Nebraska Football: Austin Allen emerging as bona fide leader
Earlier this month, you heard me time about how Nebraska football tight end Austin Allen wants to be a captain. He wants to take on that leadership role, and he may have shown some of what he could bring to the table in that regard on Wednesday.
Nebraska football had a scrimmage against each other during the day, and let’s just say the offense was not up to par. As a result, Allen indicated to the offense that this level of play was unacceptable.
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Quite frankly that is good to hear. The offensive unit needs to be firing on all cylinders this year. They can’t be as inconsistent as they were last year, and there really is no room for error given the schedule that the Huskers have.
Allen was one of my favorite players to watch last year, and I thought he played hard every single game. In addition to his leadership on Wednesday, he has also been working hard during the spring.
As noted in a report from Brian Christopherson, Allen has particularly focused on his blocking. This is certainly good in my estimation, especially with the group of running backs Nebraska football has. Everybody needs to do a better job of blocking, particularly on the outside. Better blocking in general could lead to a more balanced offense, and that is something that Nebraska football needs moving forward.
As it stood for Wednesday, Allen was just focused on getting the little things right, and is working on trying to become a more complete player.
"One thing that did come out of it for him was the vocal leadership of Austin Allen. Beckton praised his tight end, commenting that Allen showed great leadership and a willingness to be vocal about the level where practice needs to be.Allen has continued to evolve for Beckton, who referred to his position leader as an NFL guy. He said the Aurora product is still working this spring on blocking technique and on driving. It’s getting better, but Beckton concluded that his height can be a detriment sometimes because of leverage."
If Allen continues to exhibit all of these qualities this season and moving forward, he could definitely be an NFL guy.
Allen certainly is in line for a big season in 2021. Especially with the way that Nebraska football used their tight ends at the end of the year, that position in general should be able to put up monster numbers.