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Beaux Collins injury update: Notre Dame WR will play in national championship vs. Ohio State

IMG_7504by:Jack Soble•about 12 hours•

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Beaux Collins
Notre Dame wide receiver Beaux Collins. (Mike Miller/Blue & Gold)

Notre Dame wide receiver Beaux Collins will play in the national championship against Ohio State, he confirmed to Blue & Gold at Saturday’s media day.

Collins was listed as questionable on the team’s official injury report with a left calf injury, suffered in the first quarter of Notre Dame’s win over Penn State in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 9. He missed the rest of that game, but he will start against the Buckeyes.

“Oh yeah,” Collins said when asked if he was good to go for the title game. “Hundred percent. Yes sir.”

Collins said he knew he’d be ready to play “a couple days ago.” The national championship kicks off at 7:30 p.m. ET on Monday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

“I know my body, and I was able to go out there and run, job, do some skips and things like that,” Collins said. “So I feel like I have a great chance of playing.”

In his lone season with the Irish after transferring from Clemson, Collins is second on Notre Dame with 37 receptions for 458 yards. The senior is tied for the team lead with 3 receiving touchdowns, the latest of which gave the Irish a 13-3 lead in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia and served as the eventual game-winning score.

However, a week later in Miami Gardens, Fla., Collins suffered a non-contact calf injury on what he recalls was the sixth or seventh offensive play of the game.

“I was running a route and I tried to make a left-hand turn, and just felt my calf kind of grab up on me,” Collins said. “And from there, I couldn’t even jog off the field after that. It was crazy.

“One of the most interesting things that has ever happened to me, for sure.”

Collins said that he has the explosiveness and movement skills necessary to be Notre Dame’s starting boundary receiver fully back, nine days after his injury.

“I feel like I could go out there and play right now if I had to,” Collins said.

Every game so far in the College Football Playoff, Notre Dame has had a different wide receiver step up. In the first round against Indiana, it was sophomore Jordan Faison with 7 catches for 89 yards. In the Sugar Bowl, it was Collins with the touchdown to capitalize off graduate student defensive end RJ Oben‘s strip sack.

Most recently, in the Orange Bowl, sophomore Jaden Greathouse came down with 7 receptions for 105 yards and a 54-yard, ankle-breaking touchdown.

“I’d say it’s just our ability to celebrate each other, man,” Collins said. “You never know when your number’s gonna be called. When it’s your time to shine, you gotta shine.”

Despite his injury, it could be Collins’ time to shine in the national championship.

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