UNIVERSITY OF TULSA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 19, 2020

Zaven Collins

Press Conference

Tulsa Golden Hurricane 30, Tulane Green Wave 24

Q. A couple weeks ago, I asked you about Heisman and you said, no, that's not you. Coach opened up by saying you're the best player in college football and you should be considered for the Heisman. What's your thoughts now?

ZAVEN COLLINS: I wouldn't say I'm the best. I try and just go out and do my job correctly and do it at a high level. I feel like the guys around me, we play very correct all the time. There's not a lot of bus in the defense and it frees up to make all of us big plays, but for some reason, I've just made a few plays and I think it just being in the right place at the right time, everyone around me doing their job.

Right there at that last play, we were manned up, bringing two off the edge. Bringing me in the Mike. I end up getting the guard and the running back stepping up at me, so I backed out. Sat under the three drag from the back side. I didn't see it. I just kind of backpedalled straight back and ended up being fortunate enough to pick that ball off and just being able to put myself in good position. That's about it.

Q. Were you thinking go for it, 96 yards?

ZAVEN COLLINS: Yes, sir. I was going for the win. There's not much else I can do there besides run as fast and as far as I can. Luckily enough, J-Dub -- J-Dub is the middle linebacker, Justin Wright. J-Dubb, he hit the key pretty good and I was kind of by myself when I took off.

Q. You talk about being in the right place at the right time. This week and last week, the tackles for loss, is that you instinctively acting out or is it more behind the scenes showing itself on the field?

ZAVEN COLLINS: A lot of instinct, but I've played football, college football for three years, now this is my third year. I've watched it all from a bird's eye view my freshman year. You learn a lot of ins and outs and I try not to forget a lot of stuff.

Every offense, whenever there's three by one, there's only so much room for three by one whenever you have five yards to go. Most teams might run kind of a rub out, No. 3 goes out, quick out, touchdown. For some reason, they run a lot of drag. They ran a drag and was able to make the play. Just knowing where you're supposed to be, and how the defense works is probably the biggest thing for me.

Q. Have you ever had a moment like high school, anything in your previous three years, would you say this is the moment of your career so far in how would you judge it, if you could?

ZAVEN COLLINS: My favorite play so far, my favorite play of college so far is USF whenever I hit the ball out of the dude's hand. Because I saw the ball flash. He didn't have it tucked. And I jumped and I laid out and I hit him and the ball flew. And I was sliding across the ground and while I was sliding, I was watching the ball, that was probably the most satisfaction I've had.

But you know, big plays like that are fun, too. But I feel like it's not -- it's just anyone would do that. You've just got to go do your job and if everyone else does their job across the board, anyone's going to make that play. For some reason, I don't know why I've made it two weeks in a row or how, whatever it is, so that's kind of how I am.

Q. How are you feeling after that run back?

ZAVEN COLLINS: Oh, I was fine. I was going to be fine. But I was standing there and I was, you know, deep breaths and all of a sudden somebody pulled me, horse=collared me down and I went to the ground and my head was stuck chin to sternum. People started jumping on me and I started getting mad and I started kicking people and they are like, "What's wrong?"

I was like, "You've got to get off of me, I can't breathe. I can't breathe." So everyone got off me and that's when I was like, I was finally able to breathe. Took a deep breath, like, okay, yeah.

But you know, all the guys were excited, and at that moment, whenever you're doing that, you don't realize what you're doing. You don't realize you're winning the game right there. You're just trying to get to the end zone and I think it was fun.

Q. Did it feel like slow-motion when you got out into the open field?

ZAVEN COLLINS: Yeah, that 100 yards right there felt like I was walking a par 4 that was 450, a long way, and I duffed the drive. That's what it felt like. So I was just running and you know, I was going back on the film, I was like, dang, I look kind of fast.

No, I was just trying to move. Trying to get the ball to the end zone. But yeah, it felt like slow motion. That felt like 20 seconds right there but I'm glad all the guys are happy and we're celebrating.

Q. The way you've been playing, it feels like it's not just been you; the way you've been playing is building on other teammates on the team, Davis comes in, third-stringer, whatever you want to call it and looks like he's been starting all season long. How much of that leadership do you have that's running off on to the team?

ZAVEN COLLINS: When the offense was having a tough time scoring, I try and use my motivation in steps. I tell them real softly, let's go, let's go. Zach left the game, so I can't really talk to him that much. So I'm talking to Boomer; he left the game. I'm talking to Davis. Still have great communication with the leaders on that side of the ball. But you have to really be careful who you talk to, like I said last week.

At first, kind of just told him, you know, let's go. And then after that, they are still having a little rough time. Kind of got into them a little bit. Gave them a little bit of hard motivation, and the guys -- it's not like I'm giving hard motivation to anyone when it gets like that. You know, I get, Allie Green is on me whenever I miss tackles. I had a few missed tackles. K-Ray is on me. Jaxon Player is on me. They drove the ball, ran the ball for 200-something yards. That's not allowable as a linebacker.

So I'll take a chewing, you know, but I think we have a really good thing going on in the team where everyone can take that. I think it's a good, positive, you know, thing for us.

Q. Were you watching the Hail Mary play?

ZAVEN COLLINS: I was watching the Hail Mary play. Davis stepped up in the pock, guy came off the edge and he took a shot and threw the ball and JC Santana jumped up and grabbed it and it was beautiful, textbook.

Q. What do you think of the performance of Davis, seeing him do his thing?

ZAVEN COLLINS: We go against him every week and he makes those just like the other quarterbacks do. He knows the offense just like the other quarterbacks do. He gets to go against us during practice sometimes. So that probably prepared him for a game-like situation and he done a great job. He managed the game well. He knew what he's doing. He's telling guys what to do, and he did a really good job managing the game today and stepping in and making big-time plays and letting the ball, not being afraid to run when he needs to run and letting the ball fly when it needed to be, you know, let go.

Q. In a game like this when your starting quarterback goes down, second quarterback goes down, Stokes is hurt, what's the mindset with all that?

ZAVEN COLLINS: As a second-string guy or third-string guy, you've got to be able to step up and take that role no matter what's going on. Because guys, I mean, it's happened to me. It happened to me two years ago at Texas. Had a guy get hurt. I stepped out. First game I played was in front of a hundred thousand people in Texas Stadium and you've just to go back to your instincts and not really think and just go back and play, and I think guys did a good job of that tonight and not worry about messing up. They just went out and done their job.