Hawaii’s top receiver on Saturday was not who Western Carolina thought he was.
And Dylan Collie was not about to let the Catamounts off the hook.
The junior slotback caught a career-high-tying seven passes for 104 yards and a touchdown in the Rainbow Warriors’ 41-18 win at Aloha Stadium. He filled in admirably for John Ursua, who was a late scratch from the lineup due to an aggravated injury.
“I’m no John Ursua, first of all,” a grinning Collie said in explanation of his 50-yard catch-and-run, a personal best that advanced UH to the WCU 35 and helped set up the game’s first score, a 1-yard effort by running back Diocemy Saint Juste.
Collie nearly got tripped up by a Catamount going over the middle but managed to regain his footing and ate up another chunk of yardage before being brought down.
“Me being able to just try to basically run as hard as I can was my goal,” he said. “It was a matter of staying on my feet and trying to make a play. And that’s what I did. I wish I could have scored, but you know, we made it happen and it set up a good touchdown.”
Thanks in large part to that play and a 30-yard grab on a previous drive, the El Dorado Hills, Calif., native notched his second career 100-yard game and first since his freshman year (at New Mexico, 2015) for 2-0 UH.
Collie was targeted early and often by quarterback Dru Brown in Ursua’s absence; he had UH’s first five grabs of the game for a quick 94 yards. This after Collie had just two grabs for 13 yards in a 38-35 comeback win at Massachusetts.
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“We have an extremely good relationship,” Collie said of his rapport with Brown. “He’s a guy who wants his first read first, and if I’m the first read, then he’s gonna throw. I just gotta do my part and he does his.”
Brown and Collie connected for a 7-yard touchdown for a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter. Collie also took a handoff for 23 yards.
The status of Ursua, who was dominant against the Minutemen — 12 catches for 272 yards, the fourth-most yardage in UH single-game records — was not believed to be severe heading into next week’s game against UCLA in the Rose Bowl.
“It was last-minute,” Collie said. “And that’s unfortunate … I feed off him and he feeds off me. So, that’s a tough situation to be put in, but it was OK this week. I’m fine letting him take that time to get ready so when we’re going into UCLA, we can utilize everything that we have.”
UH went away from the pass as the game progressed. The 5-foot-10 Collie had done his damage.
“Dylan did a good job, man. He made some big plays for us,” passing game coordinator Craig Stutzmann said. “They were taking away the pass, they were forcing us to run the ball and Diocemy and the O-line did a good job.”
Stutzmann said of Ursua, “He should be fine. I think it was more precautionary, but we’ll see.”
More photos of the game between Hawaii and Western Carolina.
