Bobby Collins obit

Former SMU football coach Bobby Collins dies at 88 years old

Collins’ 1982 team — the first he had at SMU — went 11-0-1 and finished as the No. 2 overall team in the country.

 

 He was not on the list.

Bobby Collins, the football coach at Southern Methodist University who resigned right before the NCAA imposed a “death penalty,” died Tuesday at the age of 88, according to The Vicksburg Post.

Collins was a college football head coach for 12 years, starting at Southern Miss in 1975 and ending with his resignation from SMU in 1986. The Laurel, Miss., native spent 20 years as an assistant coach before getting his first head coaching job.

On the field, Collins’ teams were successful. He finished his career at Southern Miss and SMU with a record of 89-46-3, including a run of 43-14-1 while the head coach of the Mustangs. His 1982 team — the first he had at SMU — went 11-0-1 and finished as the No. 2 overall team in the country. Collins also won two Southwest Conference titles during his tenure at SMU.

SMU was placed on three-year probation by the NCAA in 1985 for recruiting violations and paying players, even after the program said it would stop. It was the sixth time the program was placed on probation in a 30-year span.

Collins, along with SMU athletic director Bob Hitch, resigned from SMU in December 1986, while the fate of the program was uncertain. Approximately two months later SMU was sentenced to the death penalty, which resulted in two years of no football and an extended probation with loss of scholarships through 1990, setting back the program for decades. SMU didn’t win 10 games in a season again until 2019.

Collins was not sanctioned by the NCAA in its final investigation.

Still, he never coached again.