Georgia Tech Football: MSU DC Geoff Collins to Florida, Not Coaching in Orange Bowl

Brandon Walker, a Mississippi State beat writer for the Commercial Dispatch is reporting, via Twitter, that DC Geoff Collins, who recently accepted the same position at Florida, will not coach in the Orange Bowl against Georgia Tech.

At Mississippi State's practice, defensive coordinator Geoff Collins absent. He's already out the door.

— Brandon Walker (@BWonStateBeat) December 16, 2014

This definitely makes the scale between the Bulldogs and the Yellow Jackets lean slightly over towards the Tech side. MSU has not yet announced who will take over as the interim DC for the bowl game.

The Bulldogs will now have to take on Tech's very good option attack without the guy who has been leading their defense the entire year. And they've been pretty good so far too.

Packerman brought up in my breakdown of MSU's schedule that with the exception of Texas A&M and Ole Miss, MSU's defense has held teams under their average rushing-yards-per-game and yards-per-rush. That includes three teams who finished in the top 30 in rushing-yards-per-game (LSU, Auburn, and Arkansas).

Collins also has connections to Georgia Tech, doing postgraduate work here, and then having two separate stints here.

His first stint came as a Graduate Assistant from 1999-2001. In '99, he worked with the linebackers, and then moved to defensive backs the next season.

His second stint came in 2006 when he was named the recruiting coordinator. Tech had a pretty good recruiting class that year, that included such players as Morgan Burnett, Jonathan Dwyer, Brad Jefferson, Roddy Jones, Derrick Morgan and some guy named Josh Nesbitt.

What kind of impact will Geoff Collins' absence have on the Orange Bowl?