For Ohio linebackers coach Ron Collins the first thing that stands out is his experience.
Collins, who is in the midst of his third year at Ohio, has also spent time at Colorado and Boise State. He was a defensive coordinator for his five years with the Buffalos and spent five years on the Broncos’ defensive coaching staff as defensive coordinator as well as coaching the linebackers.
Collins said though Boise State and Ohio are unique in their own situations, they each have similarities.
“When I went into Boise and here they were successful the year before I got there,” he said. “It’s just been a continuation and a build up. I think the biggest thing for Ohio University is we’ve got expectations to be good and we’ve got the resources to be good and that’s an exciting thing.”
His defenses have achieved numerous successes, especially at Boise State, where 26 players earned All-Western Athletic Conference honors.
This season, Ohio linebackers have recorded 161 total tackles. In the 2012 season, Bobcat linebackers helped Ohio rank among the top five in several Mid-American Conference categories, including scoring defense and total defense.
Collins has coached a pair of All-MAC selections in Alphonso Lewis and Noah Keller, who signed a free agent contract with the St. Louis Rams in 2012.
Redshirt senior linebacker Keith Moore said Collins preaches effort, which is something he constantly recognizes in his players.
“He’s just kind of given me the confidence,” Moore said. “I feel like he believes in me, even when I make mistakes he doesn’t harp on them too much because he knows I know. He just kind of tells me to keep my head up, keep working and just to keep playing fast so I like that a lot about him.”
Ohio defensive coordinator Jimmy Burrow said Collins was familiar with his coaching style that has helped his transition because they can bounce ideas off each other.
When Collins played safety at Washington State from 1983-86, Burrow was his secondary coach, before the duo then reunited the next season as members of the Iowa State coaching staff.
“(Collins) does a great job individually with his linebackers and as a unit and with his experience he brings a lot of ideas and things to the table,” Burrow said. “He’s done a really good job with the linebackers from the day he was here he inherited Noah Keller at that point and he had to bring along some young linebackers.”
Keller said that when Collins joined the program, he was a great coach to learn from.
“He’s definitely coached a lot of great players, so it’s kind of fun seeing how he can compare you to (former players) and how he can kind of give you those corrections,” Keller said. Keller said Collins didn’t install many drastic techniques, but said that experienced coaches are vital to the program.
“You don’t really expect an assistant coach to come in and revamp the whole defense, but there’s just kind of little things here and there that to the untrained eye don’t really look like much,” Keller said. “But when it comes down to third and short, the difference between that first down and getting off the field, he was able to help us there a lot.”
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