The end of May was supposed to be an exciting time for the prospects involved with Premier Players International but now like almost everything else there are more questions than answers.
PPI is a service meant to try to open doors for European born college football prospects to play football in the United States. The group identifies the top talent throughout Europe and works with founder Brandon Collier in order to develop and bring those prospects to the attention of college coaches.
For the past three years Collier has done just that with a bus-tour that hit over 20 college campuses last year including a stop at West Virginia. That is where the Mountaineers were able to eye-ball a pair of prospects that have since cast their lot with the Big 12 Conference program.
West Virginia dipped their toes into the international market signing cornerback Jairo Faverus from Amsterdam while another is currently in the fold for the 2021 class in Swedish tight end Victor Wikstrom. Both players benefited greatly from the coaches being able to see them perform in person.
Faverus is one of 20 international prospects that signed with a division one program and Collier was looking forward to that number growing with this coming class but due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic both camps and opportunities to visit have been halted through at least June.
Collier and around 100-prospects were expected to make the rounds to a number of college camps throughout the eastern, southern and mid-western portions of the country including a planned return stop at West Virginia for a one-day camp event. Those now can’t happen on schedule.
“It’s going to hurt a lot of these kid’s chances because they are so far away and are more impressive in person. Of course coaches want to see kids in person these days,” Collier said. “Ten or 15 years ago when I was in high school you could get offered off game film but more and more coaches want to make live evaluations of the kids.”
Collier is holding out hope that things can open up enough so he could look at some possible campus visits in either July, August or the fall but for now that along with so many other things are unknown. So he has taken to looking at personalized film and using his contacts to get the word out.
“But it’s not easy,” he said.
Like college coaches in the states, Collier has been limited to essentially virtual contact through zoom meetings and other virtual outlets to keep tabs on his group of players. It presents obvious challenges but he has been impressed with how mature his European understudies have been to date.
The idea to start PPI was put in motion because of Collier’s own experiences overseas as he looked to pursue a professional football career.
Collier started playing in Europe after finishing college at Massachusetts in 2011 to try to get another shot at the NFL. After bouncing around with stints with the Philadelphia Eagles and in Canada he traveled to Austria and eventually Germany before his playing career ended in 2016 due to injuries.
All while pursuing his own dreams, he couldn’t help but take notice of the young talent in Europe and how there weren’t many avenues to help them get exposure to American college football programs. Almost overnight he had found his calling to provide that structure to kick start the process.
When it comes to those players that are either already or will be in Morgantown from the European group, Collier has been impressed with each of their developments. Faverus enrolled at West Virginia in January and has fit right in with the current team on all fronts.
“His goal is to compete from year one,” he said.
Wikstrom is set to enroll at West Virginia in January of this coming year and the athletic tight end prospect continues to impress with his progress in the weight room and on the field.
“He’s going to work. I’m not worried about that,” he said. “He’s ready to sign mid-year and I think it’ll be tough to keep him off the field year one.”
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