BYU football: Collie frustrated at inability to compete

PROVO — Day after day during fall camp, BYU's Austin Collie has been on the practice field, dressed in his practice uniform, wearing a bone stimulator on his injured leg and doing a lot of watching.

While the junior wide receiver has been helping his teammates — offering encouragement, advice and some levity — the days have taken an emotional toll.

"It's been frustrating," Collie said. "I'm a competitor. I always want to compete, and I always want to be out there with my team. It's hard just to watch and not be part of the team verbally. I also want to be part of the team physically. It's been hard. It's definitely been a trial."

Over the past couple of weeks, Collie has gone home most nights feeling frustrated, wondering when he'd return to action.

"I was telling the coaches the other day that if this was the off-season or even a couple months before the season it wouldn't have been that bad," he said. "It wouldn't have been as hard. But since it's just a couple of weeks before the season, it's even that much worse. It's a struggle. It's a battle for me."

This week, though, Collie, who suffered a stress fracture in his right lower leg in the weeks leading up to fall camp, is hopeful that he'll be able to start running routes and catching passes. After a little more than two weeks, he reports his leg is pain-free.

"It feels great," Collie said. "There's no pain. Right now, it's just a state of precaution. We're just making sure nothing happens to it and making sure that it's not something that's going to nag at me later on in the season. The trainers and doctors have done an exceptional job of keeping me patient and keeping me grounded and making sure I do the right things to recover."

While Collie said he'll be ready for the season-opener against Northern Iowa on Aug. 30, will he be able to be effective despite this relatively long layoff?

Both quarterback Max Hall and coach Bronco Mendenhall say he will.

"Austin and I work so much together, that when he comes back, I don't think we're going to have to take time to get back to where we were," Hall said. "We just want him healthy because he's a big-time player and we need him to have the kind of season we want. We'll be excited to get Austin back."

"He'll be ready to play," Mendenhall said. "He's a competitor, and he knows exactly what to do. I trust him. So I'm not worried."

Collie agrees. "I don't think it will be hard to get back into it. Max and I worked extremely, extremely hard during the off-season and during the summer. We've gotten to the point where we know what each other are thinking. We know what we do in different situations. I definitely think if I were to step back onto the field, we'd pick up right where we left off."