Otis Allen

Otis Allen

Allen warming up at MSU
No. 98 – San Jose Sabercats
Position:	Defensive Tackle
Personal information
Born:	(2014-10-18)October 18, 2014 (aged 51) Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Height:	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Weight:	310 lb (141 kg)
Career information
College:	Michigan State University
Career history
Roster status:	Active

Otis "Tank" Allen (born October 18, 1998) is an American football defensive tackle for the San Jose Sabercats of the National Simulation Football League (NSFL). He played college football for Michigan State University (MSU) and has declared his intent to enter the professional ranks next season.

Early years

Allen was born in Dothan, Alabama to mother Casey, a journalist and his father Mason, a building operations vice-president. His family moved to Detroit, Michigan soon after his birth, as Allen's father was relocated to a different branch of his company. Allen attended Martin Luther King High School in Detroit. Allen was a letterman and four-year varsity participant in track and field earning King High School a state championship in shot put and a regional championship in discus. He had top throws of 15.84 meters in the shot put and 47.66 meters in the discus throw. Surprisingly, Allen did not play football in high school, though his size and stature caused him constant questioning around entertaining the possibility of trying out for the team. Although the two sports were in different seasons, most of Allen's offseason was occupied by strength training and conditioning leading up to the spring for track and field.

College career

Allen was initially recruited to Michigan State University under a track and field scholarship, but ended up walking onto the football team in his freshman year. Allen at least partially attributes this transfer to his college roommate and fellow college football teammate Samson Brewer, who is said to have gotten the school's assistant coach into a chance lunch meeting with Allen to convince him to consider football as a future sport. He redshirted his first year and played in one game his sophomore year. Allen quickly became a social media icon for the MSU football team after donning the unique look of an oversized neck roll under his jersey, giving him a very looming appearance to spectators and opposing players. Allen became a starter in his junior year, ending the season as a runner up for the Smith-Brown Defensive Lineman of the Year and soon after declaring for the draft. Allen majored in journalism, and is attributed with multiple opinion pieces in The State News, Michigan State University's student newspaper.

College career statistics

Come back to this bit. Not sure how to generate the table yet

DSFL Career

2035 DSFL Season (S20)

Allen began his DSFL career on waivers for the Tijuana Luchadores. He had a hot start to his DSFL career, recording a sack in his first game for the Luchadores in week 11. He would be continue on to be relatively quiet throughout the Luchadores' playoff run, and would go into the S20 draft with uncertainty around him from a scouting perspective. Allen was drafted to the Portland Pythons in the 5th round at pick 27. He was the fourth defensive lineman off the board and the second defensive tackle to be selected. Allen would start in all 14 games for the Pythons, ending the season with 33 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, and 4 sacks. The 12 tackles for loss would lead the DSFL for defensive tackles. His first multi-sack game would come in week 10 against the Norfolk Sea Wolves where he recorded 2.0 sacks and 4 tackles. Allen's highlight play of the year would occur in week 5, when he was able to block a punt against the Kansas City Coyotes. Although the Pythons would end the disappointing season at 2-12, Otis Allen was able to impress NSFL scouts throughout the season with his physical attributes and technical skills on the field. He was in talks with most NSFL teams throughout his rookies season and would go on to be drafted at second overall by the San Jose Sabercats. In San Jose he would be reunited with his fellow Python ( though traded to the Buccaneers ) HeHateMe PickSix.

DSFL career statistics

Career statistics			Defense
Season	Team	Games	Tackles	TFL	FF/FR	Sacks	Interceptions	PD	Blk P/XP/FG
2035 (S20)	POR	14	33	12	1/0	4	0	0	1/0/0

Pre-draft measurables

Ht	Wt	40‑yd dash	20‑ss	3‑cone	Vert jump	Broad
6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	310 lb (141 kg)

ISFL Career

2036 NSFL Season (S21)

Upon being drafted to the San Jose Sabercats, Allen was informed that he would be moving positions to defensive end to fill the team's current roster gap. Allen was drafted as a future replacement for season 12 veteran Freezer Riposte, who was quickly nearing the end of his career. This position switch was much more complicated technically than Allen was expecting and his stats on the field would reflect that. Allen would end the season second to last in tackles across all true defensive tackles, recording only 19 on the season. He would also end the season with only one sack. While Allen’s defensive troubles were a commonality amongst the Sabercat defense with many of their end-of-year stats falling in the middle of the road on the league stat sheet, to fans and media this was a tough pill to swallow. Allen would receive much scrutiny from local media heads and beat writers in San Jose regarding the Sabercats' draft decision to take Allen, with many reporters and newspapers preemptively calling Allen one of the biggest busts of the draft. From interviews with Allen this did not seem to phase him much. "The NSFL is just a completely different game, and with my position switch I've got to be able to adapt to change.", Allen said in an interview with the San Jose Times. "Being a star in the DSFL is one thing; being in the NSFL with a league full of stars is really eye-opening." Allen would attribute the successes that he had on the field to the veteran mentoring he received from Riposte and Brayden Ennis, and would continue to have high hopes for the future of his career.

