Penn State’s cornerback room has had a familiar kind of backbone in recent seasons: veteran players who settled things down and set the tone. Joey Porter Jr. did it in 2022, Johnny Dixon followed in 2023, Jalen Kimber took over in 2024 and AJ Harris handled that role last season.
Now it’s Audavion Collins’ turn.
Entering his redshirt senior year, Collins is one of the key retention wins for Matt Campbell, and he looks like the player most likely to steer a secondary that should be among Penn State’s best this season. After an uneven 2025 campaign, the expectation is a sharper bounceback, and Collins sits right at the center of it.
His path to Happy Valley wasn’t the typical one. Collins started his college career at Mississippi State after arriving as a 3-star defensive back in the 2022 recruiting class, then transferred to Penn State after redshirting that season. He came in with offers from Michigan State, Arizona, Boston College, Cincinnati, Indiana and Tennessee, and the 247Sports Composite had him as a top-100 player in the class, ranking him as the nation’s 926th overall player.
“I've been an underdog my whole life, so it's not new to me,” Collins said in February. “‘I’ve got something to prove. I always feel like I’ve got something to prove every day.”
That edge has shown up on the field. Collins has already outperformed the expectations attached to his recruiting profile, becoming one of Penn State’s top cornerbacks in 2025 and leaving his mark in the College Football Playoff the year before. Against Boise State in the quarterfinals, he matched a then-career high with five tackles, including one for loss.
The next step, though, is about more than production. Collins said he knows the room needs him to lead in a different way now.
“It's my room, so therefore I’ve got to do things that I didn't do last year,” Collins said. “Bringing other people along and being more of a leader, I most definitely have to take a step in doing that.
Getting on corners and safeties more. Coming in together and working out together, other than me coming in and working by myself to try to pull everybody along.”
Last season, as a redshirt junior, Collins started all 13 games and finished with 47 tackles, the most among Penn State cornerbacks, along with 2.5 tackles for loss, one fumble recovery and three pass breakups. That performance earned him All-Big Ten honorable mention from the media voters.
His 2024 season came before that, and it was the only other year he played more than six games. He appeared in 16 contests, logging 26 tackles, two tackles for loss, one interception, one sack and a pass breakup while working mostly in a depth role.
Collins’ first Penn State season in 2023 was a much smaller sample. He played in six games and registered three tackles, including one for loss, with those stats coming against Delaware and UMass.
Looking ahead, Collins and Zion Tracy are the upperclassmen in the cornerback group worth watching. Penn State also kept Daryus Dixson and Jahmir Joseph in the fold, giving Terry Smith a veteran nucleus to work with.
During the offseason, Smith said Collins and Tracy were especially active in the group chat as their leadership responsibilities grew.
"It was big to retain those guys," Smith said. "We feel good in the room that we have so many elite players who played really well in the bowl game, and give us some great insight into what we should expect for in the fall."
If Collins turns in a strong 2026 season, a spot in the 2027 NFL Draft would not be out of the question.
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