INDIANAPOLIS — The message boards were rife with rumormongering last winter with the idea of the rich getting richer.
Wisconsin had undergone a coaching change with Paul Chryst being let go at midseason and interim coach Jim Leonhard being replaced by Luke Fickell. The rumored casualty was star running back Braelon Allen, who was set to enter his third season but might defect for a more stable program.
The buzz was Allen was good friends with fellow junior Donovan Edwards and the duo conspired to play together in Ann Arbor with Allan switching his Wisconsin helmet for a winged one. However, that’s the first mistake fans made: Allen barely knows Edwards.
“My relationship (with Edwards)? I don’t know him well,” Allen told Wolverines Wire. “We don’t know each other well. We don’t really talk too much.”
That might just be the smoke, but was there ever fire? Allen says that wasn’t the case.
“I was just confused by it because I wasn’t sure where that even sprouted up from, but I try not to pay too much mind to it,” Allen said. “It’s kind of annoying, just because we had played at Iowa. We lost and like, my whole postgame press conference was about these transfer rumors. And like, I don’t even know where you guys got this from. And we just lost like, I’m trying to get on the bus and go home.
“So it was weird. But obviously, I always wanted to be at Wisconsin. And I just had to make sure that when the season was over I had to make sure that it was going to be the right decision for me.”
Regardless, Allen is hoping that staying in Madison will help him excel, and while not playing against Michigan, that he can exceed the output of the Wolverines, Penn State, and Ohio State‘s rushing attack.
“Yeah, it’s a blessing (to be known as a top-tier back in the Big Ten),” Allen said. “It’s something that I tried for since day one. Obviously, playing in a program that’s had so many great running backs and won so many Doak Walker awards, offensive players of the year and Big Ten is what I was, what I’ve been working for since day one. Hopefully, I can continue that tradition.”
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