Alex Collins (American football)

Alex Collins
Arkansas Razorbacks No. 3
Position Running back
Class Junior
Career history
College
Personal information
Date of birth (1994-08-26) August 26, 1994
Place of birth Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Weight 215 lb (98 kg)

Alex Collins (born August 26, 1994) is an American football running back for the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Early years

Collins attended South Plantation High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he was a letterman in football, basketball, lacrosse and track. He was coached by Doug Gatewood. He was named Broward County Player of the Year as a junior after rushing for 1,786 yards and 28 touchdowns as the Paladins earned seven victories and qualified for the state playoffs. As a senior, he rushed for 1,400 yards and 14 touchdowns despite missing three games due to injury, helping South Plantation to nine wins, the district title and a berth in the 8A state playoffs. Following his senior season, he was selected to play in the Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl, where he was teammates with fellow Arkansas signee Austin Allen.

Also a talented sprinter, Collins ran the third leg on South Plantation’s state-champion 4x100m relay (41.98 s), leading to him being named the 2013 Broward County Male Athlete of the Year.[1]

Recruitment

Collins was ranked as a four-star recruit by Rivals.com and the 13th best running back in his class.[2] Collins committed to play college football at the University of Arkansas in February 2013.

On signing day, Collins' mother provided some momentary drama, when she refused to sign the National Letter of Intent (LOI) for Alex to attend school at Arkansas, and then ran away with the LOI. She wanted Collins to stay close to home and attend classes at the University of Miami, FL. The drama ended the next day when Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema faxed another LOI to Collins, which was signed by his father. [3][4]

College career

Collins started his career as the first true freshman in SEC history to rush for 300 yards in his first three games.[5] Splitting time with Jonathan Williams, he finished the year with 1,026 rushing yards on 190 carries with four touchdowns. [6] For his play he was named the SEC Freshman of the Year.[7]

In his sophomore season, Collins ran for 1,100 yards and 12 touchdowns on 204 carries, while still splitting time with Williams. He also helped lead Arkansas to a Texas Bowl victory over the Texas Longhorns.

Williams went down with an injury before Collins' junior season, so he became the featured back in Bret Bielema's offense. On November 7th, 2015, Alex became only the third player in SEC history to rush for 1000 plus yards in 3 seasons (Herschel Walker, Darren McFadden).

Collins finished his junior season with a career high 1,577 yards and a school-record 20 rushing touchdowns. He was named second-team all-SEC, mostly because Alabama's Derrick Henry and LSU's Leonard Fournette outrushed him and were All-Americans. Collins led Arkansas to a Liberty Bowl victory over Kansas State on January 2, 2016. He finished the game with 185 yards and three rushing touchdowns, earning MVP honors.

References

  1. ↑ https://www.trackingfootball.com/players/alex-collins-2587/
  2. ↑ Rivals.com
  3. ↑ Hurricanes miss on five-star running back, as Alex Collins commits to Arkansas
  4. ↑ Finally: South Plantation star running back signs with Arkansas
  5. ↑ RB Alex Collins does something no SEC freshman's done
  6. ↑ Improved diet, sleep habits help Arkansas' Collins
  7. ↑ Collins Named SEC Freshman of the Year; Swanson Earns First-Team Honors

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, February 02, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.