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The news was rather alarming, if not downright frightening.
In an emergency at midseason, Marcus Allen was thrust into his first career collegiate start in the secondary.
As a true freshman.
Two days before the biggest game of the year.
Against eventual national champion Ohio State.
“It was scary a little bit, because of how it happened so fast,” Allen said. “I called my father and said, ‘I don’t know, I’m scared.’”
Turned out it was the other guys who should have been afraid.
Allen finished his first season at Penn State with 58 tackles, a sack, a bunch of pass breakups and a ton of respect – which is why he was named an Athlon Sports third-team All-American and selected to the Big Ten, BTN.com, ESPN.com and 247 Sports.com Big Ten All-Freshmen team.
He enters the 2015 season as one of Penn State’s brightest and most talented prospects, already the leader of the defensive backfield although he’s just a sophomore. And Allen immediately caught the eye of long-time NFL head coach and defensive coordinator Jim Haslett, who’s working as a consultant to the Lions coaching staff this year.
But it really all began with Allen shaking in his shoes over the thought of starting at safety.
He had seen some time through the first six games of the 2014 season backing up veteran defensive backfield leader Ryan Keiser while getting acclimated to the major college game after a strong career at Dr. Henry Wise High School in Upper Marlboro, Maryland – which included a 14-0 season and a Class 4A state championship.
So he had experienced big moments before.
But Allen was hardly expecting one in a Saturday night White-out fight at Beaver Stadium during a nationally-televised showdown with the big, bad Buckeyes.
That’s exactly what Allen got, though, when Keiser suffered a season-ending broken rib in practice that caused the fifth-year safety to undergo surgery to repair damage to his small intestine just days before Ohio State came to town.
Suddenly, Keiser’s backup was forced to the front lines against the Buckeyes.
“I said, ‘Hey, Marcus, you’re going to have to start against Ohio State. Are you OK?’ ” Penn State defensive coordinator Bob Shoop remembers. “He said, ‘I’m not going to lie to you coach, I’m a little nervous.’ “
Then it happened.
Early in the opening quarter, Ohio State went for broke with a deep ball Allen’s way.
The freshman leaped high and broke it up, batting the ball away. And all his jitters were knocked down with it.
“It was the play where I went up for the ball and deflected it,” Allen says, grinning at the memory. “I was like, ‘All right, I can play with these guys.’ “
Allen played his way to 11 tackles that day in an overtime defeat, and didn’t slow down much the rest of the way. He made 11 more tackles the following week against Maryland, and had a pair of nine-tackle games against Illinois and Michigan State.
All the while, a new leader in Penn State’s defensive backfield was being born.
“He’s the undisputed quarterback of the defense,” Shoop said of Allen at the beginning of preseason camp earlier this month. “He probably is a lot to the defense what Christian (Hackenberg) is to the offense. He’s very vocal. He understands the defense inside and out.”
It’s a role the hard-hitting Allen relishes.
“As a free safety or strong safety or middle linebacker, you expect to be the quarterback of the defense,” Allen said. “I think of myself as a flexible safety.”
Now if he can only develop more flexibility in his hands.
Despite all his success in other areas of his game, Allen came away from his first season at Penn State without an interception.
Not that he didn’t have his share of chances, starting with his first start.
“Just in the Ohio State game, I could have gotten two. I let (them) slip through my hands,” Allen said.
He vows not to let many more slip away, catching hundreds of speeding bullets out of a jugs machine through the offseason and camp practices. But Allen didn’t stop there.
“I’ve been working on my on ball skills, I’ve been working a lot on coverage skills,” Allen said, “making more of an impact.”
His ability to come up with turnovers could have a huge impact on his football future.
“He is a good defender. He does have good range,” said Shoop, who added Allen has another dimension as a guy who can move up and stop the run, similar to Kam Chancellor of the Seattle Seahawks. “He does have good quickness and speed. He’s got to continue to work on his ball skills. When coach Haslett first came on the job, he said, ‘If this guy (Allen) can improve his ball skills a little bit, the sky’s the limit for him. He can take his game to the next level.’ “
For now, Allen simply wants to level opponents and pick off a few passes and swing momentum the Lions’ way this year. It’s all part of making an impact at Penn State.
“I like hitting,” Allen smiled. “If you play at Penn State, you’ve got to hit.”
