Prince Kollie believes he can become a long-time NFL player in the future.
The former high school Butkus Award winner said as much last month while competing from playing time in Notre Dame’s linebacker room. But the 6-foot-1, 228-pound Kollie needs to become a long-time difference maker at the college level first.
Kollie decided that likely won’t happen at Notre Dame, as evidenced by him entering the NCAA’s transfer portal Monday. Kollie has two seasons of eligibility remaining and will be entering his junior season in the fall.
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In his first two seasons at Notre Dame, Kollie played in 23 games without cracking the starting lineup. He made an impact as a special teams contributor and a reserve linebacker and accumulated 19 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, one punt block and one touchdown on a returned punt block.
Kollie had a breakout performance against Navy in November of last season with seven tackles.
“Going into that week, I wasn't the starter,” Kollie said last month. “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.”
Notre Dame’s trio of graduate senior linebackers — JD Bertrand, Marist Liufau and Jack Kiser — figured to be an obstacle in Kollie finding more playing time once again in 2023. Kollie was also limited in practices this spring by a concussion that kept him sidelined. He dealt with a concussion in August too.
“PK was having a really good offseason until he got banged up,” defensive coordinator Al Golden said earlier this month.
Liufau, who totaled 51 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, one pass breakup, one interception and a half sack in a team-high 646 defensive snaps, was directly ahead of Kollie on the depth chart last season at will linebacker. Kiser, who played 338 defensive snaps last year primarily at rover linebacker, has the chance to play some more will linebacker in 2023 as well.
Kollie was limited to the fourth-most defensive snaps among the linebackers last season with 136.
“I was always raised and taught to compete,” Kollie said last month. “None of us in the room shy away from competition. I got here looking up to Marist, because Marist was just a baller. I was amazed by how he'd fly around and hit everything. Like, yeah, I want to be like that. I feel like I can be like that.
“And then after last year, I'm like, ‘OK, I can do a lot of the same things he does and maybe even a little bit better.' We're not afraid of competition. We encourage it. There are no hard feelings between any of us.”
But now Kollie will be looking to join a competition elsewhere. The most natural fit would seem to be at Vanderbilt with head coach Clark Lea and linebackers coach Nick Lezynski. That duo helped recruit Kollie to Notre Dame as a four-star linebacker out of Jonesborough (Tenn.) David Crockett when Lea was Notre Dame's defensive coordinator and Lezynski was a defensive analyst.
Rivals ranked Kollie as the No. 18 outside linebacker and No. 243 overall in the 2021 class.
“You have to build that trust and that unselfishness in that room while also developing their skill set,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said earlier this month of the deep linebacker room. “It’s a really challenging thing to do as a position coach, which I’ve been in that position. Where, OK, we have a lot of talented guys in this room. “I need everybody to get better, and everybody wants to play.
“But how can we make sure we have a culture of respect and love for each other? No matter who’s on the field where it’s what’s best for Notre Dame and what’s best for the team. That’s a constant message that’s preached every day, because this isn’t an individual sport.
“I only say this is an individual sport when you have failures. I want it to be an individual sport when we have failures. Everybody looks at themselves. But it is the ultimate team sport, so that, to me, is a message that has to be driven every day. I want you to get better as an individual. In order to get better as an individual, you’re going to have to practice. You’re going to have to study. You’re going to have to do things to develop that skill.
“But at the end of the day, whoever’s on that field represents this room and this program. Ultimately that’s all that matters.”
Kollie didn't play in the Blue-Gold Game. Neither did Kiser, who was dealing with a toe injury. That allowed some of the younger players to make plays.
Sophomore linebackers Nolan Ziegler and Jaylen Sneed led their teams in tackles with 10 by Ziegler for Blue and 7 by Sneed for Gold. Freshman linebackers Preston Zinter, Drayk Bowen and Jaiden Ausberry contributed with 6, 5 and 3 tackles, respectively.
Notre Dame's scholarship count for the 2023 season sits one below the NCAA limit of 85 with the impending departure of Kollie. Eight of those scholarships are assigned to linebackers.
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The Notre Dame Football Transfer Tracker details who's in and who's out from Notre Dame's roster since the start of the 2022 season.
Rivals has rankings for most of Notre Dame's incoming and outgoing transfers.
The Rivals Transfer Tracker is the home for all the transfer portal movement nationally.
The 2023 Notre Dame Scholarship Chart breaks down the roster by position group and year of eligibility, and is being updated with each ingoing or outgoing transaction.
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