Aug
Calgary tackles learning on job
Courtesy Calgary Herald:
Among all the adjustments Milton Collins has had to make going from receiver to defensive back, the toughest may be the physical aspect.
You can study playbooks until the x’s and o’s start swimming in front of your eyes, and you can memorize various defensive alignments and shifts. But getting used to laying the lumber on an opposing receiver — well, that’s something you can’t do until you get in a real game.
“Tackling? That’s different right there,” nodded the 23-year-old Collins on Tuesday, as he prepared to suit up for just his third pro game Friday night at B.C. Place Stadium against the Lions. “I never had to tackle players before; now I have to. When you’re coming at a guy who’s bigger than you, how do you tackle him? (Defensive co-ordinator Chris) Jones always says to shoot for the legs. If you take out the legs, everything else will fall.”
It wasn’t until the Stamps saw Collins perform at their off-season free-agent camp in Florida that they felt he could contribute on the defensive side of the ball.
Knowing they were already stacked at receiver, and knowing Collins was blessed with athletic gifts, they convinced him he stood a better shot of cracking the Stamps roster as a defensive back.
And Collins, fresh off a year out of football and facing the prospects of heading into the real world to find a job — he wrapped up a degree in criminal justice in May at Dillard University in his home town of New Orleans — eagerly took the Stamps up on their offer.
