GREELEY — New University of Northern Colorado head football coach Earnest Collins Jr. made one thing clear Thursday at his introductory news conference: He is going to make sure that Colorado and the school’s alumni are excited about UNC football again.
Collins promised he would restore the winning tradition the school had during his playing days and his time as an assistant coach when it was a Division II program.
“My No. 1 focus right now is to recapture the state of Colorado,” Collins said. “That’s the No. 1 goal for me, because when I was here, that’s what it was. I don’t know what it’s like to lose. We never lost here.”
Collins said he plans to do that by emphasizing in-state recruiting. By recruiting Colorado kids, Collins is confident he can fill Nottingham Field.
“We built this program on that one-tank-of-gas kid,” he said. “What does that do for you? When you have kids that are on your football team or are part of your program that their parents can get to them — just get in the car and come — you are going to put 8,500 people in that stadium over there.”
Collins has a short time to recruit; national signing day is Feb. 2. But he noted that when he took over at Alcorn State in 2009, he had less time than this and recruited his best class.
UNC senior offensive lineman Amal Gumbs, who was on the search committee that helped select Collins, said he liked Collins’ passion for the game and for UNC.
