The match made sense from the moment linebacker Prince Kollie entered his name in the transfer portal late last month.
After recruiting Kollie to Notre Dame in the 2021 class, Clark Lea left his position as Irish defensive coordinator to become head coach at Vanderbilt in December 2020. Two years and five months later, Kollie has chosen to follow Lea to Vanderbilt.
Kollie, who will be a junior this fall, announced Monday his commitment to the Commodores. He joins Lea and linebackers coach Nick Lezynski, a former Irish graduate assistant and defensive analyst who played a critical role in Kollie's recruitment and freshman year development.
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Transferring to Vanderbilt will allow Kollie to return to his home state of Tennessee, where Kollie finished his high school career at Jonesborough David Crockett as the 2020 Butkus Award as the nation's top high school linebacker.
The 6-foot-1, 228-pound Kollie didn't meet that potential in his first two seasons at Notre Dame. He left the Irish following a spring in which he still hadn't broken into Notre Dame's projected starting lineup at any of the linebacker positions. Kollie missed practices in the spring due to a concussion.
Kollie played in the last 23 of Notre Dame's 26 games the last two seasons. He most frequently played special teams in addition to playing sparingly as a reserve linebacker.
As a freshman, Kollie tallied 14 tackles, 12 of which came in a three-game stretch against Navy, Virginia and Georgia Tech in the final month of the regular season.
Kollie made another November surge last season 11 of his 19 tackles coming in a three-game stretch against Clemson, Boston College and USC. Kollie recovered a blocked punt against Clemson and returned in 17 yards for a touchdown to help propel the Irish to an upset victory.
Kollie recorded a career-high seven tackles the following week against Navy. It could have provided a spike in Kollie's career trajectory, but it also underlined his frustration about a lack of playing time in other games. Kollie played 38 defensive snaps against the Midshipmen. He played more than 15 defensive snaps only one other game last season (21 vs. Stanford).
“Going into [Navy] week, I wasn't the starter,” Kollie said in March. “I feel like I should've been. That's another story, but you just have to keep your confidence. I'm like, ‘OK, that's all right.' Then I got my chance Navy game to play a little bit and I just ran with it. I just never lose confidence and that was a reassuring moment for me.”
Kollie's confidence didn't lead to him leapfrogging starting will linebacker Marist Liufau. With the expectation that rover linebacker Jack Kiser may take more snaps inside at will linebacker this season, Kollie's role at Notre Dame seemed set to be limited again this fall.
Vanderbilt lost its leading tackler from last season to the NFL. The New Orleans Saints signed Anfernee Orji, who totaled 108 tackles in 2022, as an undrafted free agent. Orji had 49 more tackles than any other Vanderbilt defender last season.
Kollie was part of the 2021 recruiting class — Brian Kelly's last full recruiting cycle as Notre Dame head coach — that experienced a bit of an exodus since the end of the 2022 season. Tight end Cane Berrong (Coastal Carolina), offensive tackle Caleb Johnson (undecided), wide receiver Lorenzo Styles (Ohio State), quarterback Tyler Buchner (Alabama) and running back Logan Diggs (undecided) all hit the transfer portal following their sophomore seasons with the Irish.
Rivals ranked Kollie as the No. 18 outside linebacker and No. 243 overall in the 2021 class.
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