Defensive Backs from Area Hope NFL Has Paid Attention : While at Arizona State, Point Loma’s Eric Allen Blossomed Into Potential 1st-Round Draft Pick

By the fourth game of the 1987 college football season, Eric Allen was the lone voice of experience in Arizona State’s secondary.

What began as a strength for ASU quickly turned to a glaring weakness when four of its top five defensive backs were injured. Only Allen, a senior cornerback from Point Loma High School, remained whole.

Playing with as many as three freshmen in the backfield, ASU’s pass defense suffered as a result.

But Allen could hardly be faulted. He turned in an impressive season that has made him a potential first-round selection in Sunday’s National Football League draft.

Mel Kiper Jr., who analyzes the draft for ESPN, rates Allen as the 27th-best player available and third defensive back behind Bennie Blades of Miami (Fla.) and Rickey Dixon of Oklahoma.

“He’s a good man-to-man cover guy,” Kiper said. “He plays a real smart game. They had three freshmen with him in the backfield last year, and he was almost a coach on the field.”

Kiper projects Allen as the second-round pick (32nd overall) of the Cincinnati Bengals. Others predict that Allen will go in the first round, possibly to the Chicago Bears or Miami Dolphins.

Allen says he has little preference.

“I worked out for about 21 of the 28 teams,” he said by phone from his home in Mesa, Ariz. “I’ve got a feeling I’ll go somewhere in the NFC, and I think I might end up somewhere back East--Philadelphia, Chicago, maybe Detroit. I’d like to go to a team that’s in the process of winning. It doesn’t have to be a team that is going to the playoffs right now, but one that has good talent coming up, a good coaching staff and a will to win.

“But I really don’t care where I end up. I just want to get a shot and see if I can play.”

After his performance last season and at NFL scouting combines this spring, there is little doubt that Allen can play.

Although opposing quarterbacks usually worked on the inexperienced members of the secondary, Allen came up with eight interceptions last year. He led the Pacific 10 Conference in interception return yardage with 185 and returned two for touchdowns.

“I played a zone and man defense that was kind of a safety from the cornerback position,” said Allen, who had 15 career interceptions. “I kind of roamed the field and looked for the ball and went to it.”

On run support, Allen, who is 5-feet 11-inches tall and weighs 188 pounds, was fourth on the team in tackles with 76 and finished his college career with 193.

“He has great speed (4.5 for 40 yards), he’s very physical and he’s strong,” said Larry Marmie, who last year was ASU’s defensive coordinator and now is head coach. “He has the physical traits to handle the hitting, and yet he has great acceleration. He can go from half speed to full speed quickly.

“Character-wise, he’s a quality young man. I’m very partial. He’s one of my favorites. Ability-wise, I think he has a tremendous future ahead of him in professional football.”

None of this is news to Bennie Edens, the veteran football coach at Point Loma who coached Allen from 1980-82.

“Even then, I knew he was a cut above the average ballplayer,” Edens said. “He was an outstanding athlete, no doubt about it. We used him as a running back and defensive back his first year. His last two years, he played defensive back and slot back.”

As a senior, Allen rushed for 909 yards on 101 carries, mainly on sweeps to the left, and caught 26 passes for 400 yards. On defense, he returned four interceptions for touchdowns and had 17 career interceptions.

“He could have played offense (in college),” Edens said. “He was big enough and was a good pass catcher. But I agreed when he was moved to defense. He’s aggressive--he’ll hit you--and he can run with people. A lot of players can do one or the other. He’s a good combination.”

Allen says: “When I was recruited, coaches asked what I wanted to play, and I said defensive back. I didn’t want to get hit anymore. I wanted to do the hitting.”

He redshirted at Arizona State in 1983, played part-time in ’84 and became a starter the next season. In helping ASU to the 1986 Pac-10 title, he led the team with 14 pass deflections and had an interception in the Sun Devils’ victory over Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

“I think I’ve put in five years at a good school that has produced some professional prospects,” said Allen, one of four ASU players who are expected to go in the first two rounds. “Also, I’ve played under two different types of defenses and have adjusted. I played a strict man with (former ASU coach Darryl) Rogers and now more of a zone. I know football well. I have a good feeling of how to play man-to-man defense, and that’s what the pros want.”

His abilities were overshadowed for a couple of recent weeks when an “ugly rumor,” as Allen put it, unexpectedly surfaced.

On April 6, a biopsy was performed on a growth above the elbow of Allen’s right arm. There were some initial concerns, but doctors determined that the growth was benign.

That didn’t stop rumors from spreading, however, that Allen had everything from Hodgkins disease to Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“It was crazy for a while,” said Steve Zucker, Allen’s Chicago-based agent. “I let all the teams know the results from the doctors, though. He’s fine.”

So everything’s ready for Sunday’s draft, something Allen says he dreamed of while growing up in Southeast San Diego.

“I always thought about playing in the NFL ever since I played Pop Warner at Valencia Park,” Allen said. “I grew up when Wally Henry was playing and I watched Marcus (Allen), and I always envisioned playing against them.

“I never envisioned going in the first round until this year. It’s very exciting.”