Sophomore wide receiver Collin Hoyhtya evades a North Park defender in Saturday’s game. (Photo by Curran Neenan | Student Life)

Before the Washington University football team’s dominant 41-7 victory over North Park Saturday, sophomore Collin Hoyhtya had only played one game for the Bears, but it was a phenomenal start to his career. He scored two out of the team’s three touchdowns against the University of Chicago in the season opener, also leading the receivers in yardage. Outside of football, Hoyhtya is like most other Washington University students — he likes to go on neighborhood strolls with a cup of coffee in hand, he’s already inundated with schoolwork and he’ll probably run out of meal points before the end of the year. Student Life sat down with the receiver to chat about his background, favorite meal on campus and how he really feels about Exploding Kittens.

Student Life: Was it always football for you, or did you dabble in other sports growing up?

Collin Hoyhtya: Yeah, I dabbled in other sports. I played baseball since preschool — I was playing t-ball — but I stopped after freshman year of high school. And then I also did some track in high school as well and was planning on playing Ultimate Frisbee my senior year before it got canceled because of COVID. But yeah, that was a little bit, but football has definitely been my biggest passion since third grade. I’m not the greatest athlete speed-wise or at jumping or anything, but I think I do a solid job of kind of making up for that in other areas of my game on the football field. 

SL: What other areas do you think make up for that lack of raw speed?

CH: I’d say my route running and knowledge of the game, plus aggressiveness catching the ball. I definitely make up for my current lack of deep speed with those areas.

SL: The transition from high school to college ball can be a big move, and I know that [head] coach [Aaron] Keen stepped up practice intensity from [former head] coach [Larry] Kindbom. So what do you think the hardest parts of those practices are for you?

CH: I think we keep really high energy and high tempo the entire time; there isn’t much of a break, so you kind of have to sneak water breaks in there when you can. Offensively, we move the ball really quickly — we do play after play after play, and we don’t really take much break in between. And so I think just keeping up with the tempo, and being conditioned for it, and then also being able to keep that up over several days in a row and the mental toll that that’s taken on you.

SL: It seems like it’s been working for your performance — you personally had a very impressive day in the game against Chicago, leading the receivers in yardage and with those two touchdowns. How satisfying was it to have that work pay off after two years not playing? 

CH: I was just thankful to have the opportunity to show the hard work. I did a lot over the past two summers to kind of prepare for college. And, you know, it all added up, and it’s really gratifying to know that that hard work does lead somewhere and it’s able to be shown. So yeah, I was really, really happy with it.

SL: Are you at all superstitious? Were you wearing your lucky socks to Chicago or something that you can attribute to your big plays? 

CH: Not really. But I have a friend that made me a bracelet that I started wearing for our Illinois College scrimmage. I played well there and then and then at our intrasquad scrimmage and so I was like, I’ll just wear it again. Things went well. I also just wear a bandana to tie my hair back during practices, and so I kept that going as well. I’m not too superstitious — I don’t really think that if I didn’t do those things I wouldn’t have done well. But it’s still kind of fun to think that they have some sort of impact.

SL: It sounds like football takes up a lot of your time, but if you’re not in practice or in class, where can people find you? 

CH: I don’t have too much free time, but I love coffee. I go to Starbucks way too much; I spend way too much money there. And yeah, I try to go outside and walk around. I like walking through neighborhoods looking at the architecture of the houses while I drink my coffee. It’s kind of simple and it’s still kind of school-related [Hoyhtya studies architecture], but I still love it, which is why I think it’s good. 

SL: There are definitely a lot of good coffee options on campus. What about food? What’s your go-to food on campus? 

CH: Last year, since it was mostly like ordering through GrubHub, my go-to was when the DUC was serving like eight wings. You could get buffalo or BBQ, and I would always go buffalo. And then I gotta get like lasagna with it — I would just feast. And I’ll get pancakes as well. Actually, I would kind of go crazy. So it’d be wings, lasagna and pancakes. I don’t know if they still are making those foods, but last year, that was definitely my favorite meal.

SL: Almost everyone runs out of meal points eventually.  So how did you not run out by Christmas? 

CH: I had to buy meal points off someone else at the end of the year. I did buy like 500. I just eat what I want now and push off the problem until later.

SL: And speaking of free time, I heard from a teammate that you guys have been playing a lot of card games. And so do you partake in that? Do you have a favorite?

CH: Yeah, I do — I definitely partake in it. We play Exploding Kittens, and it’s electric. Like we get down there and you get down to the wire. And you start getting into these battles one-on-one at the end to see who’s going to pull out the win. You know, it’s almost as exciting as playing football out there. So yeah, we also started getting Starbucks cold brew to kind of get the energy up while we play. And so it’s a whole thing, cold brew and Exploding Kittens. We’re actually getting into the expansion packs — imploding kittens, barking kittens, you know? It’s a lot of fun. 

Is there someone you think we should profile as our athlete of the week? Let us know by emailing [email protected]

Get to know more WashU players through our athlete of the week features:

Why Sergio Rivas, who leads men’s soccer with four goals in three games, says he peaked in middle school

‘Hey, champ’: Freshman golfer looks back on the trip from starting a high school girls’ golf team to winning a college tournament

One swimmer’s journey from professional table tennis to WU’s first pandemic-era in-person competition