GoUSFBulls.com recently sat down with junior safety
Nate Allen to discuss a number of topics. See what Nate had to say about the defense, the secondary and camp among other things. The Cape Coral, Fla. native started all 12 games last season and was fourth on the team with 78 tackles and also had four interceptions.
Talk about the expectations the team has coming into this season.
We always have high expectations for ourselves. Every year before the season starts we go over our expectations for ourselves and our first one is to win the BIG EAST so that's our main thing going into the year. Work hard, and just get ready for the season.
With the loss of Trae (Williams) and Mike (Jenkins) how does that affect the defense and more specifically the secondary?
You can't replace a Trae and Mike Jenkins, they're special. But I believe (Jerome) Murphy and Ty, Tyller Roberts, will come in and they'll play hard. I feel that they've been in the defense for quite a while now, I mean they've come right in and done well.
With those guys leaving, the defense has maybe been looked at as the weak link on the team, talk about that.
We try to say we're the best link we've got. But we're going to come in and do what we have to do and just stop offenses because that's what our goal is. We're just going to come in week by week no matter who it is and just play our game and stop them.
You're a junior now so you've been here a few years yourself. Talk about the adjustment you've made and what you want to do to continue to improve as a player.
I feel there's a big difference between now and my freshman year. I feel like I've learned a lot more from the veterans especially. Everything was really fast in the beginning. I felt like my head was spinning so I didn't know where I was going really. But now everything's starting to slow down and I just feel a lot more comfortable in the defense and everything.
Talk a little bit about the safety's that you have back there with yourself including the return of Danny Verpaele.
Carlton Williams, Louis Gachette, Danny Verpaele, everybody, all the safeties we've got, the new ones we've got coming in, we all help each other out, we motivate each other, get each other ready for the game. We're all just working hard right now, learning as much as we can, getting ready.
Talk a little bit about last season, the ups and downs, the high of getting up to No. 2, then obviously the three losses, and for the players I am sure the bowl tends to leave a sour taste in people's mouths.
Oh yeah, we got up to No. 2 then those three games we lost really took the wind out of our sails in a way. But you know we learned from that and we just know we can't do that this year. In order to be at the top you have to win and go in game by game focused. We've just got to go in and play hard. And the Sun Bowl, we learned from it.
Talk about how the overall expectations have grown over the last few years with the team.
They've grown a lot because we saw that we can make it up to No. 2. It's just motivated us. I feel we've always had high expectations but in a way it's kind of raised the bar now that we've been at number 2 and felt how it feels to be there.
You have another big non-conference game this year with Kansas. I know you want to take one game at a time, but that's a pretty high profile game with a lot of national media pointing it out as one of the best non-conference games of the year. Talk about that.
Getting ready for it, that Kansas game, it's going to be big. It will be like the West Virginia game last year. I'm sure it will be sold out. That's what you play for, those kind of games, those big games. Friday night on ESPN, it doesn't get any bigger than that.
Finally, just talk about how camp is coming along.
Camp is camp, you know, it's rough. You know you've got to do it though. It's time for mental preparation and getting focused and getting ready for season. But overall it's going good, everybody's getting work done, really improving I think.
Talk about the leadership you get from Matt Grothe and George Selvie and just watching those guys work day in and day out.
Oh, great leadership. You know, they lead not only by example but vocally too. They're top notch, as good as it gets. It doesn't get much better.
