Alfred Collins has 'taken another step' during Texas spring football practice
During the 2021 season, Texas defensive lineman Alfred Collins played in all 12 games with four starts. He logged 328 total snaps according to Pro Football Focus and recorded 25 tackles, five TFL, two sacks, and a forced fumble in those opportunities.
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He spent a lot less time on the field in 2022. Collins played in 12 games yet again, but only started one and saw 260 total snaps. His junior production dropped to 17 total tackles, three TFL, and one sack. That had to do some with the second-team all-conference quality of play from starters Moro Ojomo and Keondre Coburn. But Collins also wasn’t playing at a consistent enough level to unseat T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy, two other defensive tackles who regularly rotated in for Ojomo and Coburn.
Collins would need to step up his consistency in order to accumulate more snaps during the 2023 campaign. Halfway through the Texas Longhorns’ spring football practices, UT head coach Steve Sarkisian thinks Collins has answered the challenge.
“I think Alfred has taken another step,” Sarkisian said Thursday. “We talked a lot about Alfred a year ago about how it wasn’t about the talent, it was about the consistency in the play and his style of play. When Alfred plays that way, which he’s doing right now, where he’s consistent at the point of attack, he can use his length, he has great athleticism, he can close on the ball, and when he plays really violent like he’s doing right now, he’s a real problem.”
Collins, a 6-foot-5, 313-pound Longhorn legacy from nearby Bastrop (Texas) Cedar Creek, has all the physical tools needed to play defensive line at a high level. His height, first step, play strength, and arm length gives him an advantage versus offensive linemen other defenders don’t have.
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He’s used that athleticism during his Texas career, going back to the bowl game versus Colorado during his freshman campaign. Collins made a leaping interception versus the Buffaloes as part of a five-tackle, 0.5-TFL, one-PBU night.
Now in his fourth year in the Longhorn program, Collins doesn’t have a number of veterans like Ojomo and Coburn in front of him to hog snaps or serve as an example. The chance for him to carve out serious playing time and show others how its done, even with a veteran like Sweat and a skilled junior like Murphy currently pacing the position group, is there.
All Collins needs to do in order to take that chance is to show more consistency. Is that something he’s done throughout the eight practices?
“I think that we’ve seen that the first half of spring from him,” Sarkisian said.
