Alex Collins’ Arkansas career has been unique right from the beginning.
The 5-foot-11, 206-pound star from South Plantation High School in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. created controversy when he announced he wanted to go to Arkansas on Signing Day, but his mother reportedly balked and stole his letter of intent.
Collins later denied that and claimed his mother was just trying to give him plenty of time to make sure he wanted to leave the sunny beaches of south Florida for the relative obscurity of Fayetteville.
With that behind him, Collins took his talent to Arkansas and walked right into Southeastern Conference history in his first three games as a Razorback.
In the season opener against Louisiana-Lafayette, Collins ran for 131 yards. In his second game against Samford, he ran for 172 yards and scored his first career touchdown with a 2-yard TD run.
The following week against Southern Miss, Collins became the first freshman in SEC history to rush for 100 yards in his first three games as he ran for 115 yards and a touchdown in the Razorbacks 24-3 win. He also became the first FBS true freshman to have three consecutive 100-yard games to start the season since Adrian Peterson (Oklahoma 2004).
“A lot of great players have come through this league so obviously that’s a nice feather in his cap,” Razorbacks coach Bret Bielema said. “We’re excited about that.”
“I am honored,” Collins said after the win over the Golden Eagles. ”I have to give my offensive line credit first, and my whole offense. The defense had a good stand out there today. I just appreciate all the things everyone has been doing for me.”
The win over Southern Miss made the Razorbacks 3-0 and Collins was the toast of a talented group SEC freshmen. But things were about to change — and not in a good way.
The Razorbacks appeared on their way to a fourth straight win as they led Rutgers in the fourth quarter before collapsing and losing 28-24. The Razorbacks did not win again the rest of the year and finished with a 3-9 record.
Things changed for Collins as well. He failed to rush for 100 yards for the first time in his career in the loss to the Scarlet Knights and finished with 63 yards on 16 carries. He would top the centurymark only one more time in 2013 —116 yards on 14 carries against Texas A&M. But he was still a threat that opponents had to prepare for each week.
Collins was the conference’s 10th true freshman in SEC history to rush for 1,000 yards. He finished with 1,026 yards and four touchdowns on 190 carries. Collins also added 63 yards on 11 receptions for a team-high 1,089 all-purpose yards. His rushing yards were the most by a freshman in the NCAA this season, and he ranked seventh in the SEC with an average of 85.5 rushing yards per game.
Collins led the SEC and ranked ninth in the NCAA with 355 rushing yards in the fourth quarter, and his 382 rushing yards against ranked opponents were 12th in the nation. His four 100-yard rushing games are second in school history among freshmen, trailing only Darren McFadden’s five.
Collins and tight end Hunter Henry were also named to the first-team College Football News’ All-Freshman Team. He was the Associated Press SEC Freshman of the Year and a member of the SEC All-Freshman Team.
The Razorbacks have plenty to make up for this season. Bielema has taken some hits lately because of his stance on the proposed rule to slow down offenses and his ill-fated remark about the death of Cal player Ted Agu. But more than anything he is still reeling from a nine-game losing streak that ended the season.
Bielema needs a good season and to that end he went looking for a special kind of player when he was putting together his 2014 recruiting class.
“First and foremost, we wanted kids that believe in the family atmosphere, family dynamic, believing in the things that we think once we can get them here, we can work with,” Bielema said. “Second point, I think something that is really important is that they’ve got to love football. If you don’t love football, you’re probably not going to come to a 3-9 team. You’re not going to come and embrace the challenges that that means.
“That was very, very important to us. We wanted to have a winning culture here. Obviously they’ve won here in the past and we want to get back in that direction as soon as possible. It’s very, very important for us if we could target kids from championship programs. We had 24 guys that signed with us. Seven of those guys have state championship rings. That to me was really something that we targeted and I think did a nice job of going and getting.”
Bielema doesn’t have a lot of time to repair the damage of a 3-9 season, but a strong recruiting class is a good first step. Now he just needs more 100-yard games out of Alex Collins.