Austin Collie

From NCAA College Football Information & Resource

Austin Collie

Profile
College	Brigham Young University
Position	WR
Jersey No.	9
Class	Junior
Career	2004 – present
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight	212 lbs (96 kg)
Nationality	American
B-date
B-place
High School	Oak Ridge High School
Career Highlights
Awards
2007 Academic All-Mountain West Conference 2007 All-MWC Second Team (WR) 2007 All-MWC Honorable Mention (KR) 2007 Phil Steele All-MWC Second Team (wR/KR) 2007 Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl MVP
Championships
2007 Mountain West Conference Champion
Bowl Games
2007 Las Vegas Bowl

Austin Collie plays wide receiver for the Brigham Young University Cougars in the NCAA college football tournament. The athletically gifted wideout enjoyed an explosive freshman season in 2004 that earned him the Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year award as well as All-American honors after setting school freshman records in both receiving yards and touchdown receptions. He returned to don the Cougar jersey in 2007---two years after serving an LDS mission and worked his way back into the team's top receiving spot with some memorable games and player of the week worthy performances, even earning for himself a bowl game MVP in his inaugural postseason game and another spot at the All-Conference selection.

1 Personal Life
2 High School
3 College
4 Highlights
5 Career Stats
6 Achievements
- 6.1 2007
- 6.2 2004
7 References

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Personal Life

Austin is one of five children of Scott and Nicole Collie. Austin is not the first Collie to catch footballs at BYU as his father was a former Cougar receiver from 1979 through 1982 before going on to play in the CLF with the Hamilton Tigercats. His older brother Zac also suited up for BYU as a wideout. Austin, who was an Eagle scout, went on a LDS church mission like his brother in Buenos Aires, Argentina for two years. During the mission, Austin resided in Pablo Nogues, an Argentine town with one paved street and no sewage lines. Although he lived in difficult circumstances and missed a couple of years in collegiate football, he said that he wouldn't trade his experience for the world and is humbled to find pieces of himself he may never have discovered if he'd stayed and played.

Austin is married to Brooke Pendleton, the sister of freshman safety Jordan Pendleton and daughter of Kirk Pendleton, a former teammate of his father at BYU. He said that Brooke helps him relax and calms him down everytime he gets anxious about football, school, or life in general.

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High School

Collie was a versatile athlete at Oak Ridge High School, playing under head football coach Chris Jones. During his junior year, he tallied 56 receptions for 857 yards and 10 touchdowns. Then during his senior season, Collie did almost everything he can to help lead the Trojans to its second consecutive Sac-Joaquin Section Division II title after tallying 1,654 all-purpose yards (973 yards receiving, 368 yards rushing and 313 return yards), scoring 196 points that include 23 touchdowns (18 on catches), seven field goals kicked, and 37 extra points. Not only that, Collie also played defense as a defensive back, contributing 53 tackles (27 solo, 26 assists) and two interceptions which was returned for a total of 103 yards. His athleticism was also used in the Trojans special teams as he served as the main punter, kicker and kick returner. By the end of his senior year, Oak Ridge was 12-1 (5-1 in the Sierra Valley Conference) and Collie's efforts were recognized with several individual postseason accolades that include the Sacramento Bee, All-City, and Sierra Valley Conference Most Valuable Player Awards. He was also given a spot at the All-Metro (Northern California), PrepStar All-America, and SuperPrep All-America Teams, aside from being considered as one of the five finalists for “Mr. Football” for the state of California. Among the receivers in the West, PrepStar listed Collie as the fifth best. But despite of his success on the field, his academics were not compromised as he was able to land a 4.0 grade-point average.

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College

Because of his highly impactful performance in high school, Collie was one of the more sought after prospects in the state. More than a dozen colleges and universities offered him scholarships, including BYU, Arizona State, Stanford, UNLV, and Washington State. He later on cut his options to two, Stanford and BYU. Despite heavily considering Stanford, Collie decided to go to BYU because he thought that the program has the best offensive and play style that would give him the best chances of later on playing in the NFL.

