Dan Mullen To Promote Geoff Collins To Defensive Coordinator

Mississippi State head football coach Dan Mullen has promoted co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Geoff Collins to defensive coordinator, according to a report by CoachingSearch.com.

A source has informed me that Dan Mullen will promote Geoff Collins to defensive coordinator at Mississippi State. bit.ly/sbcB2K

— Pete Roussel (@coachingsearch) January 4, 2013

The move comes just days after Mullen surprisingly announced that Collins would call defensive plays at the Gator Bowl, instead of head MSU defensive coordinator Chris Wilson.

The biggest question now is what this means for the former head defensive coordinator Chris Wilson. Wilson and Collins could very well just flip defensive coordinator titles and retain position coaching duties, or Wilson could even simply stay on as just the defensive line coach. As this is new and unconfirmed information, we do not know that at this time.

Collins is considered by some to be a rising star in college coaching, as witnessed by interest in him for the Florida International head coaching position and other rumored interest elsewhere. That rising status in the coaching world could have played a part in this promotion, but that is simply speculation at this time.

Wilson and Collins have been co-coordinators for some time now, but Wilson retained play calling duties and was considered to be the head defensive coordinator. Wilson took over as the head defensive coordinator in 2011 after fellow co-DC Manny Diaz left to become the head defensive coordinator at Texas.

We will keep you informed as news becomes available to us.

UPDATE: It has been confirmed by MSU.

Geoff Collins has been promoted to defensive coordinator, Coach Mullen announced today. #HailState

— Joe Galbraith (@joestate) January 4, 2013