By Chad Konecky, Special to SI.com, from RISE
It's game day and the weight room at Hialeah-Miami Lakes is dark and empty, just the way senior running back Armando Allen likes it. With his back pressed against the wall, Allen sits alone with his eyes closed and his football gear laid neatly beside him. The door is locked. The lights are off.
This is the place where first downs and touchdowns are born.
"That's my routine before every game," says the 5-foot-9, 192-pound Allen, who is rated the nation's No. 7 running back and No. 42 overall recruit in the Class of 2007 by RISE. "I visualize the plays the coaches are going to call. I visualize every move I'm going to make. Every result. A TD here. A first down there. When the game starts, everything is already in motion for me. It's kind of like starting the game before it starts."
Considering Allen's blazing 4.31 speed in the 40-yard dash, it does often appear like he's been given a head start against defenders. But whatever is happening in that weight room before the opening kickoff, it's working.
Allen, who was the offensive MVP of the U.S. Army All-American Bowl National Combine in January 2006, is a versatile, game-changing ball carrier with a knack for making people miss.
As a junior, he rushed for 1,095 yards and 12 touchdowns, earning Miami Herald All-Dade first team honors and leading the Trojans to a runner-up finish in District 13-6A. He also rushed for over 1,000 yards as a sophomore and might well have done the same as a freshman if a broken wrist hadn't sidelined him for half the season (more on that later).
"His ability to see the entire field is remarkable," says Hialeah-Miami Lakes assistant coach Pete Basnueva, now in his fourth year with the program. "I've never seen a kid with the peripheral vision that he has. We have video footage of him stiff-arming a kid who's coming from behind him. His field presence -- to be able to feel pressure like that -- well, his speed and skills are obvious, but that kind of field awareness is unique."
