Braelon Allen Could Thrive in Wisconsin's Air Raid Offense
In what could be his final season with the Wisconsin Badgers, Braelon Allen could thrive in Phil Longo's air raid offense.
(📸: Courtesy of UW Athletics)
As if Luke Fickell becoming the head coach of the Wisconsin football program wasn't shocking enough, he wasted little time retaining core players like Braelon Allen and making a transformative hire of his own.
Coach Fickell convinced Mike Leach disciple Phil Longo, who led four consecutive top-15 offenses (nationally) as the offensive coordinator at North Carolina, to leave Chapel Hill and take the same position at the University of Wisconsin.
With him, coach Longo brings a modified air-raid offense - which probably gave some of the older generations a heart attack at the mere utterance of the sentence. That said, he's done a terrific job adapting the offense to his personnel and accentuating the strengths of his team's best players - because why wouldn't you?
Need proof? The Tar Heels' best offensive season under Longo (more than 41 PPG) came in 2020 when he featured RBs Michael Carter and Javonte Williams, who ran for 1,245 yards and 1,140 yards, respectively.
So, UW traditionalists can relax; because the Badgers won't be throwing the ball 50+ times a game. How do I know this? Because the program has one of the nation's top running back tandems in Braelon Allen and Chez Mellusi.
What does this mean for Braelon Allen?
One of the top priorities for Luke Fickell upon taking over the Wisconsin football program was re-recruiting second-team All-Big Ten running back Braelon Allen to stay with the Badgers.
The 6-foot-2, 238-pound RB finished the 2022 season with 230 carries for 1,242 yards (5.4 YPC) and 11 touchdowns. He also caught a career-high 13 passes for 104 yards.
According to Pro Football Focus, the Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin native registered 671 yards after contact, 2.92 yards after contact per attempt, and was the highest-graded starting offensive player for the Badgers (79.6).
Although Allen is a tremendous talent, UW's inept offensive approach forced him to see a stacked box more than any Power 5 team in the country.
When asked by UW reporters what excited him most about Phil Longo's offense, Allen's answer was unsurprising.
"Probably running into six-man boxes and not just knowing every week it's going to be eight or nine guys in the box on every single play. Playing in an offense that is more spread out, it just automatically is going to loosen up defenses."