RATCLIFFE ON: Collins ready for newest challenge

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Published: August 14, 2008

Maybe the only person in the stands who notices what Virginia’s No. 98 is doing on Saturday’s is his momma.
Nose tackles don’t get a lot of notoriety. Doesn’t matter how well they play, nobody seems to notice except the coaches from both teams ... and momma. It is a position that must be played without ego. A nose tackle can play a perfect game and almost no one would know —there’s not a lot of glory tossed their way.
The key to the defense
With that in mind, it should be pointed out that Nate Collins — No. 98 on your scorecard —might just be the most important person on Virginia’s defense. Don’t expect him to be flying around and making bone-crushing tackles or chasing quarterbacks all over the place like Chris Long used to do.
However, if Collins doesn’t do his job, then nothing else works correctly in the Cavaliers’ 3-4 scheme. It all begins with the nose.
His job, essentially, is to clog the middle. If he allows the center to get past him and block a linebacker, the entire system can break down.
With two years and 25 games behind him as a reserve nose tackle, this is Collins’ time to shine. He’s the most experienced player returning to UVa’s defensive line, a guy that the rest of the d-line can rally around.
“I’m starting, so I have a lot of pressure on me,” Collins said with a wide smile. “I’m trying to do the right thing every snap and not have the mistakes I’ve had the past two years.”
Learning from the best
With that charge, he is watching a whole lot of tape of Long and predecessor Allen Billyk, who started at the nose spot, looking for technique and anything else that can help him become a more effective player.
The most important stuff, though, doesn’t come from a video machine. It came from Long’s heart, which from what we could detect, was one of the biggest we’ve ever seen.
“One of the biggest things that Chris taught me is that you if you do something wrong, make sure you do it wrong 200 percent,” Collins said. “That’s what I do. I run to the ball. You can always correct the error, but you can’t correct being lazy. Keep the motor running at all times.”
Behind Collins are three veteran linebackers and a fairly experienced secondary, so the pressure is on like never before that he shields his fellow defenders from blockers. Surely he and the Cavs’ line will be tested when the mighty USC Trojans come to town to open the curtain at the end of the month.
It won’t be a place for the weak at heart.
Down in the trenches is like a weekly street fight and if you can’t cut it, then the coaches will find someone who can. Collins gets it, so that won’t be a problem. He’s willing to dish out a little punishment as well.
At 6-foot-2, 280 pounds, the Port Chester, N.Y., junior knows what’s required and that’s why he dedicated himself over the offseason to become the best he can be.
“Nate had a tremendous summer program for us and is one of the strongest players on the team and one of the hardest workers,” said Al Groh, who knows a little something something about defense. “He didn’t have too much experience as a down lineman (coming out of high school), so most of the plays that he’s been able to make for us have been in athletic ability and effort.
“Now he’s continuing to learn to play the point of attack more physically whereas his early game was more based on athletic skill and running to the ball,” the head coach explained.
Don’t think of Collins as a heavy, plodding lineman that can’t move. Oh contraire.
As a senior at King & Low-Heywood Thomas High School, he was so athletic that he played the following positions: defensive end, fullback, tailback, tight end, wide receiver, defensive tackle, linebacker .... And, for the coup de grace ... quarterback.
Oh, and he also sold popcorn at halftime. Just kidding.
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen a lot of quarterbacks who could eventually transition to nose tackle.
He has used that athletic ability to his advantage at the nose, where mobility is sometimes a rare asset. Over the past two seasons, he has recorded 48 tackles, nine for loss, and two sacks.
Those numbers may seem insignificant compared to the Cavaliers’ leading tackler over the same time period, 190 tackles by inside linebacker Jon Copper, but don’t let the statistics blind you to the fact that the nose man isn’t really supposed to make many tackles.
“My job is being able to take on blockers, be able to take on more than one block,” Collins said. “Seldom is a nose tackle going to get a one-on-one block. A lot of times the guard is going to come down on me, so I have to see that and the center. I’ve got to make sure I’m staying in there and not getting pushed out ... keep those linemen on our second level so that our linebackers can run free and make tackles.”
That wasn’t an easy thing for the big man to comprehend his freshman season when he felt like he needed to make tackles.
“If the center blocks the linebackers on runs up the middle, then there’s really no one else there to make those tackles,” Collins said.
We told you he was important, maybe the most important guy on the whole defense.
“You said that, not me,” Collins said with a grin, not wanting to attract too much attention his way. That’s just not a cool thing for nose tackles to do.
He realizes there’s enough eyes on the defensive line, one of the question marks by Wahoo fans heading into the season after the departure of star bookend pass rushers Long and Jeffrey Fitzgerald.
Otherwise, it’s a pretty experienced defense that enjoyed great success last season: No. 13 nationally in rushing defense; No. 5 in rushing touchdowns surrendered; No. 16 in points allowed.
“We’ve got a lot of guys coming back except here on the D-line,” Collins said. “We feel like we’re the underdogs of the defense right now, but we love the challenge. We want to shock the world because a lot of people are probably counting us out because of Chris and Jeffrey leaving. There’s nothing better than a challenge.”
Plenty of that is on the way from the West Coast, but Collins is undaunted.
“Southern Cal is the best thing that can happen to us,” Collins said. “What’s better than having one of the best teams in the nation in recent years coming to your home turf for the first game of the season?”
Beating them would be the natural response, but if that’s going to happen then No. 98 must play the game of his life and hope that his fellow Cavaliers can do likewise.
Heck, if that happens, he might actually get noticed by someone besides his momma.