David Crockett’s Kollie sees surge of offers in offseason
JONESBOROUGH, Tenn. (BVM) — To say Prince Kollie is popular might be undermining the essence of the word. Kollie, a rising senior at David Crockett High School, has seen the interest in his services spike over the past few months.
Kollie was a Class 5A all-state defensive back for the Pioneers last season where he racked up 72 tackles, four of which went for a loss, two sacks, three forced fumbles, one fumble recovered and an interception. However, Kollie also dominated on the offensive side of the ball, catching 64 passes for 1,032 yards and nine touchdowns. He also rushed for a touchdown during the season. For his performance, Kollie was named his conference’s defensive player of the year.
The offseason did not start with a ton of hype for Kollie. Though he had made a number of recruiting visits to Division I programs such as the University of Tennessee and the University of Kentucky, the teams were not quick to give offers to the defensive back. That all changed on Jan. 29.
Just weeks after being named an all-state player, Kollie received the news he had been waiting months for. The University of Virginia extended Kollie a scholarship offer, his first from a Division I program. Since that point, the floodgates have been opened.
By early May, Kollie had accumulated over 20 Division I scholarship offers from numerous conferences across the country including the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and the SEC. His Twitter page was being filled seemingly weekly with updates on offers he had recently received. Most notably on his list of offers is Oklahoma University, who played in last season’s college football playoff, but he has also been offered by some top level programs including University of Georgia, Auburn University, Virginia Tech and West Virginia University, to name a few.
Kollie has also been extremely popular with in-state recruiting as well, receiving offers from University of Tennessee, Vanderbilt University, Memphis and Middle Tennessee, among others. Though Kollie is listed as an athlete in most cases, he is being recruited primarily on the defensive side of the ball, either as a defensive back or an outside linebacker.
Kollie is ranked a four-star recruit by ESPN and was the 211th overall prospect on the ESPN 300 for the Class of 2021. His ranking makes him the No. 22 outside linebacker in the class and the fifth overall player in the state.
Perhaps one of the greatest honors Kollie has received this offseason was an invitation to participate in the 2021 Under Armour All-American game, a prestigious invitation given to the top level prep players in the country. The game has produced a number of famous football alumni including Deshaun Watson, Julio Jones and Jadaveon Clowney among a number of other NFL Pro Bowlers and college football greats.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic limited what teams could do in terms of in-person visits, Kollie had planned on making his college decision prior to his senior season. Now with the delay, it will likely take some additional time for his final decision to be made. On May 21, Kollie announced his top ten schools which included Auburn University, University of Georgia, Louisiana State University, University of Louisville, University of Notre Dame, Oklahoma University, University of Tennessee, University of Texas, University of Virginia and Wake Forest University. On June 24, Kollie shortened his list to University of Georgia, Louisiana State University, University of Louisville, University of Notre Dame and Oklahoma University.
#AGTG Thankful for the blessings god has given me and I also want to say thank you for everyone who has believed in me and helped me get to this point.🙏🏾@youngballcoach_ @k_rams10_52 @LSUfootball @GeorgiaFootball @OU_Football @GoCards @NDFootball @BGilmer18
TOP 5(No Interviews) pic.twitter.com/GMDRRK1X4y— Prince Kollie (@p_kollie_21) June 24, 2020
Looking forward to his senior season, Kollie will look to turn his individual success into more team success. Last season, the Pioneers finished with a 7-4 record and were knocked out of the first round of the Class 5A state playoffs by Knoxville Central. With a number of scholarship offers on the table, Kollie could make dreams come true for a number of football staffs across the country. However, until that time arrives, Kollie will work to narrow down his list of suitors.
