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