Skip to main content
texas logo

Alfred Collins learned lessons from the DTs before him ahead of his big 2024

by:James Hayden•11/20/24
Alfred Collins
Alfred Collins (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

T’Vondre Sweat needed the COVID year. Before his fifth season in Austin, Sweat wasn’t a projected draft pick. But in 2023, Sweat made a huge leap and anchored the No. 3 rush defense in the country, and was the Outland Trophy winner, a unanimous All-American, and the No. 38 pick in the 2024 Draft. Thanks to making the most of his fifth year, Sweat is now playing significant snaps in the NFL for the Tennessee Titans.

[Join Inside Texas TODAY with code HOOKEM and get 50% off annual memberships!]

Between 2022 and 2023, Sweat made a jump from 29 total tackles and zero sacks to 45 total tackles and two sacks. Alongside Byron Murphy II, the Texas front was a force to be reckoned with. Players like Alfred Collins played smaller roles behind those future NFL players. Collins played well when his opportunities arose but it was clear the top dogs in the defensive tackle room were Sweat and Murphy because the coaches could trust them to perform down after down after down.

Coming into 2024, people doubted whether the Texas front could duplicate such great success with Sweat and Murphy off to the NFL. While Collins and Vernon Broughton had performed adequately in years past, nobody expected them to play like All-Americans. But Texas and more importantly Collins has made the drop-off negligible. Collins is leading a defense that is currently No. 1 in the country in opponent yards per game (249). The Longhorn defense has a 94.6 grade from PFF College, also the best in the nation.

Much of that is due to the great play of No. 95 here in his fifth season on the 40 Acres.

“Just knowing my role on the team, I knew I had to step up,” Collins said Monday. “We lost two great interior D-linemen, so I knew I had to play my part. I’ve been doing so.”

In a solid 2023 campaign, Collins put up 22 tackles and two sacks. This year through just 10 games he has 35 tackles, two sacks, and four pass deflections, one of which led to an interception. He forced a fumble this past weekend against Arkansas that was recovered by Michael Taaffe. The win over the Razorbacks was the contest where Collins showed the country just how much he’s made the most of his fifth year, putting up seven tackles, two tackles for loss, and one sack to go with the aforementioned forced fumble. That earned a PFF grade of 91.6, the highest grade among DTs in college football in week 12.

“You got to go through things in life to grow from them,” Collins said. “It all happened for a reason. I’m here now. I’m happy everything worked how it did. Like I said before, I’ve grown a lot as a man, as a football player, and all that. This journey has been fun and worthwhile.”

Collins is a ride or die Longhorn in every sense of the word. His mother, Benita Pollard-Collins, was one of the best Longhorn basketball players of the 1990s.

Who had the better career?

“You know I’m always going with my mom,” Collins said. “That’s a bad woman right there. I’ll give her props.”

Collins stuck things out and made the most of his 2024 season, proving that staying with one school can pay off even in this era of craziness, NIL, and the transfer portal. Collins, like Sweat, stayed and developed. Also like Sweat, Collins will get his big, well-deserved payday.

How’d he do it?

[Subscribe to the Inside Texas YouTube channel!]

“I’m resilient,” Collins said. “I could have gave up, but I got help from the coaching staff. Just not giving up on myself.”

You may also like