Vitals:

    Going into last season, most people knew Allen would have an explosive offense and an average, at best, defense and they pretty much held true to form.  What most people didn’t know is that they would be good enough to win one of the state’s top 3 toughest districts outright and reach the State Semifinals, beating Westfield along the way. 

     This year the story is basically the same; Allen’s offense looks just about unstoppable and their defense looks like a concern.  What Allen has proven over the years, however, is that their defense isn’t nearly as important to their success as it may be to other teams.  Allen is, after all, 71-20 in the last seven years.

     The Eagles will miss departed QB Nathan Dick, but Stephen Payne has shown flashes of brilliance in the past.  Payne will have plenty of pressure on his shoulders, but that burden will be significantly lessened because of the great skill players he’ll have at this disposal.  Payne will have each of Allen’s top 4 receivers back.  Dan Buckner is a national top 100 player while Coby Jones, Tariekus Ellis, and Uzomah Nwachukwu are all excellent players in their own right.  Allen’s four wideouts combined for 215 receptions, 3,034 yards, and 23 TD’s last year.  If that wasn’t enough, Allen also returns RB Jeremiah Williams who rushed for over 500 yards and had over 200 yards receiving.  Holding it all together will be an offensive line led by Anthony Anuinaga and Clint Anderson who both happen to be returning First-Team All-District performers.  And finally, Allen also returns their All-District kicker Evan Dobbs.  To say Allen is loaded on offense would be a severe understatement.

     Defensively, Allen will be starting from scratch.  Last year’s unit gave up just over 23 points per game and if the Eagles can stay in that range again this year, they should be fine, so long as the offense lives up to expectations.  Allen does, in fact, return more lettermen on the defensive side of the ball than they do on offense, but those guys will be cutting their teeth against the likes of Garland, Rockwall, and Plano right out of the gate.  That kind of ‘trial by fire’ could help to break the new guys in quicker and it will definitely let them know how much they need to improve before they get to the postseason.t to the postseason.

     Allen does have more holes to fill than your typical top 5 team, but they also return more key players within their system than most other teams do as well.  Allen has shown to be one of the state’s top programs and an inherent trait of a top program is having the ability to work through heavy graduation losses and still have 8 or 9 wins or more.  Over the last 5 years, Allen has averaged 10 wins a season.  If the right pieces come together for this year’s squad, they are capable of topping last year’s mark of 13 wins.

The Bottom Line:

2007 Schedule

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Forecast:

Offensive Skill Talent, Experience

Defense, Breaking in a new starter at QB

Should win the tough 9-5A again and make another deep playoff run

Top Players: