THE
Mark Calcagno, Daily Sports Editor
TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com
4B
Nico Collins and the
light that switched
I
n mid-August, as he does daily, Nico
Collins called home after football
practice. Only this conversation
wasn’t a typical check-in for the
sophomore wide receiver. It was one
his dad, Don, had longed to hear.
“I asked him how he was doing,” Don said
during a phone interview Thursday. “And he
was like, ‘I’m ballin’. Those were his exact
words: ‘I’m ballin’.’ ”
After just three catches for 27 yards in 2017,
Collins had yearned to say those words, too.
He knew he’d be limited his freshman season
behind classmates Donovan Peoples-Jones and
Tarik Black on the depth chart.
But Collins was having a fall camp that had
Michigan players and coaches raving. And Don
had never heard such confidence in his son.
“You never hear him brag about anything,”
Don said. “When people asked about him in
high school, I told them, ‘Nico is good, but Nico
doesn’t know how good he can be.’ ”
So when Collins did brag last
month,
Don
knew
it
was
meaningful.
“I knew the
lightbulb had finally gone off for him.”
***
Collins’ first sport was basketball, which he
began playing when he was four. Eventually,
he’d become one of the country’s top-ranked
seventh and eighth graders on the AAU circuit.
One of his lifelong friends, Terell West, says
he still “knows him as a basketball player.”
West and Collins first met playing pee-wee
football together in the suburbs of Birmingham,
Alabama. Collins was a quarterback and
running back then, sharing the field with two
Division-I athletes in West — now a running
back at Middle Tennessee State — and current
Maryland quarterback Tyrrell Pigrome.
The trio moved on to star at Clay-Chalkville
High School, where they were joined by now-
West Virginia receiver T.J. Simmons.
It was through competing with Simmons
that
Collins
first
flashed
serious potential on the field.
“That’s when we found out he was gonna be
a player,” West said. “Throughout the summer,
we saw him as a long receiver, and we saw him
competing with T.J. Simmons. We just saw
them working and coming together, and he was
just learning from (him). T.J. was a big-time
mentor to Nico.”
Simmons was loud. Collins wasn’t. Though
their personalities were at odds, the two quickly
developed a strong bond and mentorship.
“T.J. was the complete polar opposite,” said
former-Clay-Chalkville offensive coordinator
Stuart Floyd. “And some of those things helped
Nico because T.J. played with an edge and a
physicality that Nico didn’t really have at the
time.”
Over the course of the year, Collins’
personality emerged. Before every game, he
and Simmons would put on
a “dance show of sorts”
in Don’s words — just as
Collins still does today.
“Man, it’s so fun
when he’s opened up,”
West said. “He’s so
tall, just seeing him
dance is fun. It just
takes some time for it to
come out. But he’s always
been a character, just really
funny.
“We kind of got him to open
up towards the end of the year.
Like I said, T.J. just being a
mentor got him to break out of
that shell.”
Collins broke out on the
field, too. With him, Simmons,
Pigrome and West all on the
same side of the ball, Clay-
Chalkville rode an unstoppable
offense to a state championship
title in 2014.
“It’s probably the most fun I’ll ever
have in my career,” Floyd said. “I’m
not sure you’ll come across that many
talented players at the same school at the same
ttime. You could do pretty much anything you
wanted to offensively.”
Collins amassed 2,000 yards over his final
two seasons, becoming the state’s top-ranked
recruit at receiver.
But even as his game soared, his humble
personality persisted. That would a leave a
lasting impression on Jerry Hood, legendary
Clay-Chalkville coach who has since retired.
Every day during practice, Collins would jog
behind the offense and give Hood a bump or pat
on the back. To others, it was a habit that went
mostly unnoticed. But for Hood and Collins, it
meant everything.
“He didn’t say much, but that was his way of
saying, ‘I’m here coach. I’m enjoying this time,’
” Hood said. “I never will forget that, and I
appreciated that about him.”
***
Alabama isn’t a recruiting hotbed for
Michigan, and it’s no surprise why. Plucking
recruits from the Deep South and Nick Saban
isn’t easy.
“I think for most kids in Alabama, if Auburn
or Alabama offers you,” Floyd said, “it’s pretty
much expected that you’re going to one of the
two.”
The Crimson Tide wanted Collins, especially.
Of course, that’s where Simmons had just
enrolled in the fall of 2016, and pressure to
follow suit crowded Collins.
“I vividly remember seeing his face in the
early part of the season just being really worn
down,” Hood said. “T.J. was at Alabama at
the time, and everybody was talking about
Alabama.”
So Hood met with Collins individually and
gave his receiver permission to stop answering
calls. Dozens of schools had offered Collins,
and out of politeness, he had been answering
everything that came his way.
But there was one school Collins really didn’t
mind hearing from: Michigan. After all, Don —
a Detroit native — was a “huge” Wolverines fan.
So
Collins
asked
the
Clay-Chalkville
coaching staff to send Michigan his tape.
LIGHT THAT SWITCHED
FootballSaturday, September 21, 2018