Prince Kollie impressing; Irish focus on natty, not NIL

It’s absolutely nothing like high school.

Prince Kollie, from tiny David Crockett High School tucked in the northeast corner of Tennessee, near the Volunteer State’s borders with both North Carolina and Virginia, had a fairly simple command during his prep days.

“None,” Kollie said of how many checks he was expected to make as a prep standout. “See ball, get ball.”

Now, as a second-year linebacker for Notre Dame under head coach Marcus Freeman, his former defensive coordinator and position coach, as well new defensive coordinator Al Golden – also a former head coach who arrived in South Bend, Indiana, this winter after a stint with Super Bowl runner-up Cincinnati – Kollie has begun to grow his game on multiple levels.

“There’s a lot of different checks that go on during plays,” Kollie said Thursday, as the Irish worked near the end of their second week of spring camp. “Our offense does a lot of motions, and they put the formation to the boundary, FSL, just a lot of different stuff. Then the speed of the game, you add that factor, you can probably get tangled up mentally.”

After appearing in the final 10 Irish games of the 2021 season, Kollie has drawn Golden’s attention in the early days of spring camp.

”I'm excited about him,” said Golden, the former Miami and Temple head coach. “He's very smart.

“Look, they all got a long way to go, you know, but if they have the traits in terms of is he physical, will he pursue naturally, is he smart, can he learn, you know, day in and day out and respond to what he's being taught.  And I would say Prince is checking those boxes right now. He knows he's got a long way to go and we're right there with in the trenches with him working myself, James, Ronnie. You know, we're all working together, the older guys are helping them.”

The 6-foot-half-inch, 222-pound Kollie has found Golden already has put his stamp on the Notre Dame defense.

“He’s brought a lot of different schemes,” Kollie said of Golden. “We do a lot of different stunts out of a lot of different formations, that’s the biggest thing.

“We can blitz from anywhere out of any formation and we can do a lot of different things out of different personnel. So the linebacker could be lined up on the line or he could be back. Just a lot of different ways to attack an offense.”

And how has Kollie responded to that approach?

“I love it,” Kollie said. “I love it, absolutely. Probably need to work on pass rush a little bit more, I feel like that will help me in the future.”

To that end, Kollie has worked closely with Isaiah Foskey – who elected to return to Notre Dame after a strong NFL Draft projection – as well as Jayson and Justin Ademilola.

“I get with, honestly, I get with the d-linemen; Foskey, he’ll be a first-rounder,” Kollie said. “Both of the twins, I’ll just ask them small things like what do you do when a lineman plants and they’ll be like, ‘Just swipe like this.’ Small things like that, I really talk to them a lot about it just whenever I can.”

Kollie’s work has garnered the attention of his teammates.

“He’s been really good; PK has done really well, he’s learning a lot as well,” said Marist Liufau, who’s returned to practice full-tilt after a season-ending injury suffered last August. “He’s stepping up as he’s maturing; he’s shown a lot of maturity. He’s learning his plays and getting his assignments down. It’s really nice to watch.”

FOCUS ON TEAM, NOT GREEN

Name, Image and Likeness opportunities continue to be a dominant topic in college athletics, especially in the world of football after recent reports that a 2023 five-star quarterback – per sources, University of Tennessee commitment Nico Iamaleava – had signed an NIL pact worth up to $7-8 million, long before his senior year of high school, let alone his first-ever snap on a collegiate field.

Notre Dame has taken a measured approach, and Jack Kiser said it stems from the Fighting Irish’s team-first focus.

“I think a big thing is you don’t really hear guys in the locker room talk about their deals,” Kiser said. “It’s very nonchalant, it’s not that important. What’s important is for us to win a national championship, and I think everybody knows that obviously they go hand in hand.

“If you are national champions, the NIL will take care of itself. I don’t know how rare that is because I’m not in these other locker rooms, but I do think that is something special at Notre Dame. This is a team first. We look out after each other. We’re not here for ourselves by any means.”