Ashley Scoby

By ASHLEY SCOBY

In football, the competition among teams is brought up every single day. But what about the competition within a team?

It looks like there will be some of that in the upcoming season between two of the receivers, redshirt freshman Daryl Collins and senior La’Rod King. I interviewed both at Media Day, and they have already decided they’ll have a little competition going on this year to see who gets the most catches/touchdowns.

“I just hope to shoot past La’Rod this year,” Collins told me. “Me and him going to be battling, I already told him and he knows it. They all know that I’m faster than him.”

The topic of which wideout is faster turned into some squabbling between the two. Collins came over during King’s interview, and King called him out immediately.

“You trying to say you’re faster than me?” he said. “Cool. Look, I’ll admit, you’re faster than me, but everything else I’m better than you. Like, I jump higher than him, I catch better than him, I run better than him, my routes are way better than his. I’m cuter than him.”

Everything was good-natured between these two guys, but it will definitely be fun to watch them duke it out on the field. When players compete amongst themselves on the same team, it’s often the extra motivation they need to succeed. When King and Collins see each other during practice, they’ll see just another example of what they’re working towards, and maybe they’ll go out there and catch some extra balls at practice – something that both of them have already been doing lately.

“He’s back,” King said of Collins. “His injury don’t even affect him anymore…He’s been out there after practice, after workouts, more than I have sometimes. He know the playbook, he knows what he’s doing, he’s just got to perform and he finally gets a chance to do it.”

Both Collins and King will get that chance to perform this season, as two of the best receivers on the team, no matter who the quarterback is that will get them the ball. No matter who ends up beating out the other for most catches or yardage or touchdowns, King’s and Collins’ extra production will do nothing but help a UK offense that struggled last year.

Nothing like a little competition to make them work harder.