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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 21, 2017

Marcus Allen

University Park, Pennsylvania

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Marcus Allen.

Q. What is the setup with the family? How many people are coming to the game, beyond the game?
MARCUS ALLEN: I actually, like, have 10 people that I have off the top of my head that's coming to the game. As the week has gone, like, multiple people have been hitting me up trying to get tickets, though. There's a lot of people.

Q. What are your impressions of Lamont Wade from what you've seen of him since he arrived?
MARCUS ALLEN: I've seen that he's, like, grown into, like, a mature football player. As time has gone, he's been, like, asking more questions, you know, just growing into the position that he's playing.

I'll just say, like, he's just steady growing and maturing as the season has been going. I think he'll be one of the leaders on our team in the future.

Q. What is it like for guys from that area who play for Penn State to go back and play in the Maryland area? What sort of crowd are you expecting with so many Penn State fans down there?
MARCUS ALLEN: I mean, I expect it to be a big one. Just for me to play my last game, the regular season, in my hometown, that's pretty awesome. That's fun. It's going to be, like, a backyard football game, you know, as far as me knowing a lot of guys that's on the team. We talk back and forth, talking our little stuff.

Playing against Maryland, guys that I know, is always fun. So I'm pretty sure the stadium's going to be, like, riled up. There's a lot of family members, friends that are going to be, like, coming and supporting me, and Penn State.

Q. What are some of the things you say back and forth that you can share with us?
MARCUS ALLEN: I mean, they going to win, we going to win. But we just talk a lot of stuff. It's just, like, I know Lo' Harrison personally, our family and his family hang together. Me, Mark, all talk stuff, especially Mark's family. They talk their stuff about Maryland, they talk their stuff about Penn State. It's funny, especially after the game, too.

Q. Not going to let that one go?
MARCUS ALLEN: No.

Q. Jonathan Sutherland, somebody said this morning he reminds you a little bit -- he reminds them of you. What has impressed you about him?
MARCUS ALLEN: Every time is a scrimmage, I always just get him hyped. I'll be, like, Here come the choo-choo train, choo-choo. He hit like a train. He's really physical. That's what I love about him. He's very, like, just consistent in tackling. He makes plays in the passing game. That's what impresses me the most. He's very mature for his age, as well. I'm pretty sure you're going to hear his name next year. I'm just excited for you guys to see him, see what he can do, because I already know, I already seen it.

Q. I've heard younger players talk about you as an ambassador in the Penn State locker room from your area. Being part of the lifeblood for this roster, how do you think that region has been vital?
MARCUS ALLEN: I mean, it feels cool, I guess. I'll just say being that ambassador, you say, it's a great feeling to have. A lot of people from that area, there's a lot of great talent in that area. You want to keep the tradition going as far as having that talent come to Penn State.

I mean, it just feels good to have people look at me like that, so...

Q. You're a guy who started as a true freshman, got early playing time. What is it like on the other side of the ball like Tommy? What have you seen from him in the past few months that has impressed you?
MARCUS ALLEN: Tommy is a team player. Just to see Tommy be patient, always interacting with guys, trying to help the team in any way possible, I commend him for that. I'm really thankful to have him as a teammate.

He is very intelligent. He knows the game in and out. Just to see him be patient, it makes me feel good. It just makes me just really look up to him in those lights.

Q. When you look at Maryland, all their issues at quarterback, what do you have to do to shut off their run game with all the quarterbacks?
MARCUS ALLEN: I'll say first we just got to start off with keeping watching more film of them, get a great idea of what they're going to have coming, have rolling for us. I would say just keep watching film. Then when we got practice today, just have the scout team try to implement how they're going to run against us, how they're going to pass against us.

I would just say all we got to do is play smash-mouth football, play our physical D. That will take care of itself. But as far as everything else, it's just going to happen as far as us playing our standard football on the defensive side.

