35+ year Temple fan who just came across this thread. Its amusing and some of the c0mmentary reflects about as much knowledge of our personnel as I have about Georgia Tech's.... None but hey, many, many years ago, when I was a boy, an offensive lineman for GT had the same name as me so that always stuck w me. But anywho....
I hope you like what you saw because you are getting Collins and both our coordinators. Overall, I think Collins did a good job at Temple. Some fans will be happy you are getting Pataneude. Alot of fans didnt like him. I didnt share those feelings. I think Temple scored the most points they ever had this season, so how bad could he be? Well, he did OK and part of it was the American Conference too. The thing which made fans mad was, the guy who started at QB for us in the Duke game, and frankly turned our season around this year was the QB number 4 over the Collins/Pataneude era. Again there are a host of factors here but some fans felt GC/DP should have realized Russo, QB#4, was the guy to go to 2 seasons ago...btw, the guy they chose as #1 and started Collins first game as Temple HC @ Notre Dame finished his career at ETSU as the back up. That would be East Tennessee State, if you dont recognize the name in all that alphabet soup.
Now, what do I think of your hire? Ive posted any HC who wins at Temple is a good coach. So, I think GC is a good HC. I dont begrudge him for leaving after 2 years as some of our fans do. I didnt like his recruiting at Temple. I didnt like the players and I like even less he is leaving this class. Im sure you know about Manny Diaz so that situation has me even more unnerved. Well, you ask, how does this affect you? Well, Collins won at Temple with the previous HC's players. Matt Rhule who won the AAC Champiosnhip and then took 30Million at Baylor. Almost all of the starters, including Russo and QB#3 and QB#2 and QB#1 were all Rhule's recruits. In fact, almost every starter on the field over the last 2 years was Matt Rhule's recruits. Someone made a comment early on about our size on the DL and how small they were. Well, all those players were Matt Rhule's recruits. Fact is, Collins didnt bring anybody to Temple in his 2 recruiting classes to move them out of a starting slot. In fact, the two biggest impact players Collins brought, in 2 years, was an OL from Sweden, who started this year and a grad transfer from Presbyterian College, Rock Ya Sin, a CB who sat out the Bowl game for NFL Draft considerations. So, in almost all the two years where Geoff Collins amassed 15 wins at Temple, he did so with Matt Rhule's players,a scandinavian and a mercenary who is a legit NFL talent.
Is this bad? I dont know. I get the impression Collins is a southerner. I didnt think he was making inroads recruiting the Northeast. For instance, Collins only got one player in PA's Top 50, a RB at about number 43. Contrastly, Matt Rhule landed 2 players in PA Top 6, yes 2 of the top 6, his last full recruiting year, one of which was......Anthony Russo, QB #4 according to Collins/Pataneude. I dont know if Collins will succeed at Ga Tech but I believe he better recruit and plan alot better than he did at Temple. You are not getting Matt Rhule, you are literally getting his leftovers....