjoy it and enjoy being a girl dad. It's awesome.

speaker-1: I think we are gonna need a Coach Collins Road Trip Chronicles for the college football Odyssey ⁓ this fall. Yeah, yeah. We gotta have that coach.

speaker-0: I like a and when we get off when we get off the this call, I'm gonna go ahead and trademark college football odyssey so we've got that ⁓ in the bank. Yeah.

speaker-1: Yeah, that's it. Well luck, coach. We appreciate it, brother. ⁓ good luck with everything and we'll be s we'll be waiting with bated breath to see the ⁓ the updates on the college football road trip this fall. All right, coach, take care.

speaker-0: You got it. Appreciate you Yes, sir.