Greg Paulus, Part II.
When Drew Allen, the No. 15 rated QB in the 2009 Class, committed to play for the Oklahoma Sooners, he chose their offer over ones from Kansas St., Ole Miss, Oklahoma St., Vanderbilt, Purdue & Colorado. Unfortunately for him, as good as he was, the others guys on the roster were just better (Sam Bradford, Landry Jones).
Allen put his head down, put in the work, finished school on time and, headed into his fifth year with the squad, hoping this would be his time. It wasn't. And so he decided to look around at programs that might provide an opportunity for him to finally ply his wares and play a little meaningful football.
After taking some trips and narrowing things down, it was apparently between Syracuse and NC State for his services. On Friday, word came down that Allen would chose Syracuse and will enroll at the university to compete for the starting QB job vacated by Ryan Nassib (first reported by Ryan Murray at Rivals).
It's rough news for Charley Loeb, Terrel Hunt and John Kinder. But great news for Syracuse fans, who are looking for a sign of stability and excitement out of a problem in transition.
Interestingly enough, this also means that Scott Shafer will follow in Doug Marrone's footsteps by bringing in a one-year transfer quarterback in his first season at the helm.
Of course, Allen will still have to win the starting job, one that seems to be a race between Hunt and Loeb at the moment.
I spoke with the guys over at Oklahoma blog Crimson and Cream Machine when word first broke that Allen would look in SU's direction and here's what they had to say:
Drew Allen would have been Oklahoma's most experienced quarterback going into this spring. He has been a career backup to Landry Jones who only saw garbage minutes. He has really good body size (6-5/226) and an accurate arm.
The biggest issue that he had at Oklahoma was that he came in behind the most prolific passer in school history. Now that Jones is gone, the Sooners are looking to retool the offense. Logic says that it's better to start over with an underclassman rather than s senior. That's the main reason Allen is looking to go elsewhere.
And so, Syracuse gets its quarterback named Allen from Texas after all.
Update: Allen spoke with Michael Cohen at Syracuse.com about his decision...
"When it came down to those two schools, I knew that I honestly couldn’t go wrong," Allen said. "Both coaching staffs are amazing, both have great players. But when it came down to it I just feel like what Coach McDonald is talking about doing there at Syracuse really fits my style."
"Coach Shafer told me that they’re going to give me an opportunity to win the job," Allen said. "And that’s all I could ask for."