Pierre Allen

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NU Football: Allen grows up, eyes shot on D-line

BY DIRK CHATELAIN

WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

LINCOLN - The car ride from Pierre Allen's house to his Denver high school lasts half an hour. It is a long time to talk when two people have nothing to talk about.

But the basketball coach needed his best player. The best player needed a ride to practices and games. So Grant Laman drove into one of the city's tougher neighborhoods, picked up 15-year-old Allen in his black SUV and headed back to school, seeking conversation to pass the minutes.

"At first, there were long moments of silence," Laman said.

Eventually, the two would bond over hip-hop and soul. "I was the DJ," Allen said. Coach would win two state hoops titles. His star, who once recorded a triple-double in a state championship game, would earn a football scholarship to Nebraska.

Now Laman watches from afar - a seven-hour car ride from Denver - as Allen fights for a starting job his first spring in Lincoln. Football is just one challenge. Finding Husker baby clothes is another.

"He's got a way different perspective from other 18-year-olds who are off to college and away from home and no one watching over them," Laman said. "He's going to class and to practice and then he's home to the family."

Come fall, Allen wants to give people something to talk about. Coach Bill Callahan has seen enough to say Allen will be on the field. Defensive line coach Buddy Wyatt witnessed vast improvement in Allen from Cotton Bowl practices to the first day of spring ball. He's currently No. 2 behind Zach Potter at base end.

"He can get from Point A to Point B in a hurry," Wyatt said. "Once he figures out what he's supposed to do all the time, he's even going to get faster."

Speed wasn't Laman's first observation when he met Pierre Allen at a football practice five years ago.

Allen, one of the city's prized eighth-grade basketball players, had just enrolled at Thomas Jefferson, the school that produced NFL players Daniel Graham, Andre Woolfolk and former Nebraska running back Cory Ross. Allen was late joining the football team.

Laman, also the coach of the freshman football team, had told his players a few days into practice he'd checked out all the equipment. No more stragglers. Team's complete.

"Here comes this complete athletic specimen," Laman recalls.

His players noticed the irony: "Sure you're not gonna add anyone?"

That first fall, Allen played all over the field. You could throw a pass up in traffic and he'd snatch it. Cornerbacks didn't have a chance.

Hoop dreams

But basketball was clearly his sport. His final two years of high school, he led the state in rebounding and blocked shots, averaging close to 20 points per game. During his junior year, the first of two years he earned Class 4A player of the year, Allen scored 21, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked 10 shots in the state championship game. He could shoot from deep, dunk over defenders and swat shots into the seats.

"At the high school level, he was just unstoppable," Laman said.

He was, at 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds, an intimidating force. But you won't find many 6-5 power forwards in Division I.

Major-conference basketball programs knew of Allen's possible football future. He wasn't even all-state in football in high school; he was raw.

Basketball coaches sensed an opportunity. If they could convince their football programs to give Allen a scholarship, he could play both sports and count as a walk-on for basketball. That's what Syracuse and Arizona tried to do.

Those were options when Allen visited Lincoln in November 2005 to watch a pair of middling Big 12 rivals, Nebraska and Kansas State. He fell for the atmosphere. The fans. The coaches. The academics. Felt like a place he could call home.

Actually, it was very different from home, where coach's SUV delivered him home at night to a neighborhood in peril. Drugs and gangs infected the streets. Growing up, Allen walked to the Salvation Army gymnasium every day, seeing addicts and fights at the liquor store. Athletics diverted him. He had a basketball. He didn't need the other stuff.

But there was a void.

His mother worked two jobs. Grandma and aunts watched Pierre when she couldn't. But the boy lacked a father figure. Dad lived in the city, but never came around.

"I wanted somebody to go to the basketball court with me, to rebound for me and throw me the ball," Allen said.

Pierre's dad attended a handful of high school games. Showed up at the state championship.

Pierre always knew when he was there, Laman said. "He wanted to show him, 'Hey, this is how good I am, Dad.'"

He was good enough to turn a traditional football power into a two-time state basketball champion. But there were other matters at hand.

Early during his senior season, Allen came to coach. He had something to talk about. Mercedes, the girl he'd dated since ninth grade, was pregnant. She's going to have a baby.

I'm going to be a father.

Worries overwhelmed Allen. What if Nebraska takes away my scholarship? What if we don't have enough money?

Growing up fast

He finished the season with 13 points and 17 rebounds in a thrilling state championship win, then directed his focus to finding work. While many of his future Nebraska classmates were training in Lincoln during the summer of 2006, Allen was working four jobs in Denver.

"I had to do what I had to do to save up," Allen said.

He and Mercedes married in June in a courthouse ceremony. Just the two of them. Soon Allen moved to Nebraska for fall camp. Mercedes stayed in Denver.

The Monday before NU's season opener, Allen told his teammates about the child due to arrive that day. He hoped he could go home the following weekend. The weekend? Go tell the coaches, teammates said.

"I didn't know how the coaches would react," Allen said. "I was a freshman. I didn't know anybody here. I didn't know the coaches very well."

Tim Cassidy, associate athletics director, helped him find a plane ticket within a few hours. He got home to welcome a boy, Pierre Jr.

Wife and son moved to Nebraska. Allen leased an apartment off campus and thanked God that Pierre Jr. was a good sleeper. Meanwhile, he worried about Carl Nicks.

First day of fall practice, Nebraska's hefty offensive tackle vaulted out of his stance and into Allen's chest, sending the slender freshman to his back.

Allen knew he had to redshirt. More important, he had to bulk up or find a new position. He started eating six or seven meals a day. He became a workout fiend. He hoped to get to 245 to 250. The weight kept coming. He reached 275 during winter conditioning and has since dropped 10 pounds.

When he returns to Denver, old friends gawk at his size.

"He looks like a D-end," said cousin and high school teammate Lawon Benford.

Allen still needs to get stronger to carry his new weight. Once he does, you'll see him blossom as he did on the basketball floor, Wyatt said. The coach asks him all the time about his accolades. He's heard Allen was quite the baller.

"Oh, coach, that was about 40 pounds ago," Allen responds.

Much has changed since he was 220. His neighborhood. His family. Babysitter options. Linebacker Steve Octavien, evidently, can change a diaper when Pierre and Mercedes want to catch a movie.

It's not often. Long before Pierre Jr. was born, Allen promised to be a better father than the one he had. He'd be there to rebound basketballs. Seven months after his chance at fatherhood, he says a night away from his boy in Husker pajamas feels like a week.

He's thankful for short car rides.

"There's nothing I love more than to go home at the end of the day."

 
These are good stories. He made a mistake in High School and is manning up to it. Good for him. I think he just became one of my favorite Huskers.

 
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