May 25, 2015

Austin on Collaros: ‘He’s got some Doug Flutie in him’

THE CANADIAN PRESS

CFL.ca Staff

HAMILTON — Zach Collaros’ first season as a CFL starting quarterback was head and shoulders above expectations for any first-year starter, but signs point to 2014 as just the beginning.

Kent Austin offered no shortage of praise for the 26-year-old Steubenville, Ohio native and he didn’t even have to mention the quarterback’s poise and leadership in leading the team to a Grey Cup appearance last season.

The third-year head coach and General Manager broke down a quarterback’s development in three basic parts during a pre-training camp media conference call on Tuesday, adding that Collaros has shown ample improvement in all three areas over the span of a calendar year.

If Collaros can continue to improve in the areas of decision-making, accuracy and toughness (not only physical but mental), Austin added, Collaros has nowhere near reached his ceiling.

“The three priorities that we evaluate in that position are, one, decision making: The ability to make great decisions as a quarterback to put our offence in a position to be successful and to put the ball in the end zone,” started Austin.

“Two, accuracy: Being able to throw the ball accurately under all given situations, whether you’ve got a great pocket or the pocket is collapsing on you, it’s flushed – whatever the situation is, can you deliver accurate passes to your receivers?”

“And third is toughness,” he concluded. “Are you a tough quarterback? Are you mentally, physically tough? Typically what you find is a quarterback that’s mentally tough is usually physically tough; they tend to go hand-in-hand.”

Collaros showed improvement in all three of these traits throughout 2014, shrugging off an early-season injury and getting hot at the right time to lead his team to both a division title and a Grey Cup appearance. He threw for more than 3,000 yards, completed 65.8 per cent of his passes and compiled a passer rating of 91.9 in his first year as a Tiger-Cat.

Another off-season has already seemingly paid dividends, at least according to Austin, considered by many a quarterback guru.

“Zach, you could see in OTAs his understanding of the offence,” said Austin. “His decision-making was quicker. It was at a higher execution level, meaning that his decisions were more proper. We evaluate that every practice: What was the percentage of proper decisions made in the passing game? Those types of things.”

“He was executing at a much faster, quicker pace than he was at this time last year,” Austin continued. “That’s just general familiarity with the offence and a comfort level with understanding what we’re asking him to do – just constant repetition within the offence.”

The Ticats signed Collaros as a free agent last off-season after he was groomed behind Argos starting quarterback Ricky Ray. There, he started to earn praise and even some comparisons by fans to Doug Flutie, at least in his style of play, after leading the Argos to a team record-setting 4-0 record in four consecutive road games while Ray sat out injured.

Rewind: Collaros scrambles, connects with Bakari Grant vs. REDBLACKS