Q. What is the challenge on Saturday of starting the game not having Troy for the first half?
MARCUS ALLEN: Man, that's a big one. That hurt me a little bit, just to see Troy not be able to play the first half of next game because, you know, he's a senior. He'd love to, like, play the full game for his last game. That's just going to make me go even harder for my boy. That's my roll dog right there. I'm going to play my heart out for him. That's all I can do.

Q. Explain the relationship between you and Troy.
MARCUS ALLEN: Our relationship, me and Troy, it's really cool, man. Like, we have two different backgrounds of, like, where we grew up from, how we were raised. Just our personality as far as being us, it's kind of similar, but you don't see his. Man, Troy is a goofy guy. Troy cracks jokes. He gets loose, too. He's a loose guy.

I get to see that side of Troy. We bond really close. Me just being around him for all these years, we grew our relationship as far as us being really close as brothers.

Q. What is the goofiest thing that he's done?
MARCUS ALLEN: It's a lot. I can't pick. I don't know. There's a lot of them.

Q. Coach Franklin mentioned the fact when your class got to campus, there was an expectation that a lot of you had to play right away. Right now there's more patience required from younger players. Have you seen some frustration?
MARCUS ALLEN: Repeat it again.

Q. Your class, great opportunity to get on the field early. These freshmen now, they're going to require more patience. How have you seen them handle that? Has there been frustration?
MARCUS ALLEN: I would say I really don't see that much of a difference, to be honest. Some freshmen do play, like Tariq, Lamont Wade, Yetur. Those guys play. As far as like my class, I know me, Jason, Grant, Chris on the defensive side, it's kind of like similar in my eyes a little bit. Then the guys that don't play, I'm pretty sure they feel like how Torrence felt. Torrence didn't get to play his freshman year. He redshirted.

You'd have to ask those guys as far as that. I don't know how they will feel, but I'm pretty sure the same way as Torrence felt. You going to hit your wall your freshman year. You're going to feel like, Man, I got to wait another year. Every freshman hits that wall. I'm pretty sure they hit it faster than the guys that are playing. I don't know.

Q. What has Torrence meant to you guys?
MARCUS ALLEN: Me and Torrence, our relationship, man, it started before we even stepped on campus. Me and Torrence and Chris, like, we used to hit each other up in group messages before we stepped on campus. Me and Chris are were going to be roommates. We will go to Torrence and Johnny's room in the dorms. Our relationship is like this, like, we really, really tight. Ever since then, me, Torrence, Chris, Johnny, that's our group. We used to always hang together. We were roommates as far as when we moved in the apartments and everything.

My relationship with Torrence, like, that's really my brother. I would really consider him as my brother. Although we don't have the same mother or father, it don't make no difference, that's my brother. We been through a lot. We got a lot of memories, lot of fun memories. We have so much conversations, so many conversations we had together when times were rough. Like when my grandmother died, I was right in his room. He saw when I broke down. When his grandmother passed, I was right there. It was so craze, like a coincidence. It's just like we have a bond as far as we can, like, relate to each other, so...

That group right there, those are my brothers, man.

Q. Early signing period is coming up. It was a different situation for you. Back in high school, do you think you would have liked to sign in December?
MARCUS ALLEN: I didn't even know they was signing in December. This is the first year they doing that?

Q. Yes.
MARCUS ALLEN: That's cool. I guess that would be cool, get it over with, focus on, like, getting ready for Penn State or whenever they choose to go. That would have been cool.

Can't take back what the memories I share of that day. That was a great time.

Q. Besides the big plays, championships, what moment in your career are you proudest of?
MARCUS ALLEN: Moment of the career?

Q. Sometime that you're proudest of.
MARCUS ALLEN: I would say just -- do it have to be during football? I would just say signing to Penn State, coming here to Penn State, living this dream of playing big-time football here at Penn State. You don't get no experience like this everywhere. The fans, the fans are crazy, you know. You don't get this type of environment at another school, you know.

Having a white-out, having 107 plus people there supporting you, being there every step of the way, that's big. Then you got a great education here. You're going to get a degree that is going to last a lifetime. That's big to me. I don't think you could get that anywhere else.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

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