24 issues weekly during the season, monthly during the off-season. The Giant Insider gives you end zone to-end zone coverage of the New York Giants. Subscribe and get 24 colorful, informative issues! Exclusive Player Features, Insightful Columns, Coaches Q, Color Photos, In-Depth Game Previews, Comprehensive Game Coverage, Stats, Injury Reports, Giants History and more!

Steve Scouts Allen

We’ve all heard and read what everyone around the Giants has to say about first-round pick Will Allen. So we decided to delve a little deeper and seek out Allen’s position coach from his senior season at Syracuse. Steve Bush, former head coach of Manalapan High School in New Jersey, now serves as SU’s quarterbacks coach. However, last year, Bush manned the secondary for the Orangemen and got to watch and interact with Allen on a daily basis. Here’s what Coach Bush had to say about Allen:

Q: What stands out about Will to you?

A: Oh, so much. He’s a great competitor; he has great speed, excellent feet. His change-of-direction ability is strong as well. He can tackle real well, and is an excellent cover guy. He’s a tough guy that will never back down from a challenge and a guy who’s a real playmaker. He’s a very smart player, a real intelligent kid. He picks things up pretty quickly and retains it.

Q: Many of the so-called draft experts claim that Will had a better junior year than senior campaign. Did you find that to be true?

A: I don’t know if that’s true. I know a lot of teams shied away from throwing at him. I know a bunch of teams hardly threw the ball his way at all. He really took a lot of top receivers out of the game. In junior year, he was closer in talent to the other guys, but this year, there was a real disparity between our corners – Will was a lot better. People came into the game thinking that they’d go after a younger, less experienced corner than Will, who had proven he could do the job in previous years. When they did throw at him, he was usually all over the receiver, especially in man coverage. So, after that, they stopped looking his way.

Q: Is he a coachable kid?

A: Yes, he’s very willing to learn. A smart kid, he always picked things up pretty quickly. We have a multiple defensive system here, so he’s used to doing a lot of different things. He’s shown that he can handle a lot of different things. If you tell him something once, that’s it. You don’t have to explain something to him a couple times before he understands it. He’s a student of the game who watches a lot of film. He’d always study his opponent, looking for anything that could help in the game. I think he’ll continue to do that, and get better and better because of it.

Q: Coming from such a diverse defense, do you think it will take him long to step in at this level?

A: I think he can make an immediate impact. Obviously the coaching staff there will determine exactly when, but I think he’s a guy that can step in and be one of the starting corners, if not play as one of the nickel corners right away. I think he’ll be ready to handle whatever challenge they hand him and that he’ll pick up their system right away.

Q: We hear he’s really fast. How much speed does Allen really have?

A: He ran a 4.25 here in the past. He has excellent speed and can run with anybody. He has great make-up speed. If someone did ever separate from him, he has the ability to catch up to them. He’s shown the ability to run with everybody, including top-notch receivers. That’s a great asset. To be a good corner, first off, you have to be able to run. He definitely has that ability.

Q: Was he much of a leader for you guys?

A: No doubt. He was definitely the leader of our secondary and all the kids looked up to him. He’s not a super rah-rah guy, but he’ll compete and get it done. Guys have a lot of respect for his ability and his will to compete. As a result, they had a lot of respect for what he had to say, and really listened to him. I think he can be an excellent leader.

Q: How is he on the kickoff returns?

A: He’s got the good hands, and coupled with his speed, he almost broke a couple for us this year. He had a bunch of long returns for us this year that he just missed breaking all the way. He was only one block away on a bunch of them. He definitely did a good job for us on that all year long and that’s also something he can do.

Q: Is there anyone else – on the college or pro level – that Will reminds you of?

A: I can’t really think of anybody off-hand. That’s tough. I don’t want to compare him to anyone or lump him in with other players. He’s his own guy and I’m sure he’ll make a name for himself.

Q: What kind of person is Will off the field?

A: He’s a good kid. He matured a lot in the last year or so. He’s married with a child now. He had to go through a lot up here, because he grew up right in the city of Syracuse. When he came to school here, he had to try to separate himself from all the problems that were going on with former friends and things like that. He did a good job of handling himself in that situation. He’s a kid who handles himself very well. He’s very likable and is a fun-loving guy.

Q: In a couple words, how would you describe Will Allen?

Stop in and visit> "Mike's Keys to the Internet"
Links to every newspaper and magazine that's available on the net.

Website by Mike