Marshall University Athletics
Jim Collins Joins Marshall Football Staff
2/18/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Jim Collins Joins Marshall Football Staff
2/18/2004
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. ? Marshall University head football coach Bob Pruett announced today that Jim Collins has joined the Thundering Herd coaching staff as defensive backs coach.
?It is great to be back with coach Collins,? Pruett said. ?He is an outstanding football coach and has experience coaching in the ACC, the SEC, and the NFL.?
Collins, who has 30 years of coaching experience at the high school, collegiate, and professional levels, comes to Marshall from the Washington Redskins, where he has served as an assistant coach, under Steve Spurrier, for outside linebackers and special teams assistant since January of 2002.
Prior to his stint with the Redskins, Collins was as an assistant coach at the University of Florida from 1990-2002. He served as recruiting coordinator and worked with linebackers, defensive ends, and tight ends during his tenure in Gainesville.
Collins has been part of seven conference championship teams during his collegiate coaching career (Duke in 1989, Florida in 1991, 1993-96, 2000). In 1996, he also helped Florida to the NCAA Division 1-A National Championship. Overall, he has coached in twelve bowl games, most recently the Orange Bowl in 2002.
Collins began his coaching career at Page High School in his hometown of Greensboro, N.C., in 1974. In 1980, he was named defensive coordinator at Lees-McRae Junior College before joining the staff at Appalachian State as defensive backs and outside linebackers coach (1981-82). He went on to join the Duke University coaching staff as a graduate assistant in 1983, and left for a brief stint as defensive coordinator/linebackers coach at Jacksonville State in 1984 only to return to Duke where he served as an assistant until moving to Florida in 1990.
Collins was a defensive back at Elon College from 1970-73, and graduated with a bachelor?s degree in Physical Education from the school in 1974. He earned a master?s degree in Education from North Carolina A&T in 1979. He and his wife, Geri, have a daughter, Jennifer, who is a student at the University of Florida.
