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Whicker: Brian Allen might be the centerpiece of Rams’ draft
Los Angels Rams fans cheer during the NFL football draft in Arlington, Texas, Saturday, April 28, 2018. (Jae S. Lee/The Dallas Morning News via AP)
By Mark Whicker | mwhicker@scng.com | Daily News
PUBLISHED: April 28, 2018 at 8:18 pm | UPDATED: April 29, 2018 at 11:43 am
THOUSAND OAKS — “The basement” has become a metaphor for cyber-driven dysfunction, a teenage wasteland below ground.
The Allen basement, in Hinsdale, Ill., is an exception.
It is the headwater for a long stream of large people in Michigan State uniforms.
On Saturday, it contributed its second son to the NFL.
Brian Allen, Spartan center for four years and the king of the high school mat in his time, was the first of the Rams’ fourth-round picks on Saturday.
His older brother Jack was undrafted after his Michigan State career but made the New Orleans roster in 2016 anyway.
His younger brother Matt is a redshirt freshman in East Lansing and was the top recruit among centers in the Midwest.
Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio was asked to compare Jack to Brian.
“I don’t really like to do that,” he said, “especially in this case, because one of them will get mad at me.”
Dantonio has been to the basement.
“There’s a wrestling mat down there,” he said. “There’s a three-year gap between all the brothers, so they get after it. For us, we’ve had an Allen in the program since 2011 and we’ll have one until 2020. So that’s pretty good.
“When we go to the house, they already know what we’re all about and what our direction is.”
Offensive line coach Mark Staten has gone down those steps, too.
“There’s holes in the wall, they’ve had to get people to come down and work on the sheetrock,” Staten said. ‘It’s about what you’d expect with three brothers like that.”
All three Hinsdale Central wrestlers won Illinois state championships. Brian was the first to get medals all four years. He went 49-0 as a junior, 45-2 as a senior.
John, the father, wrestled at Purdue. Jim Zajicek, John’s stepbrother, was an assistant wrestling coach at Hinsdale Central.
Brian also won the state shot put title and, in football, played on both sides. He was a starting guard alongside Jack as a freshman at East Lansing, moved to center when Jack left, and started his final 28 games for the Spartans, including a blowout win over Washington State in the Holiday Bowl.
Pro Football Focus, in its draft guide, praised Allen’s low stance and noted that he was “never overmatched” in any MSU game.
It also knocked his athleticism and said he was undersized, even though he lists at 6-foot-2, 302.
Staten, who played with Rams offensive line coach Aaron Kromer at Miami of Ohio, says the mat has a way of equalizing all that. Wrestling is the extracurricular activity that football coaches want to see on the worksheet. It identifies want-to, and exposes fear.
“There’s no excuse when you wrestle,” Staten said. “You’re either winning or you’re losing. It’s that one-on-one thing that you have to have when you’re lined up. And you also pick up a lot off things about the physical angles and the leverage.
“Brian learned from his brother. He was our team captain. He knew when to put a boot up somebody’s (backside) and when to put his arm around somebody. He played with a hip problem and some other things, but it was hard to tell because he’d never admit it.”
An NFL scout tabbed Allen “the bully of the Big 10,” but then nobody picked him in the first two days of this draft. It brought up brief nightmares from Jack’s undrafted year. Brian had said beforehand that he would hold no draft party.
“I’ll probably just hang out with the family and sit on the couch like a loser,” he said. “Expect the worst, hope for the best.”
He even pointed out to Staten that he had an extra year of eligibility he could use on wrestling. Academics weren’t a problem, since Allen was a 3.3 economics student.
Roger Chandler, the wrestling coach, had suggested that very thing for years..
“I told Brian to forget it, you’re going to be playing football,” Staten said.
Allen got clarification, in his mind, when he came to Thousand Oaks. “I was telling my agent today that I thought the Rams would take me,” he said.
The current center, John Sullivan, signed a two-year extension, but turns 33 during training camp. The Rams dare not pretend they can get through another 16-game season without a sidelining injury to a starting lineman.
They drafted 10 of their 11 players on Saturday alone. Even a tape freak like Rams general manager Les Snead risked eyestrain.
“But if you’ve been watching football players all fall and December, February and April and you’re kind of dozing off,” Snead said, “you put the Michigan State center on film.”
Soon the basement will be appearing on the Coliseum floor.