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2004

Collie quickly made it to the team in only his true freshman year, playing alongside first team junior college All-American Todd Watkins. He made his collegiate debut against Notre Dame, catching 3 passes for 54 yards and his first career touchdown (42 yards) in the 20-17 win. He also had his first career carry and kickoff return (for 17 yards) against the Fighting Irish. On his first away game @ Stanford, he was able to catch 8 passes for 49 yards and return a couple of kickoffs for 42 yards in the 10-37 loss, a defeat that would start a three-game slide that continued against USC (where he caught 4 passes for 36 yards) and @ Boise State (catching 5 passes for 94 yards and 1 TD). The Cougars did manage to tally their first road victory @ Colorado State, 31-21, with Collie catching 4 passes for 60 yards and 1 TD before another loss against UNLV ensued. Collie tallied his first and only twin-digit catch of the season (10 receptions for 70 yards) in the loss to the Rebels. BYU then strung up three straight victories against Wyoming, Air Force, and San Diego State, with Collie recording season lows of 3 catches against the Cowboys and the Aztecs, but managed to tally a 40-yard TD catch from running back Curtis Brown against Wyoming and record season bests of 95 receiving yards and two touchdown receptions (one for 82 yards) against SDSU. Against New Mexico in the Cougars' last home game of the year, Collie caught 4 passes for 83 yards and rushed once for 7 yards in the 14-21 loss. In the regular season finale against 5th ranked Utah, Collie caught 3 passes for 74 yards and 1 score, even attempting his first collegiate pass but failed to connect in the 21-52 loss to the Utes.

Despite failing to make the postseason in his rookie year, it was nonetheless a highly successful year for Collie who emerged as the team's leader in catches (53) and TD receptions (8, BYU Freshman Record) and just behind Watkins in the receiving yards category (771, BYU Freshman Record) while placing second in the scoring department (48 points). His remarkable freshman season also netted him a spot at the Sporting News' All-American Second Team while being awarded as the league's top newcomer of 2004.

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2005-06

Collie went on a hiatus for two seasons on a Mormon mission in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Among the players that competed to fill his position were Joe Griffin, Michael Reed, Matt Allen, Michael Morris, Nathan Meikle, Saia Hafoka, Luke Ashworth, Bryce Mahuika, Breyon Jones, Brett Cooper and his older brother Zac.

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2007

After his mission, Collie returned in January and received scholarships offers from four BCS schools, namely Oregon, Stanford, UCLA and Oklahoma State. He however decided to return to Provo and reclaim the #1 receiving spot he left a couple of years back. Collie had a difficult transition back as he struggled during the early stages of spring practices trying to get to football shape again after ballooning to 227 pounds in Argentina from merely 196 as a freshman. He was able to trim down to 209 during training camp and went into wind sprints they call gassers to get back into condition.

Collie re-debuted against Arizona and caught 4 passes for 41 yards in the 20-7 victory. The Cougars then travelled to UCLA but lost, 17-27, with Collie catching 7 passes for 79 yards and 2 scores, return a punt for a yard, and returned 3 kickoffs for 76 yards. Another road loss @ Tulsa followed as Collie had 4 receptions for 121 yards (first 100-yard career receiving game) and 1 score in the 47-55 loss. During that game, when he recorded 245 in kick and punt returns and tallied a Mountain West Conference single-game record for all-purpose yards (336) and return yards, he sustained an ankle sprain which bothered him through the next outing against Air Force. He did manage to recover in time for the visit to New Mexico where he caught 4 passes for 98 yards and 1 TD, before being limited to merely 4 yards on 2 catches in the win @ UNLV. He also contributed a solitary catch for 12 yards in the 42-7 win @ Washington before erupting with an 8-catch, 111-yard, 1-TD game against Colorado State. The win against CSU began a 4-game streak of 100 yards receiving for Collie, as he caught 109 on 4 receptions against TCU, 103 on 8 @ Wyoming, and establishing a career best 126 on 5 catches in the win against rival Utah. He also returned 5 kickoffs for 80 yards against the Horned Frogs, 3 kickoffs for 94 yards against the Cowboys, and had one for 26 yards against the Utes. In the Utah game, Collie collaborated with quarterback Max Hall for a 49 yard connection that set up the go-ahead touchdown from Harvey Unga.

Following the win against Utah, Collie told a local radio reporter that “When you're doing what's right on and off the field, I think the Lord steps in and plays a part; magic happens.” This statement drew some criticism, but Collie stood by his comment, saying that “I’m in the spot that I am in just because I have been doing things right. I believe the Lord has truly blessed me. It’s the reason why I’m playing [Division I] football, and if you don’t believe that the next time you receive an award, then don’t say you want to thank God first for your success. That is the same exact thing. For people to make an issue out of me saying that I believe the Lord helps me out is ludicrous." [1]

During the regular season finale @ San Diego State, Collie caught 3 passes for 35 yards and 1 TD, and returned 4 kickoffs for 88 yards in the 48-27 win. On the 22nd of December, Collie made his postseason debut against UCLA at the Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl. He caught 6 passes for 107 yards and 1 TD, and returned 3 kickoffs for 88 yards in the close 17-16 win over the Bruins. Aside from the Las Vegas Bowl Game MVP honors, Collie also received second team All-Mountain West conference honors and earned honorable mention All-MWC honors as a kick returner after finishing the season with 56 receptions, 946 receiving yards, 7 TDs, 28 kickoff returns, and 723 KO return yards.

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