2037 NSFL Season (S22)

Season 22 would bring both a sense of normalcy and continual change to Otis Allen. At the beginning of the season San Jose’s veteran defensive lineman Freezer Riposte would be claimed in the expansion draft by the Sarasota Sailfish, allowing Allen to move back to his originally drafted position. The Sabercats shocked the NSFL by starting the season red-hot, winning five of their first six games. Allen, though, would go on to have a slow start to his sophomore season in the league. He registered only 15 tackles in the first seven games of the season, with two of those games logging Allen with no stats whatsoever. It wouldn’t be until week 8 that Allen would record his first and second sacks of the season in San Jose’s 35-9 route of the Philadelphia Liberty. The middle of the season would bring unexpected news from the San Jose locker room that veteran Brayden Ennis would be retiring from football at the end of the season. This announcement would cement Allen’s place on the defensive line as a critical building block for the Sabercats’ defense. The end of the season would unfold much like the beginning, with Allen’s contributions to the Sabercat defense mostly remaining off of the stat sheet. Allen would remark that a highlight of his season was his sack on the Orange County Otters’ quarterback Franklin Armstrong. “The most important thing is that our team went out and got the W, but I won’t lie: being able to say I took down one of the most elusive quarterbacks of all time is going to help me sleep a little happier tonight,” Allen would remark after the Sabercats defeated the Otters in week 12. “I mean, look at me! Do you think anybody would believe a big guy like me could chase down somebody like Armstrong if it wasn’t on national television?”

2038 NSFL Season (S23)

Otis Allen’s third season in the ISFL would begin quite hopeful, but would sadly end in another disappointing result on the stat sheet. With the retirement of Dan Wright and the loss of star wide receiver Action Jackson to the Yellowknife Wraiths, the Sabercats would again go into rebuild mode behind rookie quarterback Monty Jack. Allen would gain an addition to the outside of the defensive line in up and coming rookie Water Chestnut III whom many expected would take pressure off of Otis Allen, who in the season prior had seen many instances of being double or triple teamed by opposing offensive linemen. Although there were still some looming questions of who would be the second defensive tackle to step up with Allen, as well as whether or not struggling defensive end Chip Otle would finally have a breakout year, many fans expected that the Sabercats would have a competitive defensive line. This would not turn out to be the case. Allen would continue to be hot and cold throughout his third season, some games registering sacks and others being left off the stat sheet. He would end the year ranked 13th amongst defensive tackles for sacks, finishing with only 5 recorded. Additionally, Allen would register a measly 34 tackles and two tackles for loss. The Sabercats would finish last in the ASFC, causing many fans to begin openly criticizing the acquisition of Allen in the S21 draft. Comparisons by sports analysts across the league were already calling Allen “the next Brayden Ennis” for the Sabercats, which statistically is almost spot-on at this point in Allen’s young career.

2038 ISFL Season (S24)

The offseason of season 23 brought great strides of improvement to Otis Allen’s physical measurable, but the fourth season of Allen’s career would bring more of the same on the stat sheet. Allen was noted in practice camp for putting a large focus on his tackling ability, often staying late at the training facility with sophomore Water Chestnut III to run sled drills and conditioning exercises. Allen would record 8 tackles and two sacks in four preseason games, continuing to cement projections of his continued mediocrity as a defensive lineman. Otis exploded out of the gate into the 24th ISFL season with a six tackle and one sack game, but quickly fell back into his usual routine of having many low stat or no stat games throughout the season. He would finish 12th amongst active defensive tackles with 5 sacks on the season and 14th in tackles with 42. Allen would receive continued criticism for his performance, particularly when compared to new signee Yuuto Kira Cloudera, who was signed to the Sabercats at the beginning of the season. “Look man, “ Allen remarked in a pre-game interview during the Sabercats’ run to their S24 Ultimus championship “ Cloudera brings a dynamic new facet to our defensive line, which I think I’m contributing to as well. Even if you aren’t seeing it on the stat sheet, the coaches and I know that we’re doing the right things for the team on the field. We’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing right and continuing to improve on what we’re doing wrong.” Allen would put up numbers consistent with his career up to this point during the playoffs and the Ultimus championship game, registering only two tackles during the championship matchup vs. the Colorado Yet.

ISFL career statistics

Career statistics			Defense
Season	Team	Games	Tackles	TFL	FF/FR	Sacks	Interceptions	PD	Blk P/XP/FG
2036 (S21)	SJS	13	19	5	0/0	1	0	0	0/0/0
2037 (S22)	SJS	13	29	0	0/0	4	0	0	0/0/0
2038 (S23)	SJS	16	34	2	0/0	5	0	0	0/0/0
2039 (S24)	SJS	16	42	3	0/0	5	0	0	0/0/0
2040 (S25)	SJS	16	37	4	0/0	6	0	0	0/0/0
Totals		74	161	14	0/0	21	0	0	0/0/0

Achievements and records

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