Alex Collins: 4-Star Running Back Made the Right Move Sticking with Arkansas

Four-star running back Alex Collins deserves a whole lot of credit for not caving into his mother's demands and signing with Arkansas on Thursday.

After his mother, Andrea McDonald, reportedly refused to sign his Arkansas national letter of intent on Wednesday, Collins was left in a tough spot. Join the local Miami Hurricanes, like McDonald demanded, or stick to his guns and go to the Razorbacks.

According to ESPN, Collins is going to be a Razorback. He had to get his father, Johnny Collins, to sign the letter of intent in the process.

Collins' mother represents one of the many problems of the recruiting process. Everyone wants to make the decision for a recruit and it's not exactly a surprise when these teenagers sometimes cave in. It's become less about where a kid with great promise wants to go, and more about where others demand he goes.

You only have to look at message boards these days to realize just how out of touch fans have gotten throughout the years. You have middle-aged men yelling at a teenager for not going to Georgia or Alabama or Auburn or wherever. A kid decommits and all of a sudden he has "character concerns" and he's a "prima donna." Never mind that. Perhaps he was just a kid and had a change of heart. It's disgusting.

If Collins had been swayed by his mother, I wouldn't have blamed him. But the fact that he decided he was going to go to Arkansas and nothing was going to get in his way showed that he has plenty of character—and Arkansas should be ecstatic to get a kid like this.

I applaud Collins for making his own decision. In fact, I believe more recruits should be given the space to make their own decisions during recruiting season. It's become a madhouse—where everyone looks at recruits as trophies, instead of human beings.

You know the recruiting process has gotten bad when a recruit's own mother doesn't care about what he wants.

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