Michiko Araki
This year’s crop of first year Lions have been turning heads this season, and receiver Austin Collie is no different. So far this season, Austin has shown that he’s more than ready to make an impact in his first year in the CFL.
Austin, who scored two touchdowns in last week’s game against the Tiger-Cats, currently leads the team in receiving touchdowns with four under his belt. Not only that, but he’s also one of Travis Lulay’s favourite targets so far this season after Emmanuel Arceneaux and Andrew Harris, and is clearly a key player for Coach Tedford’s offence. So, what are his goals this season?
“Just win games,” he says. Quite self explanatory, but this very team-oriented goal is what drives Austin to perform on the field.
Prior to the Lions, Austin had several NFL stints, with his longest being on the field for the Indianapolis Colts for two seasons after the 2009 NFL draft. Having caught touchdown passes from some of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, including Peyton Manning, Austin feels that having a good connection with the quarterback is crucial to finding success on the field.
“It’s huge,” says Austin. “[Trust] definitely has an impact on the field and it’s important that the quarterback and receiver are on the same wavelength at all times, and that you know each other and kind of anticipate what [the other] is thinking on each play,” says Austin.
Speaking of a quarterback-receiver connection, Austin’s second touchdown last week against the Tiger-Cats came from fellow Brigham Young University (BYU) graduate, John Beck, who also happened to be the reason why he came north of the border to play for the Lions.
“Last football season, I sent him a few text messages saying, ‘hey, would you want to come up to Canada? I think you would do a really good job here‘, but he still had some NFL teams talking to him, especially the quarterbacks that he had played for,” says John.
“[Austin’s] older brother Zac was my exact age. Zac and I were freshmen (at BYU) before we went on our missions together… we both came back and played out our four years together. His older brother and I, we did a lot together. So I knew about Austin way back when he was in high school. I had seen his high school highlights, all that stuff. When Austin was a true freshman (at BYU), I was his quarterback. He and I threw touchdowns together in 2004. Here we are eleven years later, and now all of a sudden we get to [have another year together]. So that’s pretty cool.”
With that kind of history, it’s no wonder that Austin feels right at home with the Lions.