There’s a chance that Texas A&M University-Commerce wide receiver Ricky Collins might be headed for the National Football League’s Green Bay Packers.
An article written by Scout.com’s Packers reporter featured Collins as a possible participant in Green Bay’s training camp this summer. The story also highlighted Collins’ return to college football after having his collegiate career interrupted in 2012 by family issues.
That year, Collins was a junior at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls. Five games into the season, he left school to help take care of his father, who had suffered a stroke.
“After my dad had had a stroke, I really wasn’t thinking about football at that point in time because I was really trying to be the man of the house,” Collins told Scout.com on Apr. 9, one day after the Green Bay Press-Gazette reportedCollins would be visiting the Packers before this year’s NFL draft.
Collins, a graduate of John Tyler High School in Tyler, played his first two seasons of football at Kilgore Junior College before transferring to Midwestern State. While at Kilgore, Collins was named to All-Southwest Junior College Football Conference first team in 2011.
“To me, it was [a difficult decision] but it wasn’t,” Collins told Scout.com. “It was either play football or take care of the man who took care of me. He took care of me without a problem so it was my turn to take care of him and my mom.”
After helping his family, Collins returned to football in 2013 as a redshirt at A&M-Commerce. Lions head coach Colby Carthel had a big role in making that happen.
“I had a couple of friends that I had known for a good while that had transferred to Commerce and they knew I wasn’t playing football,” Collins told Scout.com. “The head coach, Carthel – he had known me since junior college. He found out that I wasn’t playing football so my friends and Coach Carthel gave me a call and asked if I wanted to play football again.”
The following season, Collins appeared in 11 of the Lions’ 12 games. He caught 71 passes for 1,187 yards (16.7 average) and 14 touchdowns. Collins’ contribution to one of the top offenses in all of NCAA Division II caught the attention of NFL scouts.
“To be honest, I always had the mind-set that I could make it to the NFL,” Collins told Scout.com. “When this season came along, I want to say the sixth game of the season, I had gotten a lot of attention so I was like, ‘It’s time now.’”
“He’s explosive, strong and runs like the wind,” Carthel told Scout.com. “He’s got tremendous hands. He can make the one-handed (Odell) Beckham catches. A lot of guys can run, a lot of guys can catch, but not a lot of guys can run like he can and have as strong of hands as he does. In the NFL, you’ve got to have strong hands.”
Collins isn’t expected to get drafted, according to Scout.com. Still, there’s a chance the Packers could give him a shot in camp.
“Me and my quarterback and my cousins sit back and talk about this stuff all the time, from the struggling that we had come from and now actually being in this position to play in the NFL,” Collins told Scout.com. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. When my phone rings, there’s no telling what’s going to happen.”
