Player Spotlight: Allen Robinson

Story posted October 11, 2013 in CommRadio, Sports by Chad Carey

Allen Robinson is an opposing coach’s nightmare, and everyone knows it. Opposing players and even fans know it. Even Bill O'Brien has called him Penn State's best offensive player, and rightfully so.

The 6'3 210 pound, dynamic junior wide receiver has recorded 38 catches for 621 and five touchdowns this season. He is currently tied for seventh in yards among all players in college football and tied for seventh in receiving touchdowns as well.

He hasn't let the hype of being the Big Ten receiver of the year last season affect his season so far, in fact he leads the Big Ten in all receiving categories.

The Michigan native, who was a high school teammate of former Penn State quarterback, and current LSU quarterback Rob Bolden, wasn’t highly recruited out of high school. In fact some recruiting services only ranked him as a two-star recruit.

Minnesota was the only other Big Ten School to offer a scholarship to Robinson.

With that being said Robinson has deep ties in the state of Michigan, his teammate and best friend at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Prep, is currently a starting linebacker for the Wolverines.

However even with Robinson being from Michigan, neither Michigan nor Michigan State recruited him.

"They didn’t have much interest in me,” he said earlier this year.

This is the first time in Robinson’s career that he has gotten the chance to play against either Michigan or Michigan State, so it should be interesting to see how he plays. We will find out Saturday at 5 p.m. under the lights at Beaver Stadium, whether he will play with extra motivation or not.

Either way Robinson will come to play like usual. It’s rare anymore for Robinson to be held under 80 yards, which has only happened six times over the past two seasons. In fact, in the two games last season in which he was held under 80 yards, he recorded a touchdown. So even when the yardage isn’t there, Robinson remains a red zone threat.

Robinson is a huge threat near the goal line. He has fantastic leaping ability and when being covered one-on-one near the goal line, freshman quarterback Christan Hackenberg, often throws a jump ball for Robinson.

If you don’t believe that Robinson has elite leaping ability, just look up his high school basketball highlights. They're extremely impressive, and Robinson could have easily played basketball at a competitive level.

Even though all of the Michigan defense will focus heavily on stopping Robinson, the only thing they may be able to do effectively is slow him down.

Robinson will look to build steam in his race to win the coveted Fred Biletnikoff Award, which is given out every year to honor the best wide receiver in college football. Penn State has never had a Biletnikoff Award Winner, but Bobby Engram was a finalist in 1995, and rest assure that if Robinson continues to put up the numbers he has been, he will definitely be in consideration for the distinguished honor.

Chad Carey is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email cmc5913@psu.edu.