‘I’ve got a lot more to give’

EAST LANSING – In an age of college football where it’s easy to leave, it’s remarkable that Elijah Collins has stayed.

After all, we’re talking about a guy who was Michigan State’s featured running back three years ago, rushing for close to 1,000 yards as a redshirt freshman, under a different coaching regime, and, who, in the two years since, has battled injury and illness and watched a new staff bring in four different transfer running backs to replace him.

And yet, Collins doesn’t see his journey through that lens.

“For me, I’ve seen what Coach Tuck (Mel Tucker) is trying to do here,” Collins said last week. “From the very jump, it’s been clear. The first day he came in, he said he wanted to go out and make a statement and really bring Michigan State to that next level. I mean, I feel that as well. I was here when Coach D (Mark Dantonio) was here. Things have changed. But it’s all for the better. And I could see that progression. So it’s really something I wanted to be a part of. Because I know if anything’s going to come from it, it’s going to be something good.”

Perhaps Collins should be the advisor that greets every athlete at the gates of the transfer portal.

It’s unclear what Collins’ role will be this MSU football season. The depth chart, reading the tea leaves, appears right now to begin with Wisconsin transfer Jalen Berger. Colorado transfer Jarek Broussard is expected to play a significant part, too. Offensive coordinator Jay Johnson mentioned junior Jordon Simmons on Thursday, as well. Collins, 2021 Auburn transfer Harold Joiner and redshirt freshman Davion Primm are also battling for carries.

It’s hard not to root for Collins. He’s been through it — a tough and lingering bout with COVID-19 in 2020 that pretty much sunk his season, then a lower leg injury after a promising series of carries in his debut last season during the second game of MSU’s season.

He wasn’t going to unseat Kenneth Walker last year, but Collins, for a moment in September, looked like himself again, like a playmaker, like the guy who had a burst to him while rushing for 988 yards and 4.5 yards per carry in 2019. But he sat out the next five games and by the time he returned, Walker was a Heisman Trophy candidate and Collins had missed his window to have a major role. Collins, though, remained a model teammate. Walker talked about it. Others did, too. Meanwhile, Collins tried to soak up everything he was seeing from Walker.

“I mean he came in with great ability and he showed me what needed to be done,” Collins said. “He’s obviously taken it to the next level. I mean success leaves clues and he left a clue everywhere, he left his imprint everywhere. And that’s something I’m trying to do.”

That’s an everyday thing for Collins. Not just Saturdays. And beyond the field, too.

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“He’s always there for you if you need anything,” Simmons said. “He’s just a great person overall. But in the (running backs) room, he is the veteran right now, so he has taken the role of stepping up, being a leader, holding everybody accountable if they’re not on top of their stuff.”

It’s a role Collins knows he can have, regardless of what occurs on the depth chart. Sometimes running backs never get that zip back. But anyone who saw Collins in 2019 — pre-pandemic, pre-Walker — saw a guy who looked like he could make some noise in the Big Ten. There’s enough film on him that other schools certainly would have been glad to have him, if he wanted a fresh start, if he wanted to be the new transfer, instead of being the guy who’s still there from before.

That, however, would have meant bailing on a lot of good things happening around him.

“Just the energy, the change of speed,” Collins said of the difference between the end of the Dantonio era and Tucker’s program entering Year 3. “I mean, you look at everything out there, we’re flying around. There’s no BS. Everyone’s focused, everyone’s locked in. And that’s probably the biggest change. With Coach D, everything was going well. With Coach Tuck, everything is going great as far as, like, attention to detail and things that we’ve got going on, things implemented, people he’s brought in. He’s brought in a great team and a great coaching staff.”

Collins wants to be part of that. He wants to carry the ball for that team.

“As a player, as a teammate, you see the standard get raised,” he said. “The price went up, at every position. (Tucker) just demanded a little bit more from everyone. And so, as far as that goes, I’ve got to demand more from myself. And I’ve been doing that in every facet.”

It doesn’t mean this has been easy to stomach. Collins got a taste of stardom in a sport he absolutely loves. He’s spent the two years since unsure if he’ll ever get it back.

“It’s mental gymnastics,” he said. “You have to sit there, you really have to reflect and realize what you’ve done and how far you’ve come, with the idea that this isn’t the end, that there’s a lot more to go, that you’re going to keep going, that you can’t give up and you’ve got to have faith in yourself. Because a lot of times it’s an emotional swing and you think it’s over with. It’s far from over with.

“I’ve got a lot more to give — for myself, for my family, for Spartan nation. With everything. People tell me I have been to the top of the hill. I feel like I’m still climbing.”

MORE: Couch: Having Jay Johnson at the wheel brings curiosity and competence to MSU football’s offense

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.