BY MIKE PRATER
@KTIK.COM
If you play the word association game, the word prodigy has a few close cousins: childhood phenom, young mastermind, genius, boy wonder, wonder girl.
So guess what? … The NFL Prodigy Whiz Kid is coming to Boise, and according to the so-called football experts, he’s all the above and a bag of cash.
AUDIO: CONTENT ORIGINALLY RECORDED FOR PRATER’S PERSPECTIVE, A WEEKLY BOISE STATE FOOTBALL SEGMENT ON 96.9 THE EAGLE (KKGL)
VIDEO: NFL NETWORK HEADS TO LARAMIE, WYOMING, TO VISIT JOSH ALLEN (PICTURED ABOVE)
Josh Allen, a quarterback for the Wyoming Cowboys, will be the marquee attraction when Boise State hits the blue turf Saturday night for its first home game in a month.
Allen is a world-class football player having a disastrous season, but in the next few months, despite struggling stats, he will become a multi-millionaire in the NFL.
Allen ended up in Wyoming after playing high school football in Firebaugh, California, a hiccup in Fresno County once made famous by the chorus of a Circle Jerks song. Allen got jerked around after a nice high school career, and didn’t receive a single offer to play college football.
Now, the 6-foot-5, 240-pounder is the No. 6 NFL prospect according to ESPN, and is projected to be a first-rounder in next year’s NFL Draft.
But as he heads to Boise, Allen is ranked behind 78 other quarterbacks in major-college football, with seven touchdowns, four interceptions and a whole bunch of mediocre numbers.
NFL Prodigy?
More like NFL Project.
The problem isn’t Allen, who seems like a perfectly nice human being who practically begged his way into college football. He did begin his college career at a junior college where one of the assistant coaches was married to his cousin, but that’s an entirely different story.
The real problem is the enormous amount of hype Allen received after last season, which included a victory over Boise State and a Mountain West Conference division title. Football magazines, TV shows, newspaper writers, website experts and NFL scouts have been promoting and predicting Allen to become one of the next big things in the NFL.
Right now, he’ll have a hard time beating Boise State, though that’s mostly on his teammates, who really aren’t that good. Boise State will beat Wyoming on Saturday, then let’s hope Allen goes off to a nice NFL career. He’s got the perfect size and rocket arm for professional football.
You just wouldn’t know it based on what he’s doing in college football.
I don’t know about you, but I like my prodigy’s to earn their respect ON the field … and not in the offseason.
Mike Prater, editor of The Opinionator, co-hosts Idaho Sports Talk with Caves & Prater weekdays from 3-6 p.m. on KTIK 93.1 FM The Ticket and can be heard on Bronco GameNights after BSU football games on KBOI 670 AM and KTIK 93.1 FM. He can be reached at [email protected], and found @CavesandPrater(Facebook) and @MikeFPrater (Twitter).
