On Monday, the nation's No. 1 running back (according to 247sports) made his announcement live on Fox Sports South. And after being on the radar of the Razorbacks since new head coach Bret Bielema came on board in December Collins made his commitment to Arkansas on Monday night.
For Collins it was all about relationships and in this case three specific ones. First is defensive line coach Charlie Partridge, who was his primary recruiter from the get go with Wisconsin and had built a great relationship with him while working for the Badgers. Second was head coach Bret Bielema, who was heavily involved with his recruitment at Wisconsin as well. Those are the obvious ones.
The not so obvious one is the relationship with Randy Shannon – the former head coach at Miami (FL) and new linebackers coach at Arkansas. Those three coaches have all built up great individual relationships and for Collins the trifecta of the three appears to have won the day.
Collins was also considering Miami (the school he originally committed to), Florida, Florida State, and Wisconsin.
As for what this does for the Hogs, well Arkansas was having itself a pretty good time of it with the 2013 recruiting class already, ranking 24th in the 247 composite rankings before this commitment and with Collins in the fold they are sure to rise a lot in the rankings. Collins is also the 3rd running back in the class, joining Korliss Marshall (Osceola, AR) and Denzell Evans (Bellaire, TX).
