What Texas may expect from DL Alfred Collins’ comeback?

The Bastrop senior is back for another season to continue his education under Bo Davis in an effort to emulate T’Vondre Sweat’s five-year success.

Texas’s Austin According to a report released on Wednesday by Chip Brown of 247Sports, Alfred Collins’ decision to use his additional year of eligibility and return for a final season in Austin is likely to benefit the Texas Longhorns defensive line in 2024. The senior will be able to stay on the Forty Acres for an additional year because of their COVID eligibility.

Over the course of his four-year career, the 6’5, 317-pound lineman has played in 48 games for the Burnt Orange, including six starts. He has accumulated 86 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks, one forced fumble, and one interception.

Following an outstanding high school career at Bastrop Cedar Creek, Collins made his way to Texas and participated in the All-American game to cap up the 2020 cycle. Collins, a four-star prospect by most accounts, was rated as the No. 2 strong-side defensive end and the 62nd player in the country by 247Sports Composite.

With a career-high run defence grade of 71.6 and a career-high pass-rush grade of 80.8 owing to nine defensive stops, three quarterback hits, and eighteen pressures, Collins recorded his best defensive rating ever from PFF in 2023 (80.1).

“I believe Alfred’s season has been excellent. If someone had questioned me, or if you guys had listened to any of my interviews from my first few years here, I believe I would have mentioned Alfred’s physical prowess frequently. The talent was never the main focus. It concerned his consistency and his ability to play the game consistently, and I believe that he has significantly narrowed the gap on that this year — he’s playing a much more consistent brand of football,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said at the end of November.

Per Sarkisian, nagging injuries—including one versus Houston in October—had more of an impact on Collins’s performance in 2023 than consistency.

The staff’s pitch to Collins is that he can replicate the kind of progress Sweat and Murphy made from 2022 to 2023 while working under Texas defensive line coach Bo Davis. Collins’ potential return will aid a Texas defensive line that will have to cover two enormous interior holes caused by the departures of T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy II to the 2024 NFL Draft.

“I do believe he has an opportunity to really step it up, and I think it’s very similar to what Sweat and Murphy had when [Keondre] Coburn and Moro [Ojomo] moved on. They really stepped into that leadership role and kind of took it on, which gave them a lot of confidence. I believe Alfred may experience something similar.

Based on his raw potential and athleticism, Collins would be selected in the late rounds of this year’s draft; however, a return to Texas and perhaps a trajectory similar to that of Murphy, the Big 12 Defensive Lineman of the Year, or Sweat, the Outland Trophy winner and Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, could propel Collins into the top half of the 2025 draft.