Indianapolis — The man standing atop Podium C inside Lucas Oil Stadium is a running back who, three years ago, was rated as highly as the No. 1 player in the country at his position. He held scholarship offers from top college programs, including Florida's blue-blood triumvirate, and spent his final two years of high school racking up 42 touchdowns and 3,100 yards in a region where Division I football players grow on palm trees.
But for Alex Collins, whose burly frame splintered defenders, his dreams escaped the South Florida hotbed that incubated his career. Instead they fluttered north and west, more than 1,500 miles from South Plantation High School, and nestled into the backfield of Bret Bielema.