If Ian Collins had been through a season like this year early in his coaching profession, he’s not sure he would still be a soccer coach.Decimated by injuries, stricken with ineligible players because of transfers, and riddled with a load of youth and inexperience, Collins hasn’t been through a coaching season quite like this one he’s been faced with in his 17th season at the helm of the Kentucky men’s soccer program.”If I had another year like this I would probably be in a different profession,” Collins said. During most of the last two weeks, 10 players on Collins’ preseason roster have sat out with injuries or because of NCAA transfer rules. Players that weren’t even on the 30-man roster to begin the year are starting and playing significant minutes, and Collins has had to patch nearly a new, freshman-led lineup just about every game. Entering last week’s match with Central Florida, 63 percent of the minutes played by the team this year had come from players in their first seasons of playing at Kentucky.”It’s been really hard,” Collins said. “We had a plan before the season. We had a real thought process to where our team was going to be at. Of course, in sports, things change day to day, but things have traumatically changed for us.”The list of the missing is almost too long to believe: midfielders Josh McCrary, C.J. Tappel, Christi Nousiadis and Ryan Costen have all been lost to season-ending injuries. Midfielders Drew Midkiff and Pierre Manga and forwards Cameron Wilder and Alex Clay have all missed time over the last couple of weeks with varying injuries.  Then there are transfers Marco Bordon and Josh Mulvany, who the coaching staff hoped to have this season. Instead, the NCAA ruled they had to sit out this year due to NCAA transfer rules. Collins said Mulvany could be one of the best players in the nation when he becomes eligible.”People don’t know Mulvany but Mulvany is going to be one of the best players in the country,” Collins said. “He’s a terrific player. McCrary, a terrific player. C.J. has done great things here. You throw Marco Bordon in there and put those four in the midfield and we’ve got a different look.”UK received a lift this weekend when Wilder and Midkiff returned (Midkiff suffered a scary injury at Marshall and was feared to be lost for the year), but as luck would have at, two more players, defender David Harrison and forward Brendan Murphy, got hurt just as soon as Wilder and Midfiff came back.With Harrison now out, all four of UK’s seniors have missed time this season. Only one, Midkiff, will play against No. 20 Indiana on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at the UK Soccer Complex.”The most difficult things is we’ve got guys who are very young , and that’s one thing, but guys that maybe needed a little time to mature and to really figure it out,” Collins said. “We’re asking them to play against top-level competition, top-five teams, top-10 teams. It’s difficult. To their credit, I think they’ve done fairly well.”The loss of players, especially leaders, on a team that had to bid farewell to former stars Barry Rice, Jason Griffiths and Dan Williams has been an excruciatingly tough blow to an extremely young team (15 of the 33 players are freshmen). “If we’ve got our football team without Randall Cobb and Derrick Locke and Mike Hartline and Chris Matthews, you’re going to find out about some of your other players,” Collins said. “We’re finding out about some of our other players.”Collins has learned about the fight of his team in an adverse situation. Players like Tyler Beadle, Brad Doliner and Ellis Vienne, who was the 31st player on UK’s roster at the beginning of the year, are playing “unreal” and stepping up, Collins said. Freshman Sam Brooks, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound defender, has been forced to play forward and is leading the team in scoring.The coaches expected freshman Dylan Asher to come in and play right away, but they didn’t expect him to lead like he’s been forced to.”He’s a quality, quality kid,” Collins said. “He plays every minute. He’s one of those kids you just love to be around. He’s an impact player and should be a Freshman All-American because he’s carried a lot of players on his back.”Collins has been very proud of how resilient his team has been this year, but he admitted his players have been mentally and physically pushed to an extreme level. In addition to dealing with the first-year pressures of going to college, dealing with midterms and papers, and adjusting to the responsibilities of being a student-athlete, the freshmen have had to battle through a school-record eight overtime games this season.”The young guys have no idea what’s hitting them,” Collins said. “They’re dealing with midterms and they’re dealing with things they’ve never been asked to do. They’re being asked to be responsible for teams like UAB (RPI ranking of 42), Central Florida (No. 30), Connecticut (No. 24), Louisville (No. 3), Michigan (No. 43), teams that they’re looking at and are just kind of like, ‘I’m not quite sure what to do here.’ They’re starting to understand that and they’re starting to understand the accountability.”With a team short of depth, the additional minutes of overtime and the heartbreak of a golden-goal loss can start to pile up.”I think it’s mental,” Collins said. “We lost three of our first four overtime games. It was very hard. We went into the Evansville game and you see there was a little bit of fear, a little bit of trepidation on guys’ faces because they’re thinking ‘Here we go again.’ “But the Cats dug out a win at Evansville in overtime and followed it up with a golden-goal victory over Marshall.Collins said it can become easy for them to feel sorry for themselves with all the injuries they’ve been through this year, but he and his team are refusing to give in. Collins expects the same out of his 31st player as he does his first, and he expects the Cats to continue to claw for the C-USA Tournament and NCAA Tournament.”Whether that’s fair or unfair, I think that’s the standard we have to live to and not let them have excuses and make them understand what we’re trying to play for,” Collins said.At 4-6-3 overall, an NCAA Tournament at-large bid is a long shot, but UK is hoping to make the league tournament and make a run from there.If nothing else, Collins has learned about the depth of his team and built a strong foundation for next year.”With all due respect to our kids, we’ve kind of dug to the bottom of the well and the bottom of the well has responded pretty well,” Collins said. “They could have just folded and written off the season used all these excuses, but we’re never going to go through that. It’s been hard, but we’re trying to win tomorrow. We’re trying to win against Indiana.”