August 27, 2008

Austin Collie


4th and 19? No problem. It seems to be a
habit for Utah to let BYU find open grass at
the end of the game now.

I wish I could claim writing this article but I didn't, and that's fine because I would never make the claim he makes about the "requisite two-year mission". But that's okay cuz I like the rest of the article. It can be found here (http://www.fantasycollegeblitz.com/player-spotlight-austin-collie-byu-wr/) but I wanted to post it directly here.

It would be one of the worst puns of all time to say that BYU WR Austin Collie (right, ICON SMI) is a man on a mission, but it looks true to me this year. Collie has taken a circuitous route to play major college football (at least for those outside Provo) and looks ready to be a top 20 fantasy WR in 2008.

First, the requisite background - Collie was the Mountain West Conference (MWC) Rookie of the Year way back in 2004 (caught 8 TDs from John Beck ), then did the requisite two-year mission that all LDS Cougars are asked to do, he just got assigned to Argentina.
In 2007 he returned out of shape , so you didn’t notice him until November when he ripped off 100+ yards in five of the last six including the bowl game win over UCLA - give him a pass as he was getting reacquainted to football plus was working with a brand-new starter at QB in Max Hall .

2008 sets up much better…

The BYU offense is loaded not just with QB Hall but also one of the best young RBs in the game in sophomore Harvey Unga and another in a line of excellent TE Dennis Pitta , so there will be few times that Collie will see the double team. Hall should have plenty of time behind one of the largest and best offensive lines not just in the MWC but in the country -given time for Collie to get behind some DBs I also expect his YPC to be even better than the 16.9 from last year.
Add to that a very weak first six games and Collie should help any fantasy team get out of the gates quickly:

Aug 30 - Northern Iowa
Sep 6 - at Washington
Sep 13 - UCLA
Sep 20 - Wyoming
Oct 3 - at Utah State
Oct 11 - New Mexico (HC)

Now that he is back in the rhythm of the game and Max Hall enters his second year at the helm I expect a huge junior year of double-digit TDs and 1000+ yards. The first run through of my wide receiver cheatsheet has him at #20, and with a bullet.



Here is one more article on Collie. Yeah, I'm psyched for the season. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695269025,00.html

2 comments:

The Marsing's said...

Can't wait for kickoff man! Nice post

The Lambert Family said...

My dad and I have BYU season tickets this year. The UNI game was good & bad. I'm glad we started with a D II team, not a big opponent. Overall, BYU came away looking up to Utah since they went in and beat a struggling Michigan team. No matter what, it still is Michigan at the BIG HOUSE. I too want both teams to do well. I have seasons for Utah also. I want this thing to come down the last and final one of the season, the HOLY WAR!!

Two things to improve:

1.Our secondary
2. Holding on to the ball.

Four things I liked:

1. Dennis Pita
2. Max Hall
3. Harvy Unnnga
4. Our linebackers - All 4 of them.