Offensive Player of the Year; winner of the prestigious Maxwell and Davy O’Brien Awards; and Heisman Trophy Finalist, Kerry Michael Collins, Penn State’s quarterback, seems destined for the NFL.
Kerry Michael Collins is the best quarterback in college football. And on January 2, unless there is a major upset, the whole country will see the Penn State superstar lead the Nittany Lions to victory in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
Collins’ numbers, which are more impressive than Marino’s, Kelly’s, Flutie’s, Montana’s and even the Fighting Irish’s Pick Mirer’s; his quick scoring drives (17 in under one minute), enormous size, (inherited from his great-grandmother Hanna Donahue), and his ability to stay calm and confident under pressure, will almost certainly guarantee him a starting quarterback position in the NFL next season. And the talk has already started as to who will acquire the 6′ 5″, 235-pound Irish American who looks like he would be as comfortable on a movie set as he is on a football field.
This season Collins led the nation in passing efficiency with a 172.8 rating, narrowly missing the NCAA record of 176.9 by BYU’s Jim McMahon in 1980. He broke Penn State’s season records for total offense (2,660), completions (176), passing yardage (2,679), completion percentage (66.7%), yards per attempt (10.15) and passing efficiency (172.86).
Coach Joe Paterno said it all: “If there is a quarterback playing any better than Kerry Collins he’s got to be out of this world. He is a big, big-time quarterback. He is playing as well for us now as any quarterback we have had in the 45 years I have been here.”
This year Collins, named Offensive Player of the Year, winner of the Maxwell and Davy O’Brien National Quarterback Award, and Heisman Trophy finalist, passed to nine different receivers for touchdowns, including Ki-Jana Carter (who was also up for the Heisman), and led Penn State to an impressive undefeated season — first in total points and first in scoring.
The Detroit Tigers and the 1994 World Champion Toronto Blue Jays baseball teams also wanted Collins, but he doesn’t have any qualms about not playing baseball. “I’m one hundred percent committed to football. I’m confident that I can be as good a quarterback as any in the country. I won’t be thinking about baseball unless football doesn’t work out,” he told Irish America recently.
Collins’ potential as a quarterback first became evident in mid-October, 1993. The Lions were losing 35-24 in the fourth quarter to Boston College when starting quarterback John Sacca was pulled to the sideline after re-injuring his shoulder. A cold Kerry Collins took over and led the Lions to victory.
A week later, as starting quarterback against Brigham Young, Collins set the Penn State record for passing attempts — the rest is history. Sacca left Penn State, and the Lions quickly adjusted to Collins’ aggressive style of play.
There is nothing fancy about Penn State’s uniforms — they do not have player’s names on their jerseys, and have no markings on their helmets — the focus at this college is on education and team spirit. Collins and Penn State are a good fit, as Kerry told Irish America, “I come from a Catholic family and a lot of my values were instilled in me that way. The reason I chose Penn State is that it holds a lot of the values that I hold. It’s very solid academically, and coach Joe Paterno teaches a lot of good lessons.”
Collins’ father, Patrick, “who was always very supportive,” also played a part in Kerry’s choice of college. “He was the kind of father who wanted to put me in the best situation possible,” says Kerry, “and everything that Penn State stands for was very attractive to us.”
With regard to the Heisman Trophy, Collins says: “. . . People are more likely to look elsewhere for a big-league quarterback. I think they do have a hard time accepting the fact that the leading quarterback in the nation is from Penn State. They’re so used to seeing three yards and a cloud of dust.” Rich Scarcella, writing in The Sporting News, agrees, “If Collins played at, say, Notre Dame, Miami or Florida State, his name already would have been inscribed on the Heisman Trophy.”
But Kerry, although he’s the first to admit that winning the Heisman would have been a dream come true, is more concerned about how his team does. “A team’s success is never the result of the performance of one player,” he says. “If the personal accolades come, fine, but I’m concerned with how the team does. Any personal things are just gravy.”
