Rhode Island quarterback Jarrett Collins does not have a single collegiate offer yet, but teams are still clamoring to get a better look at him. Collins will attend a camp at Syracuse this weekend and is receiving attention from other schools like Coastal Carolina, Old Dominion and UConn.
The Rhode Island quarterback tells the Fizz he was pretty much an unknown in April. His recruitment really began last month all thanks to a camp invite.
“It started all this month where my recruitment kind of took off with an Elite 11 [camp invite] to Oregon. I got ranked in the top 50 in the nation…I got some mail from Syracuse inviting me down this Saturday to come on a visit and do a camp…I’ve been getting a lot of stuff from other schools, everything’s just starting to take off.
This is all happening so late in the process because he tore his ACL in a playoff loss last season, which set back his recruitment.
“I think when someone has a major injury like that it’s hard to determine how someone recovers from it and in my case I think a lot of people have noticed that the way I recovered, I improved everything around my leg even better than what it was. As my ACL healed full up it just made me an overall better player so I think that’s why everything’s starting to take off again.
There’s also another reason why the interest surrounding Collins is coming so late. He was not the main threat on offense for his St. Raphael team last season. It was his running back, Alfred Dorbor, who garnered most of the opposing team’s attention. Offseason camps have played a bigger role in Collins’ recruitment than his play last year.
“This year at St. Raphael’s we had a Gatorade Player of the Year running back, so a lot of our offense revolved around him…This [upcoming] year, going into my senior year, we have all of our receivers coming back so it’s definitely going to be a big passing year for me…A lot of recruiters saw me throughout the [recruiting] camps and everything because that’s when my skill was shown…I’ve just been to a lot of camps where a lot of recruiters have seen me. That’s where all my looks have [come from].
Listen to the full Collins interview on OrangeFizz Radio Saturday at 9am on the Score 1260 or listen on Orangefizz.podbean.com afterwards.
Posted: Connor Morrissette
