COLLEGE FOOTBALL : The Ball’s in Their Hands : Collins is Positive He’s the Man Who Can Lead Nittany Lions to Victory in the Rose Bowl

If the man under center isn’t completely confident in himself, it can be very difficult for him to transmit confidence to his team.

Penn State has no such worries.

Kerry Collins, the 6-foot-5, 235-pound quarterback for the undefeated, untied Big Ten champions as they prepare for Monday’s Rose Bowl game against Oregon, oozes confidence.

“I always felt I could be as good as any quarterback in the country,” he said--and he was talking about his sophomore year when he broke a finger playing volleyball, sat out more than half the season and wound up embroiled in a quarterback controversy.

“When things were going bad in ‘92, I never quit thinking that way. I kept my goals the same--to be the Penn State quarterback, win the Big Ten championship, get to the Rose Bowl and win the national championship. As long as I kept thinking that way, I never quit working hard.

“I’m never surprised when I’ve been successful. I expect it. The same goes for the team. I expect them to be successful too. To be here in the position we’re in is no surprise to me. It’s what I expected all along.”

Not everyone had the same confidence in Collins.

After Collins had re-injured his finger in a Blockbuster Bowl loss to Stanford, he missed spring practice in 1993 and returned to the team as the No. 2 quarterback behind John Sacca. By the third game, Collins moved in and played so well that Sacca quit and transferred to Eastern Kentucky.

The Nittany Lions won their final five games that season with Collins at the helm, but when the ’94 season started, he wasn’t even listed among the top 20 quarterbacks in the Sporting News’ preseason yearbook.

“That bothered me, I’ll admit it,” he said. “I knew I was better than that.”

Now, after winning the Maxwell Award as the outstanding player in college football, and the Davey O’Brien Award as the nation’s No. 1 quarterback, he is projected as a possible first-round pick in the NFL draft.

“Kerry is playing as well or better than any quarterback we’ve had in the 45 years I’ve been at Penn State,” said his coach, Joe Paterno. “We’ve had some pretty good ones in Milt Plum, Chuck Fusina and Todd Blackledge, and Collins has done more than any of them. He has had the advantage of a fifth year, and that has been a big factor in his maturity. Blackledge went to the NFL before his last year so we don’t know how good he might have been, but Collins is smart, tough, strong and has tremendous leadership qualities. If there’s a better quarterback in the country, I haven’t seen him.

“You can quote all kind of stats when things are going smoothly, but when it comes down to one guy you would like to have on your team to win a tough football game, you would have to tell me there is somebody better than Kerry Collins. Very few people could have done what he did at Illinois in the clutch.”

The Nittany Lions were trailing, 31-21, with their Rose Bowl hopes on the line after three quarters Nov. 12 at Illinois. Collins completed 13 of 15 passes for 122 yards in the quarter, including a seven-for-seven run during the final 96-yard winning drive, which ended with a touchdown pass to Freddie Scott with 57 seconds remaining. Penn State won, 35-31.

Herman O’Berry, Oregon’s All-American cornerback, has been studying Penn State films and calls Collins “another Drew Bledsoe,” alluding to the former Washington State passer who led the New England Patriots into the playoffs in his second NFL season.

“Without a doubt, Collins is the best we’ve seen this year,” O’Berry said. “And we’ve played against some good ones, but I’d rate him ahead of the guy at SC (Rob Johnson) and Steve Stenstrom (of Stanford).”

Collins’ passing efficiency rating of 172.8 is the fourth best in NCAA history and only four points short of Jim McMahon’s record set in 1980 at Brigham Young. Collins completed 176 of 264 passes for a .667 percentage with 21 touchdowns and only seven interceptions.

“I have the luxury of having great wideouts in Bobby Engram and Freddie Scott and a great tight end in Kyle Brady,” Collins said. “Nobody makes the tough catches like they do. My job is to put the ball in a place where they can catch it, and they helped me out all season with great catches. I also have the luxury of having a great running back (Ki-Jana Carter) who gives us the best balance offensively of any team in the country. It’s a good situation for a quarterback.”

Collins, who will graduate Jan. 5, is looking forward to playing in the NFL.

“I know I can make it, but if something goes wrong I can always go back to baseball,” he said.

A right-handed power pitcher with a near-90-m.p.h. fastball, Collins was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in 1990 after he finished high school in West Lawn, Pa., and last year--even though he has not played for several years--he was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays.

“Baseball was once my first choice. When I played Pop Warner and peewee football, I was a tight end and fullback and I didn’t like it, so I quit. I didn’t play football at all for a couple of years until one day I found out I could really throw the ball.

“The coach on the ninth-grade team was looking for a quarterback, so I signed up and when I started to improve I began to enjoy it more. Pretty soon, all my priorities were centered around football. I still love baseball, I’ve missed it, and it’s nice to know the Blue Jays still want me, but all I’m thinking about right now is beating Oregon.”