Former ACC head coach joining South Carolina’s coaching staff

Shane Beamer is adding more experience to his coaching staff.

Former Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins is join Beamer’s staff for the 2025 season as a “senior defensive assistant coach,” the school announced Sunday. The Big Spur was the first to report that Collins was expected to be hired.

Collins’ coaching resume spans nearly three decades. A former player and assistant at Western Carolina, Collins’ career has included high-level stops as a defensive coordinator — Mississippi State (2011-14), Florida (2015-16) and North Carolina (2024) — along with head coaching jobs at Temple and, most recently, Georgia Tech.

It has been known that Beamer and Collins have a relationship. The two were both graduate assistants at Georgia Tech in 2000, which marked Beamer’s first coaching gig after graduating from Virginia Tech in 1999.

And last season, Beamer told the story many times that when he was recruiting linebacker Demetrius Knight, he called Collins, who recruited and coached Knight at Georgia Tech. Per Beamer, Collins told him that Knight “is probably my favorite player that I’ve ever been around in my career,” and it didn’t take long for Beamer to agree.

Collins has also crossed paths with South Carolina defensive coordinator Clayton White, who worked as Western Carolina’s defensive backs coach in 2004 and 2005 while Collins was the DC.

The addition of Collins continues a now years-long trend of Beamer finding a big-name head coach out of a job and finding a place for them at South Carolina.

In 2022, he hired longtime NFL coach Freddie Kitchens to be an analyst in Columbia. Then last spring, Beamer hired former Alabama head coach — and longtime NFL offensive coordinator — Mike Shula as an offensive analyst. Shula, of course, was promoted to Carolina’s offensive coordinator in December.

And now it’s Collins, who has two head coaching stints under his belt. He took over for Matt Rhule at Temple in 2017 and won 15 games across two seasons, which led an opportunity at Georgia Tech.

The success never came in Atlanta. In his first three seasons leading the Yellow Jackets (2019-22), Georgia Tech won just three games each season and Collins was let go midway through the ‘22 season after a 1-3 start.

He spent 2023 away from coaching but returned in 2024 as North Carolina’s defensive coordinator. Last season — which would be head coach Mack Brown’s last before UNC embarked on the Bill Belichick experience — the Tar Heels’ defense ranked in the middle of the pack in the ACC.

South Carolina’s 2025 football schedule

Flex games kick off in either 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. range, or 7 to 8 p.m. range

Aug. 31: vs. Virginia Tech in Atlanta, 3 p.m. on ESPN

Sept. 6: vs. SC State, 7 p.m. on SECN+

Sept. 13: vs. Vanderbilt, 7 p.m. on ESPN OR 7:45 p.m. on SEC Network

Sept. 20: at Missouri, flex game (afternoon or night)

Sept. 27: vs. Kentucky, flex game (afternoon or night)

Oct. 4: BYE WEEK

Oct. 11: at LSU, flex game (afternoon or night)

Oct. 18: vs. Oklahoma, early game (noon to 1 p.m.)

Oct. 25: vs. Alabama, flex game (afternoon or night)

Nov. 1: at Ole Miss, flex game (afternoon or night)

Nov. 8: BYE WEEK

Nov. 15: at Texas A&M, early game (noon to 1 p.m.)

Nov. 22: vs. Coastal Carolina, afternoon game (3:30 to 4:30 p.m.)

Nov. 29: vs. Clemson, noon on ESPN or ABC

This story was originally published July 26, 2025 at 3:19 PM.