Less than a week after the retirement announcement of Joe Wincham - one of the winningest head coaches in college football - Wittenberg is set to bring one of their own into the fold to lead the program, according to a report.
Jim Collins, a former player for the program and veteran coach with over 20 years of college head coaching experience, is expected to be named head coach later today. David Jablonksi was the first to share the news.
Wittenberg will be the fifth college head coaching opportunity for Collins, who has a career record of 135-133.
In his first head coaching stop at Dubuque (D-III - IA), Collins put together a 4-26 record in three seasons before leaving to take the head coaching job at Capital (D-III - OH). There, after winning just nine games in his first four seasons, he was able to engineer a turnaround to 7 wins in year five, and in his last three seasons with the program he took them to the playoffs where they lost in the quarterfinals the first two seasons and bowed out in the first round in his final season.
Heading into the 2008 season, Collins took the head coaching job at Saginaw Valley State (D-II - MI), where he spent 11 seasons and won a total of 65 games while competing in the GLIAC, highly regarded as one of the most competitive Division II leagues in the country.
After an 8-3 mark in 2018 at SVSU, Collins decided to make the jump to the major college level and took a job as the director of player personnel for Jeff Monken at Army. He spent one season on staff there before leaving for the opportunity to be the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Dayton (FCS - OH), and that is where he has spent the last two seasons.
It won't be a big move for Collins, as Dayton is located just a half hour from Wittenberg.
Collins played for the program in the mid-to-late 80's, and led the team in receptions for three of his seasons on campus, earning the team's MVP his senior year.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.
According to sources, Wittenberg has hired Jim Collins, a 1988 Witt grad who has been head coach at Capital (1997-2007) and Saginaw Valley State (2008-19), as its new football coach. He was the offensive coordinator at Dayton last season.
— David Jablonski (@DavidPJablonski) November 22, 2021