Report: Florida Defensive Coordinator Is New Temple Coach

Photo: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Geoff Collins, a rising star in the coaching ranks who led Florida’s top-10 defense this season, will be the new coach at Temple. ESPN’s Brett McMurphy first reported the news.

Collins has been Florida’s defensive coordinator for two years. This season, the Gators’ defense was sixth in yards per game despite playing in the SEC, one of the best conferences in the country. Florida’s defense allowed just 24 touchdowns in 12 games (and five of them were to number-one Alabama in the SEC Championship game). Florida was seventh nationally in total defense the year before.

Before becoming Florida’s defensive coordinator, Collins was DC at Florida International in 2010 and at Mississippi State from 2011 to 2014. He has no head-coaching experience. He’ll inherit a Temple defense that’s quite good: The Owls ranked third in total defense this year.

Matt Rhule, who went 28–23 in his four years at Temple, left for Baylor last week. Rhule won 20 games in his last two years — the first time Temple had won a double-digit number of games in consecutive seasons.

The Temple coaching job has not been a bad one in the last 10 years, with the last three coaches moving into jobs in the “Power 5” conferences. Al Golden, a defensive coordinator hired before the 2006 season, landed the job at Miami after five seasons at Temple. Steve Addazio was with the Owls for two years before being hired away by Boston College. (The caveat: Golden has since been fired.)

Temple is expected to announce Collins’s hire tomorrow.