Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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18 SEPT. 14, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY JACK SOBLE O n Dec. 6, four words changed everything for Beaux Collins. Collins sat in Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman's office at the Guglielmino Athletics Com- plex with his parents, D'Andre and April. He was a prospective transfer addition on his official visit, having left Clemson a week earlier after three seasons. Freeman looked him in the eye and asked him a sincere question. "What do you want?" he said. "What do you want out of this?" Collins wanted to be part of a great team, he responded. He wanted to be part of a great team and, once the year was over, to be drafted into the NFL. "I'll make that happen," Freeman said. Freeman believed that. And it was at that moment that Collins started to be- lieve it, too. "When you tell a kid that, and that's his dream, and you can do it with a straight face, you kind of believe it," D'Andre Collins told Blue & Gold Illus- trated. "It ain't no hogwash. … That just made it even brighter." Collins was supposed to take other official visits, but that night, he changed his mind. The energy and belief he felt from Freeman, then-director of recruit- ing Chad Bowden and incoming wide receivers coach Mike Brown made his decision for him. All of a sudden, D'Andre Collins started to see something click in his son. His excitement for competing, for being a part of a team and for the game of football had waned in his latter days with the Tigers. Once he joined the Irish, Beaux Col- lins had his excitement back. "Having a reset on my environment and the coaches that I'm around, it's an experience of its own," Collins said. "Can't really explain it." A NEW HOPE Collins gradually rebuilt his confi- dence from the time he committed to Notre Dame to his first days of fall camp. He couldn't practice in the spring, be- REVIVAL REVIVAL Given new life when he transferred to Notre Dame, Beaux Collins is making an instant impact Collins, a transfer from Clemson, led all Fighting Irish pass catchers with 5 receptions for 62 yards in the season-opening victory at Texas A&M Aug. 31. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER