Beaux Collins, who has picked up five receiving touchdowns during the 2022 season, has not seen any touches of the ball in the last two games versus both Florida State and Syracuse. The Clemson sophomore wide receiver plays an integral role in the wide receiver room, acting alongside guys like Joseph Ngata as the veterans of the room.
Collins spoke to the media on Monday and disregarded any notions that he felt mad or discouraged about not getting those big plays in the last couple of weeks. Instead, he feels like the priority for him should always be on what he can do to help the team as a whole.
“Just keeping the main thing the main thing and that’s winning,” he said. “If I have to have a full game of blocking, that’s what I’ll do. There hasn’t been much time where I’ve really been pissed off or anything like that. I’ve just handled it well like a pro would and I just go back to work the next week, hoping to get a catch that week. It’s just whatever it takes, so I wasn’t really worried about that, for sure.”
The lack of opportunities for the 6-foot-3, 210-pound pass catcher has been something that has weighed on offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter. Streeter, who knows the talent and maturity Collins brings to the wide receiver room, emphasized to reporters that it’s sometimes on him to give Collins the opportunity to make the play.
However, Collins quickly put the worries of Streeter to rest, always going back to his priority, which is helping the team find a way to win.
“He’s [Streeter] expressed that before, but I told him not to even worry about it,” he said. “He told me that after one of our games a few weeks ago, but I can tell he really means it and that’s all I could ask for really.”
The California native knows the opportunities to make catches and make those big plays is also sometimes dictated by the coverages they are facing from opposing defenses. Clemson has had to run the ball more in both the Syracuse and Florida State games, which by virtue has naturally given Collins less opportunities.
“Just the defense that we’ve played, they’re basically daring us to run the ball,” he said. “They had light boxes. Syracuse had a light box, Florida State sometimes had a light box, things like that. It’s what we had to get done at the moment.”
Collins thinks that it’s not only him, but the entire wide receiver unit that wants to see each other succeed, which makes it all that easier to watch the other guys come up with some big plays.
“Not at all,” he said. “We all want to see each other succeed at the end of the day. That was one of Coach [Tyler] Grisham’s main goals this year, was just being each other’s biggest fan and I think we’re really displaying that for sure.”
The mentality and the maturity of Collins resembles that of a professional out there, which Streeter values about the wide receiver, calling him “selfless” on the field.
Collins reacted to what a comment like that means to him, especially in the college football environment we live in.
“It means a lot,” he said. “Just, there’s a lot of crazy things going on in the football world, players doing stupid things. So, it really means a lot for someone to say that about me in today’s time period.”
