We’ve known for a while that Derrik Allen is a really good football player. The Georgia safety is considered by some the best safety to commit to Notre Dame since Harrison Smith over 10 years ago. This weekend at Nike’s The Opening, Allen made sure that anyone who wasn’t aware of how good he is, knows now with a ridiculous one handed interception.
Here’s the video Allen posted to Twitter that has Notre Dame fans buzzing today.
PUTTIN ON FOR GA. YOU KNOW HOW WE DO @NDFootball @espn @TheOpening @TomLoy247 pic.twitter.com/IH7Kslpw1c
— Derrik Allen (@DsmoothAllen) July 2, 2017
Reminder, Allen will play safety on collegiate level. The number of safeties that can line up one one one in coverage like that and make that play can be counted on one hand.
Allen is “only” rated as a 4-star recruit currently but there has been some chatter about him potentially getting a 5th star. Plays like this at one of the premier camps for high school players make a good case for that 5th star. Even if he doesn’t end up with it, it is very clear that Notre Dame has a very talented safety on their hands with Allen.
Notre Dame still needs to add more talent around Allen in the secondary in this class, but Notre Dame couldn’t have asked for a better cornerstone for the defensive back class in 2018 than Allen. Notre Dame rarely gets safeties with Allen’s skills (waiting for the inevitable Max Redfield comments) especially one out of Georgia.
And for anyone worrying about how solid of a commitment Allen is, he is reportedly rock solid. A recent visit to Notre Dame in June only solidified his commitment anymore.
PS…The way the kid lined up in this clip looks a lot more like Luther Bradley as a freshman vs. Lynn Swann than anything I ever saw Harrison do, no offense intended to Harrison Smith!
Bruce G. Curme
I’d love to see what Smith’s career would have been like with some semblance of competent defensive coaching his first 3 years. Weis and Tenuta moving him back and forth between OLB and S really screwed up his development. Diaco and Martin helped turn that around and Smith’s become a Pro Bowler in the NFL.
If Harrison had been put in the ROVER position and coached by Elko he probably would have been All American…a near perfect fit for that kind of work. Drue Tranquell is another guy who has been jacked around by poor coaching a little bit. I think he’s going to be an impact player at ROVER. He has a great opportunity this year to help this team in a big way – I hope he realizes that!
Bruce G. Curme ’77 ’82
Big time players make big time plays. It’s always been that way guys.
Bruce G. Curme ’77 ’82