They came bearing mini-helmets, hats, hugs and handshakes. They left with photos, autographs and an encounter with new Georgia Tech coach Geoff Collins.
Hundreds of Tech fans arrived well before tipoff of the Yellow Jackets’ ACC opener against Wake Forest on Saturday afternoon to line up for a meet-and-greet with Collins, many already there when the gates opened at 1 p.m., an hour before tipoff. They seemed a contented lot.
“This is awesome,” said Kasey Mitchell, a Tech grad from Woodstock. “I can’t wait.”
With a Waffle House cup within arm’s reach, Collins signed jerseys, foam fingers and inscribed dozens of autograph cards. Some were personalized.
“What’s your name?” Collins asked a man in a sweater vest. “Rick?”
He greeted children with fist bumps and “What’s up, bud?” His autograph speaks a bit to his emphasis on branding. The signature he scribbled with his left hand was his Twitter handle: @coachcollins. Sam Grice of Snellville enthused about Collins’ ability to connect with Tech fans and Atlanta through Twitter.
“I feel like we’ve gone from old school to new school,” Grice said.
Grice’s wife, Deanna, extended a hearty “Welcome, coach” upon meeting Collins, who sat behind a table on the arena concourse.
“He’s lining up some great coaches,” she said, quite pleased.
“We got Brent Key,” Sam followed up, referring to the reported hire of the Alabama offensive line coach and Tech grad. “That’s awesome.”
It was a simple way for Collins to build on the Tech fan base’s enthusiasm for his hire – shaking hands, smiling, taking pictures – and one he handled with seeming ease.
Not all were meeting him for the first time.
Mitchell played basketball for Collins’ father in middle school in Rockdale County, and Collins, then in college, sometimes came to scrimmage with the team, Mitchell said. He remembered Collins used to tug on the jersey or shorts of the player he was guarding. Mitchell caught him up on a mutual friend.
“That’s awesome,” Collins told Mitchell. “Good to see you, man.”
Mike Langley, a Braselton resident, had known Collins in his two previous stints at Tech, 1999-2001 and 2006. Langley asked Collins if he remembered him.
“He said, ‘Of course I do,’” Langley said.
Langley, a Coca-Cola employee, said he told Collins that he hoped he might place a Coke bottle on his podium for news conferences, as Alabama coach Nick Saban and Georgia coach Kirby Smart have done.
“He said, ‘We’ll make it happen,’” Langley said.
At halftime, the arena lights were dimmed and, after his new staff was introduced, Collins came onto Bobby Cremins Court to a standing ovation, a greeting so enthusiastic that basketball coach Josh Pastner said the team heard it in the locker room under the stands.
Collins spoke of the honor of returning to Tech and Atlanta and of blessed to be surrounded by a staff that will lead the Jackets to great heights.
“We are going to lift Georgia Tech back into the conversation – the national conversation – of the elite programs of college football,” he said. “Every single day we will coach and – listen to me very carefully – we will recruit with relentlessness, enthusiasm, energy, juice, passion and make this place the special place that it’s supposed to be. Before I go, I have one good question: What’s the good word?”
The thousands assembled showered him with the appropriate callback: “To hell with Georgia!”
Collins and his staff exited the floor to give way to a Frisbee dog act, but the coach was not quite finished. He came back to throw three discs to a border collie named Thunder, two of which were completed, presumably prompting hundreds of witty remarks about Thunder’s NCAA eligibility.
Now all Collins has to do is beat Clemson and Georgia.
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