For Marcus Allen, games vs. Ohio State serve as career landmarks

Once a three-star recruit from Upper Marlboro, Md., schools from all over the East Coast and Midwest had offered Allen a scholarship to play football when he was in high school. Ohio State was not one of them.

But when he made his debut atop the depth chart as a true freshman it was against the Buckeyes and he finished the game with 11 tackles.

“That’s a long time ago,” he recalled Tuesday, adding, “That was my first start. I would just say I was playing off straight, raw talent and really didn’t know football in and out. It was me just playing football just to play football.”

He says his growth has been almost immeasurable since then. When he played the Buckeyes again as a sophomore, he finished with eight tackles and when the Nittany Lions hosted them in Beaver Stadium a year ago, it was Allen who blocked a late field goal attempt that teammate Grant Haley returned for the go-ahead touchdown. Not only was it one of Allen’s best plays of his career, it’s a highlight that lives on PSU lore.

A semifinalist for the Thorpe Award, Allen attributes his success to the work that he’s put in since that first start against the Buckeyes, a game that ended in overtime and a close loss for PSU. But it’s not just the work that he’s put in on the practice field or on Saturdays inside college football stadiums that he's seen pay off.

Rather, he’s learned to observe the game from a different perspective, recognize tendencies and cues, and watch film with a more studious approach.

“I’ve matured more,” he said. “I’ve learned the game in depth, as far as down and distance, knowing the formations and what may come out of each formation, the checks, if (the offense is) to break out into another formation. There is so much stuff that goes along with football that people outside looking in don’t really know. They don’t know what it really comes with. I’d just say I grew into the football player that I am today, as far as just educating myself mentally.”

With that knowledge in hand, he’s been examining the 2017 version of the Buckeyes since Sunday, not even 24 hours removed from a thrilling 42-13 win over Michigan in front of a record-breaking White Out crowd.

“We celebrated, we had fun Saturday night, and then Sunday that’s when we turned around straight to Ohio State,” Allen said.

In the same year of eligibility as JT Barrett, Allen is familiar with the opposing QB not only from three years of scouting reports, but also with nearly 180 minutes of firsthand game experience.

He says Barrett is a “very experienced ... great player,” who “knows what he’s doing back there. He’s a leader.”

With that, Allen also has learned that Barrett “has a track record of what he usually does.” However, since this season is his final go-around at the college level and this game is so critical to Ohio State's season-ending destination, Allen is expecting his opponent “to probably have something else to show us, because every year they’ve got something different.”

Taking into account that OSU is coming off a bye week, too, Allen anticipates even more wrinkles to be added to their playbook – a similar concept to what PSU presented Michigan early on in last week’s game.

“Any team that has a bye week I would guess that they would (install) something different,” Allen said. “They’ve got a good jump. They’ve got like two weeks on us, just to study. I honestly don’t know what they’ll have for us but we just go off what we see on film and game plan from that. … They’re a fast-paced team and we’re just going to have to get ready for that.”

Previous experiences help, sure, but there’s little duplication from one year to the next in a sport that annually turns over personnel. That’s why this Ohio State game for Allen is of most importance. Not the first one, or the second, or the third – no matter how monumental they are in defining his career.

They’re just memories now, learning points he has used to expand his game – all building up to this one, this week.

“It just started it all,” he said. “We have to just keep rolling on and keep going throughout this season.”