From wide receiver to linebacker, Allison always put team first

The dried blood on the inside of senior linebacker Ryan Allison’s helmet tells the story of his evolution the past six months.

A gash on the bridge of Allison’s nose, the result of countless hits on teammates in practice and opposing offenses, has stained the front padding of his practice helmet. While Allison attributes the constant cuts across his nose to a helmet that slides down his long, wavy brown hair, the abrasion wouldn’t have been there last season.

Allison, who will play his final game in Spartan Stadium on Saturday, converted from a wide receiver in his first three years at MSU to a quick linebacker with safety-like instincts at the start of spring practice. MSU head coach Mark Dantonio switched Allison, a superb high school safety, to defense because of his combination of size and 4.5-second 40-yard dash speed.

“He’s sort of a hybrid guy,” Dantonio said. “He’s really learning how to play the game at that position, but he’s instinctive and he can get off of blocks and tackle. When people do that, you can be successful.”

To transition from wide receiver, a position characterized by dash, flash and finesse, to a hard-hitting linebacker, Allison added 20 pounds to his 6-foot-3, 190-pound frame.

“When I was playing receiver, I was going against 180-pound (defensive backs) and now I’m going against 320-pound guards, so that’s a big difference of just needing to bring it every play,” said Allison, who ran in national track hurdling races at Lake Orion High.

“You can’t really take a play off because if you do, a guy my size is going to get driven to the sidelines.”

Allison’s lingering speed has benefited the defense against opposing spread offenses this season. Last month against Northwestern, a pass-happy team with a spread offense, Allison flew across the field for 11 tackles, tying him for the team lead.

In the three weeks prior to MSU’s 37-20 win over the Wildcats, Allison had three tackles, which were the first of his defensive career.

After a devastating 45-7 loss to Ohio State in which Allison added four more tackles and a forced fumble on special teams, he returned the next week to face arch- nemesis Michigan which was in the process of implementing a spread offense.

“He had probably one of the best practices of everybody this week,” MSU defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi said during the week of the Michigan game. “There was a couple times he’d smack someone in practice and take them down with a big hit and I was like, ‘I think he hit him by accident. What’s he doing?’”

Eight games into his collegiate career as a linebacker, Allison and his scabby nose drew the starting assignment against the Wolverines.

“I’ve been talking with my dad and I’ve said, ‘If you had told me three years ago that I’d start against Michigan and have a few tackles in there as a linebacker, I would have said you were crazy,’” Allison said.

“Things just work out if you can get good at what you’re doing, no matter where you end up.”

Published on Thursday, November 6, 2008