DALLAS, Texas – Oregon wide receiver Devon Allen was sitting at a table, wearing his white No. 5 jersey, at the Dallas Convention Center on Saturday morning. Ten days earlier, Allen was being rolled out of the Rose Bowl – he was injured on the opening kickoff against Florida State.
Allen will not play in the national championship game on Monday and his immediate track future is unknown.
Despite the recent events to the star wide receiver and hurdler, Allen could still flash his braces-filled smile. He could still laugh. His demeanor was very optimistic.
Allen sat down with the Emerald at the College Football Playoff national championship media day to discuss his injury and where he goes from here.
Being hurt, these probably aren’t the questions you would’ve liked to been asked, but did you ever have people telling you that you shouldn’t play football? Worried that you were doing so well in track and field and football might hurt it?
Yeah. I mean, there are always going to be people that are skeptical, think they know and think they’re giving me the best advice in the world. Sometimes people give me good advice and I have to listen, but I feel like maybe you can get hurt in football and you can get hurt in track. I know people who tore their ACLs, you know, running. They’ll just step weird and it will tear.
All season I’ve been healthy and I’ve been playing the whole year with a whole bunch of guys: Ifo (Ekpre-Olomu), Pharaoh (Brown), Tyler Johnstone, Jake Fisher – those guys have gotten hurt. It’s the same. I guess it just happened to me. It’s unfortunate that it happened and it’s unfortunate that I might have to miss this track season – and miss doing something that I love – but I’ll be fine.
I’m 20 years old. I’m young. I’ll come back from rehab. Everyone I’ve talked to who has had the same injury has come back faster and stronger. So, I’m just looking forward to being faster than I am already.
You’ve probably been asked this about a 1,000 times, but how surreal is it for you to win everything you did in track and field and now to be sitting at media day for the national championship?
It’s pretty cool. I think I’m definitely one of the only people in history – I know Jeff Demps from Florida won the 100 meter dash and then they played in the national championship at Floirda – I think it’s pretty cool to have a team title in track and have the chance for a team title in football. It would mean a lot to me and to the university to be a part of success in both sports.
Not trying to take you back to the injury, but how hard was it on you when you went to bed at night?
Well, I strained my MCL (medial collateral ligament), too. I didn’t have a hard time going to sleep. I was pretty tired by the end of the day so I fell asleep fast. I didn’t really move too much, I just had my leg elevated and I kinda went from there. When I woke up it was difficult to take a shower and get dressed.
You know, I was kind of sad (the next morning). It hadn’t really hit me yet – I’m sure it’ll hit me during track season. You know, I’m sure I’ll cry when I see what I’m missing out on and see everyone else doing track. It might even hit me during the national championship. It hasn’t really hit me yet, but I think I’ve been positive about it and that’s the only way you can take it – be positive because it’s already done. I can’t do anything about it now so I may as well just fix it.
Who was the first person you called?
I didn’t really talk to anyone during the game, but I talked to my dad after the game – he was there at the Rose Bowl. It’s a big deal to me, but in the grand scheme of things, an injury like this isn’t that big of a deal because it happens so much. An injury like Pharaoh’s, that’s a little more complex. An injury like Ifo’s is a little more complex. It’s a little different.
With Darren Carrington being suspended, and you going down, how confident are you in the other receivers?
We have great guys: Keanon Lowe, Dwayne Stanford, Chance Allen, BJ Kelley, Charles Nelson, Byron Marshall and Zac Schuller will step up. Those guys have been stepping up all season in practice and I think it’ll be like we’ve been doing all year. We’ll rotate guys and it’s not going to really affect us. It sucks that (Carrington) is missing the game.
Follow Joseph Hoyt on Twitter @JoeJHoyt