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FSU Football ... Is The Playoff Possible? · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Five past the hour, third hour Morning show with Preston
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Scott Show and sixty six Thank you very much. He
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: is Jose I am Preston. Great to be with you.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: The Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins at the bottom of the hour,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: but we got to talk about things that really matter,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: and that's Footbaul college football to be more specific. And
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: we're joined by the managing editor at war chant dot com.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: He is irishchaffel Ira.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: How you doing. I'm good, Preston, How are you.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I'm doing fine after you've had a weekend to digest
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: perhaps even look at the game again. I mean, looking
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: at it with your own eyes is one thing. Looking
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: at it on TV seems to be another. What are
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: your thoughts on the game Saturday?
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: You know, I think from a big picture standpoint, you know,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: going into it, I think we all thought Florida State
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: needed to play really well. I thought they would play well,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: and that you know Miami, He's very talented, and you
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: probably needed Miami to not play very well, not have
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: a terrible game, but you just needed them to maybe
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: not look super sharp, which we kind of expected might
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: happen because it was their first road game, but instead,
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: you know, Florida State did not play very well obviously offensively,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: and Miami played great offensively. They did a great job
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: of kind of taking the crowd out of it, and
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: I thought Florida State didn't execute as well as they
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: could have on offense, and so that's how you get
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: into a big hole. So, you know, I don't think
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: that it, you know, was totally shocking that they lost
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: the game, but I was surprised that Florida State didn't
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: do better on offense and that Miami was able to
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: go on the road for the first time in front
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: of a great crowd and just kind of execute their
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: offense pretty flawlessly.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I walk away thinking, okay, at least
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: they showed a little fight in that fourth quarter. But
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: it's been pointed out, well, you know, Miami was rotating
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: some players, but you know, Mario Cristobal, he's a decent guy,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: but he wants to beat Florida State bad late. How
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: deep were his rotations? Did we just make hay with
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: their backups and scrubs?
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: No, I don't think so. I think they still had
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: a lot of their guys in there. In fact, you know,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: even down to the stretch. But I thought that. You know,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: they definitely were going to play softer, and they played
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: kind of soft all night. You know, really that's kind
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: of what their approach was. They really tried to, you know,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: get pressure after Tommy Caslano's get after him, but then
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: drop a lot of guys in the coverage and force
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: him to take the checkdowns. And I think that's kind
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: of where maybe he got into some trouble, is trying to,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: you know, go for some big plays, because that's what
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Forestate's done. They've run the ball and then take big
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: shots down the field. The big shots weren't there because
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: they Minmi was playing pretty deep, but in those those
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: drives at the end, like I don't know how many
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: times I've ever seen a team in a huge deficit
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: trying to make up scores late going on nineteen play drive,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: but that was you know, they had to take the
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: things underneath and earlier in the game. They just didn't
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: do a great job of doing that.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: You know, you and I both know we followed this
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: game for a long time. Quarterbacks get too much credit,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: quarterbacks get too much blame. But somewhere in the middle
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: is a fair evaluation. And while Tommy Castellanos took a
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: lot of responsibility for the loss. It isn't all his,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: but there are some things to be said about your
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: senior quarterback making throws like he made off his back
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: foot into a cover three, and he should know better
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: not to do that and to take those check downs.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: So what is your impression on lessons learned or at
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: what point do you think Florida State says, you know,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: we can't, we can't do this with a guy who's
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: only here one year.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a tough situation from that standpoint. On the
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: one hand, you know, you knew you're going to have
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: some of this with Tommy Castalanos. You know, he's a
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: guy that's had turnovers throughout his career, but he looked
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: so good early this season. It seemed like he had
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: made a lot of strides. But yeah, I think that's
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: the biggest thing, is just not understanding the magnitude of
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: these moments. And if you think back to his career,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: he's never really dealt with this this. That's kind of
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: one of the challenges of the transfer portal eras. You know,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: you you bring kids in from one program that maybe
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: has one set of expectations and you think they're going
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: to fit in well athletically, and I think Tommy does
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: fit in well athletically with what gos Malzan wants to do.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: But from a standpoint of the moment that you know
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: how important this drive is, how important this possession is.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: We saw it last week in Virginia. You fall behind early,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: you go straight down the field, you have a chance
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: to tie the game, and you throw an interception on
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: first down. Then in this game, you know, you have
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: the fourth and eight interception. You know, you can't get
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: too mad about it was fourth down anyway, he had
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: to throw it. He didn't have a checkdown available, but
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: he took the shot and he was intercepted. But later
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: it's it's a you know, it's still basically the game's
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: still within reach. It's fourteen to three and you have
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: a first down inside Miami's forty and you throw an
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: interception to the probably the player're talking about where he
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: just drifts to his right and just throws it rolling
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: and just throws it up for grass, basically to a
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: guy who's double covered. That's the kind of play that
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: can't happen. Well, Tommy has not been in the system
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: for you know, three years, he's not played for GUS,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: he's not played to a school like Florida State. So
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: you know, these are the things that can happen. The
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: one question I think when in terms of the big
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: picture is I still think there's a question about whether
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: or not he's going to be eligible next year or not.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: So the question is does Florida State look at him
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: as a two year option or a one year option?
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: And that may play into the decisions.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Before we look ahead, we're doing our post mortem on
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: the Miami game. Irishafell, Managing editor at warchan dot com
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: great place to get content, outstanding writing and reporting on
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: all things Florida State Athletics. IRA, your colleague Corey Clark.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: This kind of suggests that these are moments that seem
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: to happen and that maybe there's some lessons needing to
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: be learned by head coach Mike Norvell on when to
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: go forward and when not to go for it. Your
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: thoughts on what Corey had to say and just the
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: overall idea that maybe the coach needs to learn a
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: few lessons on the proper time to gamble.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I mean I think that clearly that
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: one didn't work out, you know, and I think that
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: it's a it's a it's a it's a weird situation again,
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: kind of going back to what we finished the last
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: segment with, is in these compressed basically one year since
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: situations where you have all these new pieces, you know,
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: it's it's your I think the coaches are still learning
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: the players. You know. We talked to Tony White, floor
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: State's defensive coordinator yesterday, and that was one of the
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: things I asked him, and he said, yeah, that is
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: a real thing, because you know, he's you know, these
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: coaches have been with these players and for the most
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: part for you know, four or five games, four games
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: going into this game, and this was the first home game, uh,
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: you know since that big Alabama game, and and so
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: maybe some things you expected in that game you're gonna
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: expect to see in this game. But the circumstances are
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: different and guys handled moments different, and I think the
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: coach has clearly thought that. I think Tommy would you know,
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: I think there were a couple options on that play
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: where that play could have been successful, but Tommy didn't
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: get rid of it in time. He got a little
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: bit pressure, pressure from the outside and then he ends
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: up kind of forcing it as he's getting hit, and
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: he gets picked off and then gets run back and
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: then the flea flick or the next play, next play.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: So it was a disastrous event there. But again, you know,
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: I just think that they're going on limited information sometimes
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: it would I'm not trying to make excuses for them,
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: but it's just different when you've coached guys for several
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: years and gone through processes with them, as opposed to
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: you just bring somebody in and you have to figure
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: this all out on the fly.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: You mentioned Tony White, the defensive coordinator. What were his
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: thoughts on the secondary getting really beat by two wide
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: receivers that are really fast.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: You know, he really put a lot of it to
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: mistakes in terms of alignment again, you know, and again
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: like the Malachai Toni, the receiver from Miami that's super fast,
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: and also the other receiver Daniels that had those two
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: guys at the big games. He said, you know, in
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: certain situations, for example, there's a play where the corner
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: is supposed to be ten yards off the ball, Well,
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: the corner for whatever reason, lined up seven yards off
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: the ball or seven and a half yards line off
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: the ball. Well, that makes a tremendous difference the way
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: the play comes out. And now maybe you're beat by
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: a couple of steps as opposed to being running with
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: the receiver. And again, you know that's not to say
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: it's all on the player's fault, and Tony White took
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: the blame for it and said, we've got to coach
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: them up better. But again, I think this is where
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: you get into you know, one of the corners involved
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: a lot of those plays. Jerry Wilson, who's a Houston
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: transfer and you know, played very well early this season. Well,
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: this is a big game against Miami. He's an in
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: state kid, and you know, maybe emotions play into it.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Maybe the stakes are so much higher now. Again, I
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: think what's interesting about that Alabama game is the stakes
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: weren't really high for Florida State because nobody expected them
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: to win. I mean, everybody thought Alabama was going to
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: I'm in here in steamroll. Then, well, you shocked the
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: world win that game. Now you're top ten in the country,
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of pressure on you. Miami comes to town,
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: they're number three in the country. I just think that
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: it was a much bigger moment, and I think you
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: saw a lot of guys weren't really ready for that moment.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Now that's the blame goes to the coaches and blames
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: goes to the players. It's not an excuse, but I
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: do think that that's part of what happened.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Twenty one past the our final segment. Irishafell from war
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: chan dot com. Now to look ahead, Ira, let's go
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: first to Pitt. What are the expectations with the Panthers
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: coming to town.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think that they certainly caught everybody's
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: attention last week by just throttling Boston College. Now, bust
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: College is not any good, but Pitt beat them forty
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: eight to seven. It was over at halftime, and they
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: played a freshman quarterback. They benched their starter, Eli Holstein,
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: and they played a freshman and the kid was awesome.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: He threw over three hundred yards, really pressive. So that's
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: kind of a it's they don't have a lot of
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: information on this kid, so that's going to be interesting
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: to see how how they handle it. And then him
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: it'll be his first road start against you know, a
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Florida State defense, which will be a big step up.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: From Boston College. So for state favored by ten points,
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: but it'll be an interesting game. Pitt is uh you know,
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: they certainly uh you know again, we're impressive this past weekend.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: A little bit of a negation of a home crowd
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: advantage though with a noontime kickoff, don't you think.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and especially you know, if you if you, if
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: you lose some steam from the out of town fans,
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: I think the students will show still show up. They'll
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: roll in. They'll roll in about you know, maybe five
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: six minutes into the first quarter, but they'll I believe
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: the students will show up. They've been great the last
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: few years for sure. But I think that yeah, yeah,
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: some of the out of town folks might not make
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: their way in. But but I do think, you know,
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: I still think there's some people that are there's there's
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: still some I don't know. I don't know that people
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: have abandoned ship yet. I would say that, Yeah.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: I was going to say I'm bullish. I'm a homer.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: I admit it. I am absolutely a homer. I'm not
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: you know. I try to be as analytical as I
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: can and give myself good reasons to be a homer.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: But the fact of the matter is, I've been making
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: the argument that with the schedule that's ahead, with maybe
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: the best two teams three teams on the schedule in
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: the rearview mirror, you lost two of them, you won
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: one of them, this team could find itself back up
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: in the rankings and significantly enough that they could be
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: considered for one of the at large picks for the
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: twelve team playoff. Am I being an outlandishly optimistic homer?
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Or is there a path there?
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Ira? Oh? The path is definitely there. And you know,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: the team we thought this team was three weeks into
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: the season, especially after that win over Alabama, could certainly
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: have done that. You know, you look at these last
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: you know, six seven games. I mean there are all
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: games that Florida State might be favored in and certainly
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: can and maybe should win. The challenge is going to be,
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: you know, can they get back to that form because
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: there's some losable games too. You know, obviously you're going
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: to Clemson, you're going to Florida, going to NC State
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: on a Friday night, like those will all be really
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: challenging games, and you know, if you don't play well,
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: you can lose to other teams as well, But no,
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: the path is there. They're they're right now. They're still
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: in the top twenty five, which I think is huge
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: because now you're still in the in the public consciousness,
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: you're not in the also receiving votes where you're kind
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: of out of the mindset. And then I think when
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: you looking back at the year, if they were to
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: run the table, and if those were your only two
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: losses and one of them is Friday night in double
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: overtime to Virginia, looks pretty good, and the other one
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: is at home to Miami. That's, you know, by six
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: points on paper, that's going to look pretty good in
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: a couple of months. Yeah. Now, I think they'll have
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: a great argument if they can get there. The question
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: is can they get there?
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Is that the selling point for Mike Norvel? Guys, tough loss,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: We've got to play better, you know, we can play better,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: but all goals are still in front of us. That's
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: got to be a sales pitch, isn't it.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah? And I think that this that's why this game
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: is so huge, because if you if you lose the
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: pit at home, yeah, you're you're gonna have a tough
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: time with that but if you beat Pitt, the next
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: game is at Stanford, who's not good at all. You
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: should win that. Then you get Wake for us at home.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: You should win that. You'd be sitting at six and
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: two going into that Clemson game. And you know I
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: mean again, so that now that gets you back in
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: a position where you had an opportunity this past weekend,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: a big stage. Here's your chance to make your statement
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: and get this big win, set yourself up. You didn't
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: come through, that would give you a kind of a reset.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: So yeah, but this Pick game is huge. You need
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: this win to kind of propel you into that stretch.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Tell me this, let's you and I both go back
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: to the days of the Kentucky Derby, you know kind
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: of offense where we had the red shirt junior getting
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: ready to play and run a series or two. Do
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: you see a scenario if if it's determined that Tommy's
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: going to be a one year game and he's not
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: going to get that second year, is there a scenario
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: where you see wisdom in playing Kevin Sperry and getting
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: him some series out there, not maybe starting him, but
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: getting him out there in real time with the ones.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: You know, it's Actually, I hadn't really thought about it, Preston,
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: but I actually think that's a pretty good idea because
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: the big thing it would do is, first of all,
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: you see what you have with Kevin Sperry. He may
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: have something special. Gus Malzan loves the kid, no question,
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: And you're seeing freshman play around the country, and this
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: is an offense where you should be able to play
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: as a freshman because it's not one of these it's
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: not Jimbo Fisher's offense. This is an offense that you
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: should be able to run when you're a younger quarterback.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: The other thing I think it might do is it
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: might take pressure off of Tommy. I think Tommy Castalanos
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: because of that Alabama win after last season. I think
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: he felt like he's got to carry this team. I
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: think he feels like he's got to be the hero.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: And I think you saw him the way he talked
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: about after the game that he told the team this
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: was on me. This is all my fault. I'm going
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: to make it up to you. He feels I'm sure
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: the weight of the world, the weight of this program
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: on his shoulders. If you were to show him that,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: hey man, we have another guy that can play too,
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: take a second and watch this and take some pressure
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: off yourself. I think it could work well. Now, obviously
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: if Kevin Sperry does well and Tommy doesn't, now you
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: have a decision to make, but that may be the
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: best decision to make for the team. So yeah, I
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: hadn't really given much thought pressing, but I actually think
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: that's something they should really consider.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Iras always, I enjoy our visits. We'll talk again next week.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Thank you, sir, You too, sir, Thanks all right. Iras
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Chaffelle with Usrowarchant dot Com. When we come back. Florida's
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins joins US