ESPN College Football

Originally Published: November 11, 2009

Cincy's Collaros exceeding expectations

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By Brian Bennett
ESPN.com
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Many people are surprised by what Zach Collaros is doing at Cincinnati. After all, the little-known and lightly recruited quarterback not only filled in for a Heisman Trophy candidate, he actually exceeded his predecessor's production on a top-five team.

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Chris Livingston/Icon SMIZach Collaros scored a pair of rushing touchdowns in relief during the South Florida game.

Those who've known Collaros the longest, though, aren't surprised at all. He's just doing what he's always done.

"You won't believe this story," Steubenville (Ohio) High School coach Reno Saccoccia starts as he launches into a tale from Collaros' sophomore year in high school. The team's starting quarterback got injured in the playoffs, and Saccoccia was forced to move Collaros from receiver to under center. On his third play at quarterback, Collaros ran a draw play 72 yards for a touchdown.

So Saccoccia could only nod knowingly as Collaros pulled off the exact same stunt as a sophomore in college. After replacing the injured Tony Pike in the second half on the road at South Florida last month, Collaros took his third snap 75 yards for a back-breaking score en route to a 34-17 win.

Things like that are why Saccoccia used to call his former player "Glue." As in, the glue that binds the whole team.

"He's just a competitor who refuses to let his team lose," the coach said.

Dean Collaros says his oldest child always had a fiercely competitive side. He credits that to his wife, Michelle, who competed in gymnastics in college and hates to lose at anything. Even she was sometimes taken aback at her son's will to win.

"She'd always get mad at me because I'd be that competitive with my little sister and little brother," Zach said. "We'd be at family reunions, and she'd get mad at me for playing so hard."

Dean remembers when Zach would play T-ball, and the coach would always put him at pitcher. Zach would field most every ball no matter where it was hit, and then he would run and dive at the baserunners instead of throwing the ball. He gradually learned to trust his teammates to make a play, too.

Such competitive desire helped him go 30-0 and win two state titles his final two seasons at Steubenville, a blue-collar industrial town just west of Pittsburgh.

But he didn't draw much interest from major colleges despite completing 68 percent of his passes, throwing for 2,550 yards and running for 720 more in high school. That's because (A) he was a three-sport star who never had time to go to camps or recruiting combines; (B) he had verbally committed to Kent State to play baseball as a junior, throwing many football coaches off his scent; and (C) he stands not a hair taller than 6 feet at a position that recruiters value statuesque prospects as much as model scouts.

"A lot of schools stopped in," Saccoccia said. "[Ohio State coach Jim] Tressel stopped in, but nothing ever came of it."

So Collaros was set to go to Kent State until Brian Kelly's staff arrived at Cincinnati in 2007. Defensive coordinator Joe Tresey grew up in Warren, Ohio, which is about an hour's drive away from Steubenville, and became friends with Saccoccia while coaching high school in Ohio. The connection formed and a scholarship was offered.

Collaros jumped at the chance to play for a BCS program, especially when Kelly told him he could moonlight on the Bearcats' baseball team as well.

Cincinnati had a glut of quarterbacks on the roster when Collaros showed up, and even as three different signal-callers got injured last season, he only saw spot duty in relief. Fellow redshirt freshman Chazz Anderson started ahead of him because Anderson knew the offense better. Tresey offered to take him on his side of the ball if he moved to safety, but Collaros was determined to play quarterback.

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Jim Owens/Icon SMICollaros has completed more than 80 percent of his passes and thrown for eight touchdowns in three starts.

After finishing up baseball, he beat out Anderson for the No. 2 job with a big performance in the spring game. But he was still improvising on many plays instead of following the framework of the playbook. He asked Kelly what he needed to do to get on the field, and the coach told him that he had to become a better student of the game and a better practice player.

"I always tried to make the big play instead of checking down or going through my progressions," Collaros said. "I spent the summer working on my footwork and fundamentals to show [Kelly] I was serious."

Collaros' numbers in Pike's absence have been staggering -- 78.7 completion percentage, 1,100 yards passing, 281 yards rushing and 12 total touchdowns. He had a Big East record 555 total yards in Saturday's 47-45 win over UConn. Kelly may be most impressed by how much his young quarterback has learned the game in a short time.

"What's unique is he sees a lot of things well beyond his [three] starts," Kelly said. "Here's a guy that makes plays on the perimeter but is savvy and smart enough to throw the ball away and not put our football team in a position where we're going to turn it over. [He has the] ability to do some things that a seasoned player would only know, and he's got it after only a couple of starts."

Collaros is expected to start again Friday night against West Virginia, but if all goes according to plan he'll return to the bench for the following game versus Illinois as a healthy Pike returns. He says he's perfectly fine with that.

"He's a Heisman candidate and a future NFL guy," Collaros said. "Just because he gets injured doesn't mean he loses his job. He's the starter and the leader of the team, and when he's back I'll get ready to cheer him on from the sidelines."

Knowing Collaros, though, he won't be happy standing on the sidelines for long.

Brian Bennett is ESPN.com's Big East football blogger.