Why is Beau Allen ranked so poorly?

Donate To GopherHole
H

Handsome Pete

Wartime Hero Fool
Joined
Nov 12, 2008
Messages
1,530
Reaction score
0
Points
36
Rivals has him as an unranked 5.5 DT. His offer list says otherwise. What is the deal? Has anyone seen him play in person?
 

I saw him play last year. I was on the Wayzata sideline when they played at Minnetonka in 08. Other than his size I wasn't really impressed. The game seemed to fast for him. But he did garner a lot of attention and if I recall correctly Wayzata quickly realized getting to the edge was a better option than moving Beau from the middle. Take it for what it's worth....
 

Handsome Pete said:
Rivals has him as an unranked 5.5 DT. His offer list says otherwise. What is the deal? Has anyone seen him play in person?
Click to expand...

Can you view this?

I think Allen looks like a kid that lacks quickness and is already close to being maxed out physically. If Allen was wearing Chris Bunders' uniform, would you be able to tell the difference between the two?
 

I have always been sort of baffled by Beau Allen as well. Don't get me wrong, I would love for him to sign with the Gophers, but as I said in a thread about him a few weeks ago, I would be more pumped about signing him as symbolic signing of a local kid where we outrecruited Sconny, Notre Dame, and Stanford.

I have seen the kid play a few times, and he was somewhat impressive. He is big and moves decent for his size. He doesn't give up a ton of yardage up the gut, but he doesn't completely dominate the interior like I would expect (from his offer sheet). I am not a scout, but I think his ranking (5.5) seems about more where I thought he'd be than his offer sheet.
For instance, I watched the Eden Praire/Minnetonka game this year, and it really seemed like the Eden Praire offensive line was dominating Minnetonka upfront. As I recall, they ripped off most of their runs right up the gut (EP won 38-7). So after that game, I came out thinking that Eden Praire's Oline must be exceptionally dominating. However, when I watched that same OLine get manhandled against Cretin (specifically a 5'10" 255lb Soph DT from CDH), I really started scratching my head when it came to Beau Allen. I personally thought the recruiting would be between Minnesota, Northwestern, and an Ivy League for this kid, but his recruitment blew up. I could definitely be wrong, but that is just my opinion.

There are really two reasons why he could be recruited so much by all of these schools despite his ranking and almost everyone I know being relatively lukewarm on the kid:
(1) He is better than we think (probably most likely).
(2) Teams can never have enough good big guys up front, and he has the grades to get into ND and Stanford and he is good enough to play at WI and MN, and it's just nice to add a decent DT prospect who you know won't have trouble getting in and maintaining grades, etc.
 

I think Allen is a kid who matured early (He played varsity as a Freshman) but has never really dominated and doesn't have tha high of a ceiling (i.e. He's not going to grow much more or get much faster) and that's reflected in his rivals ranking. That said DT is the hardest position to recruit due to the lack of players (Like a true center in basketball) so he fills a position of need for many programs, he's a good student and I think he'll be successful in the Gopher system where the DT's aren't asked to do too much, just hold the point of attack, occupy their blocker and let the linebacker get in and make the tackle. Moreover, this is exactly the type of recruit I expect Brewster to land. We're going to eternally have an uphill battle for the Seantrell Henderson's of the world, but Brew must get the Maresh, Hageman, Garin, Alipate, Olson, Gjere, Allen type players. The only one that's gotten away so far that I thought he should have landed was McNeal and it sounds like he might be headed back to the U next season.
 


300 pound kid with a good motor. Worked for Garrett Brown and it worked for Eric Small (and it works for a lot of other guys). I generally agree with Costa Rican Gopher in that it's questions over his ceiling that have landed his ranking where it is. Fair? Who can say?

But I think these are the kids you have to get. He's a highly-ranked homestate kid who is a very good student from a very good school district. He'll play and he'll contribute. One can never shut down the borders completely, but getting the top homestate kids sends a message that the local talent thinks the hometown university is good enough for them to stay home.
 

Gotta love the the Minny spin machine .

we did not really want hm any ways.
 

badnjanes said:
Gotta love the the Minny spin machine .

we did not really want hm any ways.
Click to expand...

And our first dumb a.ss enters the thread. Oh joy.

Of course a lot of his rivals rating is based of video and first hand accounts and, frankly, he just was not that impressive this year for his age and what was expected of him. Certainly he does have some upside so he would still be a great pick up.
 




Saw him vs. Hopins early this year

He was a non factor. No explosion, quickness, has very litte latteral pursuit, and did not dominate the man in front of him. He spent little time in the backfield. He got trapped a couple times.

He is a big highschool player, and he fails to stand out. No idea of his strength or conditioning but it didn't show on the field.

That being said, does he want to play for Minneosta? Is he a measure of closing the border? Can he develop any further? This is not Jewahn Edwards.
 

For Beau Allen to not be dominate playing in the Minnesota High School League says something. If he can't dominate Minnesota kids, who can he dominate? We have one of the smallest talent pools in all 50 states. Floyd dominated, Henderson has dominated, Allen not so much. Not a big loss if he goes elsewhere, I would prefer a DT from the south.
 


Notre Dame and Michigan offered a scholarship to a kid from Minnesota. I'm going to go out on a limb and recommend we recruit him strongly.
 



Studwell don't be logical. Obviously everyone in this thread thinks the kid is garbage, and since his rivals rating is only a mere 5.5 the U should defintiely stop recruiting him immediately.
 

I have seen him play a bunch of times:

Positives:

>HUGE (and strong)--a great frame for a DT
>Extremely athletic
>Great motor--I've seen this kid make some unbelievable plays both down the field and sideline-to-sideline.
>Good instincts (sniffs out screens/draws/veers for example)--probably comes from playing varsity since 9th grade.
>Literally almost impossible to block in high school in 1-1 "drive" blocking situations (iso, power, "dive"). Even if he doesn't always make the tackle in these situations, he plays like a polished DL--pushing OL into the backfield and disrupting plays.

Negatives:

>Honestly, not a great pass rusher. Doesn't have a wide array of pass rush moves and was fairly easy to at least "contain" in 1-1 pass pro in high school.
>Pursues TOO hard at times. Teams definitely had success running zone (Hopkins) and misdirection (EP) against Minnetonka. It wasn't because they were dominating him 1-1...it's because they were generally just "shielding" him so as to set up a cut-back, or "duping" him into over-pursuit. Anyway, these aren't always things a DT is supposed to (or able to) stop.

Every high school kid has positives and negatives t their game, and only a handful will enter college so polished/talented that they're ready to contribute immediately (especially true of OL/DL). Most are recruited based on projections due to "measurables" (and Allen's are very impressive). The bottom line in my book is, in my opinion, that this kid will be a major contributor--you want to get him signed. I admittedly saw stretches in high school where he was nowhere near "dominant," but could also point to a ton of examples where he was just that--making 3, 4, or 5 tackles in a row (sometimes 5 to 10 yards downfield). Anyway, take it for what it's worth...
 

Studwell55 said:
Notre Dame and Michigan offered a scholarship to a kid from Minnesota. I'm going to go out on a limb and recommend we recruit him strongly.
Click to expand...

And so did Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, UCLA, Stanford, Iowa State etc., etc. So the feeling in some quarters is that they're all wrong? :eek: Okayyyy...:confused:

I say if he doesn't go to the "U" let's encourage him to go to Iowa State!
 

Studwell55 said:
Notre Dame and Michigan offered a scholarship to a kid from Minnesota. I'm going to go out on a limb and recommend we recruit him strongly.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure that he ever had a 100% unconditional offer from Notre Dame. Their fans said that he was considered a plan B recruit.
 

Plinnius said:
I'm not sure that he ever had a 100% unconditional offer from Notre Dame. Their fans said that he was considered a plan B recruit.
Click to expand...

But of course, the Domers have never lost a recruit they really wanted, unless of course, they couldn't get him into school...:banghead:
 

I think with a couple years of gopher strength and conditioning we see a capable big ten player.
 

Iceland12 said:
And so did Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, UCLA, Stanford, Iowa State etc., etc. So the feeling in some quarters is that they're all wrong? :eek: Okayyyy...:confused:

I say if he doesn't go to the "U" let's encourage him to go to Iowa State!
Click to expand...

To be honest with you, I wrote on this thread saying that I wasn't that impressed with the kid (my untrained eye saw a few kids do better against the same competition), but I admitted that is probably me (and rivals) being wrong rather than 7 BCS schools.
 

Plinnius said:
I'm not sure that he ever had a 100% unconditional offer from Notre Dame. Their fans said that he was considered a plan B recruit.
Click to expand...

ND offered a conditional scholly. They were going to re-evaluate after watching all of his 09 game film. They've already done this, but who knows now with Ianello gone.
 

Iceland12 said:
But of course, the Domers have never lost a recruit they really wanted, unless of course, they couldn't get him into school...:banghead:
Click to expand...

Considering their perennial top 10 recruiting classes, you can take out the sarcasm and your point is mostly correct.
 




needs polishing

Allen didn't have a great JR year, he was much improved this year but needs some polishing. Don't think he is as athletic as most people think. Got a little chippy this year at the end of plays around the pile but don't think that makes him a high motor player - not saying he cheap but would play for minnesota.
 


Remember most linemen do not play for 2-3 yrs. Give him that long and he could develope nicely, you can't teach size
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom