Beaux Collins transferred to Notre Dame ahead of the 2024 season after playing at Clemson from 2021-23.

The graduate student wide receiver from Los Angeles recently reflected on his time with the Tigers, what he learned from head coach Dabo Swinney and what makes Swinney a great leader.

“I learned a whole lot from Coach Swinney, man,” Collins said in an interview on Varsity House. “We call them Swinney-isms. He has like a bunch of phrases that he has like ingrained in his head, and he would like spit them out every year, over and over and over and over again.

“But I learned a whole lot. Just accountability was the main thing. You can’t change your ways, you can’t grow or anything unless you look at the man in the mirror first. That was pretty much the main thing I learned from him, outside of like all the football stuff, schematics and all that.”

Collins added that Swinney “does a good job of developing dudes into finding your true self.”

“Say you mess up outside of football or something like that, he’ll sit you down and ask you like, ‘How do you think this will help you?’ or just like simple questions like that,” Collins explained. “But it makes you think and reflect on just life in general. I appreciate him for that and just staying true to who he is, even with all the transfer portal jokes and all that. He’s a dude that he knows what he wants, he knows what he’s going to do and he doesn’t change that, and he’s a man of faith, so you can’t trade that for nothing, bro.”

Clemson wide receiver Beaux Collins (80) during the second quarter Saturday, November 4, 2023 at Clemson’s Memorial Stadium. Bart Boatwright/The Clemson Insider

A former four-star and top-50 national prospect in the 2021 recruiting class, Collins also looked back on the recruiting process and what led him to choose Clemson coming out of California high school football powerhouse St. John Bosco.

“Coming out of high school, I had a plethora of options,” Collins said. “My dream school growing up was USC, Southern California. Obviously I was a huge Reggie Bush fan when I was a tyke. So, I was planning on going there, but coming out of high school, they didn’t have the best setup going on. My top schools were probably like Ohio State, Clemson, Notre Dame, Texas, Bama…

“But what drew me to Clemson was really just like the family environment that they had there. I really didn’t see anything like it. Coach Swinney and the coaches there do a good job of just making everybody feel like they’re actually at home when you touch down in Clemson. It’s a small little town out there, but it’s nothing like it, I’d say. From my time playing there, I learned a lot from Coach Swinney, and I knew going there out of high school, that was one of the best decisions I made just to get out of my comfort zone and learn.”

In his three seasons at Clemson, Collins recorded 91 receptions for 1,290 yards and 11 touchdowns over 32 games (27 starts).

Collins broke out late in his true freshman season with 31 catches for 407 yards and three touchdowns, joining DeAndre Hopkins (2010), Sammy Watkins (2011), Artavis Scott (2014), Hunter Renfrow (2015), Deon Cain (2015) and Justyn Ross (2018) as the only Clemson freshmen — true or redshirt — in the Swinney era to post at least 30 receptions and at least 400 receiving yards in their debut season.

Clemson’s past success in developing NFL wideouts also appealed to Collins as a recruit and was another big factor in his decision to choose the Tigers.

“Going there from LA, I wasn’t like torn back and forth, things like that. So when I went there on my visit and committed, I knew it was the place I wanted to be,” he said. “And they have a great history of putting receivers in the league. I looked up to dudes. I literally would watch every Tee Higgins highlight, every DeAndre Hopkins highlight, stuff like that. So once they offered me, I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to probably head over there.’”

After taking his talents to Notre Dame, Collins hasn’t wasted any time making an impact for the top-10 Irish team this season. Through nine games, the 6-foot-3, 206-pounder leads the team in receptions (29) and receiving yards (374), while he is tied for the team lead with two touchdown catches.

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