Update on DE Kelby Collins
SPORTSTALK / July 12, 2022
Clemson last week went into the state of Alabama and beat out Alabama and others for one of the top defensive linemen in the country in Peter Woods. Can USC pull off the same recruiting magic with another nationally recruited defensive lineman from Alabama in DE Kelby Collins of Gardendale. Like Woods, Collins has Alabama on his short list. He also has Georgia, Florida and Oklahoma, along with the Gamecocks.“Trying to narrow it down and possibly commit before the season. If not by the end of this month, then the start of next month,” Collins said Monday night in updating where things stand. “I’m still looking at everybody in my top five, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Oklahoma. Those are really my main focus, those five schools.”
USC defensive line coach Jimmy Lindsey working Collins, and the two talk a lot, most recently last week. The two have become close enough that football talk doesn’t make up much of their conversations at this point.
“We really didn’t talk about football,” Collins said. “We just check up on each other, see what we did for the Fourth, and what he did for the Fourth, and how he’s using his little break and stuff like that. We really didn’t talk about football for real.”
Collins said the attention he’s gotten from the USC staff, and some future Gamecocks, is what has pushed them into a prominent position with him.
“I feel like the communication (with coaches), and the way the other recruits like
Howard and Dante Reno are really coming at me hard,” Collins said. “They’ll tell me I’m a high priority for them and the coaches. That’s really it. That’s why they are really high on my list.”In June, Collins made official visits to USC, Georgia and Florida. He plans to take his official visits to Alabama and Oklahoma during the season. He has pegged the Texas A&M game October 8th for the visit to Tuscaloosa, and he and the Sooners are still working on a date.
When recruiting goes live for the last week in July, Collins said he will go to Florida to watch his brother at a camp and to attend a cookout for the recruits. He also plans to return to USC for their season opener against Georgia State.
Collins had a monster junior season registering 109 total tackles with 17 sacks.