GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — Putting pen to paper for an athlete is the easiest part of making the journey to the college level. The countless hours of work it takes to get there is the hardest.
For Notre Dame senior running back Christian Collins on Friday, his hard work helped propel him to the highest level.
“When you hear the play, you know exactly what’s going to happen,” Christian Collins said.
Watching Collins at Notre Dame, you knew exactly what he would do with the ball in his hands. Most of the time he was finding the end zone, as he did so 96 times in his high school career.
“Running people over is kind of my thing,” he said. “I like that. It drives me. I’ll let (defenders) know who’s on the ground and who’s in the end zone."
Before the WIAA Division 3 state title game Collins said he felt an extra kick of adrenaline which propelled him to a historic performance. The most rushing yards in state history, 408 of them, while punching in 5 touchdowns in the Tritons championship win.
“It's really hard to explain the feeling when I had 408 yards and tied Melvin Gordon for the Camp Randall record, it’s really cool,” Collins said. “It’s really cool because then I get to tell people in the future, ‘Oh yeah, I had 408 at Camp Randall in the state title game.’ It was really cool.”
That game not only helped lift his team to a state title, but he also won the Wisconsin high school rushing crown for the second year in a row. Collins finished his career with 6,560 rushing yards, the fifth most in state history.
“It's a great feeling knowing that you’ve done something special in the state of Wisconsin,” said the running back. “Since you’re number five, it kind of leaves a mark on where you were and how good you were.”
Before his historic state performance, Collins had only two offers to play college football, and neither was NCAA Division 1 level. He’s not sure why that is, outside of teams being too focused on measurables, but he says that drove him to prove what he can do.
“It was hard going through that process, just showing out every Friday night, but you’re not getting the recognition you think you might deserve,” said Collins. “I knew it might all work out in the end.”
And it did. Collins got a few D1 offers after that game, and now on Friday, he signed as a preferred walk-on at Northern Iowa, who play at the Division 1 FCS level. He says he told the Panthers coaching staff he’s 100% in.
“I'm coming in and I want to compete. That's just who I am and I'll show you – I'll show you what I can do," Collins said.
