Ahead of Saturday, Geoff Collins Talks about his time at Georgia Tech and his Relationship With Brent Key

Georgia Tech faces North Carolina this Saturday and former head coach Geoff Collins is running the Tar Heels defense

UNC defensive coordinator Geoff Collins / North Carolina Athletic

Not only is this Saturday's game between Georgia Tech and North Carolina a conference game, but it will be the first time that former Yellow Jackets head coach Geoff Collins has coached against his former team, as he is the defensive coordinator for the Tar Heels.

Collins met with the media on Monday and was asked questions about his time at Georgia Tech, his relationship with current head coach Brent Key (who was the offensive line coach under Collins while he was the head coach), and how the two teams matchup.

While facing his former team is certainly a storyline, Collins maintained in his press conference that the focus this week is not about him:

"You guys like to hear about the team meetings that we have and the unit meetings and the big thing with the defense last night is that this is not about me. I do have deep, personal relationships with players on the team, I am very proud of them, when I see them play well, I am excited for them because I care about them and I care about their families, but this week is about being the best defense that we can be, coach our guys to play at a high level, they (Georgia Tech) have a lot of really good weapons, they are doing a really good job with the offense and we have a complete focus on what we have to do to play really well on Saturday, schematically, motivationally, all of those kinds of things, but this week is not about me at all."

Collins was then asked about his relationship with Key, for which he gave a very short answer:

"We have been friends for a very long time"

In 2019 (Collins first year at Georgia Tech), the Yellow Jackets went on the road to play at Temple, where he was the head coach previously. Collins was asked about that experience and how it compares this week to facing Georgia Tech:

"Again, I don't want this to be about me. I have had those experiences, Coach (Mack) Brown has shared he has had those experiences in the past as well, but just the complete focus is, if I spend time worrying about that, my focus is not on the players being the best that they can on Saturday so the whole focus is on how I can do the best preparation, because they do so much on offense, if my complete focus is not on what they do schematically with really good players, then I am doing a disservice to the guys so my focus is on how I can be the best coach for these guys, how I can put the best game plan together, that kind of deal"

Collins was also asked if it will be easier to play this game in Chapel Hill than Atlanta:

"I have had two years to process everything, I have come to peace with everything that happened, what we walked into, the efforts that we made and then what happened at the end, I have come at peace. I have been really self reflective on what I could have done better and what I would do the next time in similar circumstances. There is zero ill will towards anyone in the administration, fanbase, any of those things, zero ill will. I just want to be a good coach for this group of guys."

Georgia Tech vs North Carolina kicks off at 12:00 p.m. ET this Saturday on the CW Network.