The game that put Collins on the Heisman watch took place this past October. Coach Joe Paterno’s Number 3 Nittany Lions, with a record of 5-0, arrived at Ann Arbor, Michigan. They were faced with a crowd of 106,832 hoping to watch Kerry Collins and company lose to the Number 5 Wolverines. None of Penn State’s starters had played a complete game this far in the season, so the real test had finally come for Kerry Collins. Would he continue with his impressive drives and still be playing in the last quarter? Or would the Lions go down in defeat?
At the end of the fourth quarter, in the last 3:16 minutes of the game, the two teams were tied at 24 points. The Lions had the ball on 3rd down and 11, when Kerry passed to Bobby Engram to give Penn State the win. It was just one of the many stunning victories that Collins would pull off this season. But the most tensionfilled and nailbiting game of Collins’ brilliant season, would take place on a windy Saturday, November 12, in Champaign, lllinois.
The Nittany Lions woke up in their fourthfloor hotel rooms to no electricity. They were forced out of their pre-game ritual and breakfast on the 20th floor and had to settle for pizza. The situation could only get worse, and it did.
The unstoppable Lions were looking more like cubs throughout the first quarter. The lllini were beating the 14-point favorites 21-0. For the first time in the year Penn State was out of sync and ended the first quarter without a first down. Collins, however, managed to stay calm and in control of his team, when even the usually stoic coach Paterno, seemed to be on the verge of losing it. By the fourth quarter Kerry Collins and company had come back within 10 points of the lllini, and with 1:03 left in the game Kerry Collins made an unbelievably gutsy pass to Brian Milne who ran in for the final touchdown. A last-second field goal by Brett Conway gave the Nittany Lions a 35-31 win over the lllini, in what had to be the greatest, and most heart-stopping comeback by a pro or college team in years.
Ask Kerry Collins how he managed to keep confident and focused in the face of such adversity, and he’ll tell you, “It’s my job to be a strong leader and to keep the team in mind, and to keep perfecting what I’ve been doing.”
Collins attributes his confidence to his father, who, he says, is not only a very confident guy, but also very humble. “He taught me that when you are confident you can achieve anything. He also taught me to take the good with the bad, but to always have confidence in my ability to be the best, and to be grateful for the success that I have achieved.”
Collins grew up in Lebanon, Pennsylvania in a household that was big on sports. At eight years old Kerry, coached by his father, started playing football with his older brother Patrick, who has now traded in football for golf.
Kerry’s great-grandfather Thomas arrived in New York in 1906 and stayed in Brooklyn all of his life, where he met and married Hanna Donahue. They had seven children, one of whom, Patrick Joseph Collins (Kerry’s grandfather) played football (tight-end) for a semi-pro team called the Brooklyn Bay Dogers in the 1930s. He enlisted in the military in 1936 and eventually was based in Anniville, Pennsylvania.
“All my direct relatives are from Ireland. At some point I do want to get over there and find out where in Cork and Kerry they are from. On my mother Roseanne McHale’s side, I’m also one hundred percent Irish,” says Kerry Collins, who turned 22 on December 30.
Collins has managed to withstand the pressure on and off the football field to graduate at the end of ’94 not only with unbelievable success as a quarter-back, but with a degree in liberal arts, and a major in labor and industrial relations.
Is Kerry Collins prepared for the NFL? You bet he is: “I hope that I have a long, successful and prosperous career in proball,” he says. “It took a lot of hard work and dedication to get this far, and I hope to reap the benefits.”
And in the unlikely event that football doesn’t pan out? Collins would like to teach. His father, a social worker, spent 15 years working with mentally-challenged students, and this had an effect on Kerry. “I really enjoy kids,” he says, “and I would like to give back something of what I got from just being in a program like we have at Penn State.”
This story was written by L.S. Tennyson and reported on by Patricia Harty.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the January/February 1995 issue of Irish America. ⬥
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