MOBILE, Alabama — Christian Campbell and Marcus Allen didn’t stick around for the Senior Bowl here on Saturday.
They took a rain check, of sorts.
Both figuratively…the pair of former Nittany Lion defensive backs will resurface next month in Indy for the NFL Combine.
And literally…the showers at Ladd-Peebles Stadium got heavier and heavier as the game wore on. (Mobile, one official greeter said, is the rainiest place in America.)
But the duo did spend most of the past week here, practicing for the all-star football game alongside former Penn State teammates Mike Gesicki and DaeSean Hamilton.
Gesicki and Hamilton stayed and played.
Gesicki played over half the snaps for the North team, making three catches for 39 yards (of 5, 22 and 12 yards), while Hamilton caught one pass for 5 yards, plus he drew a defensive holding penalty on another. Gesicki caught one pass from Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen, as did Hamilton, and his other two receptions came at the hand of Nebraska’s Tanner Lee. Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield, who played only the first two series, threw just one in either player’s direction, and that was to Gesicki. The pass fell incomplete.
Gesicki split his time lining up at H-back and at the conventional tight end spot, and did a fair amount of very good blocking. Hamilton lined up in both the slot and split wide, but was usually targeted 15 yards and in.
(We’ll have much more about and from Gesicki and Hamilton in the coming days, having had the opportunity to talk with both at length in Mobile.)
The South squad, which was coached by former Penn State head coach Bill O’Brien, now the Houston Texans’ head coach, won 45-16. The North squad — Penn State’s team — was coached by Denver Broncos head coach Vance Joseph and his staff.
GOING MOBILE
That Campbell and Allen beat it out of town early is not as odd as you think. Nor did it hurt their NFL draft chances all that much either.
Both had small twinges that they didn’t want to turn into full-blown injuries a month out from next month’s NFL Combine in Indianapolis. In the Tweeted words of Campbell, there were ‘risk issues.’ With his back, where he was feeling some soreness, he said on Friday. Allen opted for a simple ‘pass’ on Friday when asked about his health.
More than 1,200 NFL scouts, coaches, team executives, media types, draftnicks and even owners flooded this delta town last week — but not in anticipation of the game itself.
They came instead for what precedes the contest. There were interviews with players, open practices (televised by the NFL Network), medical tests and numerous chances to see future draft picks interact at events with the public and in meetings with the pros. ‘Player interviews and medical exams,’ said one Senior Bowl official, ‘are the top two reasons NFL people come here.’
Then, the brass left.
Walking through the Mobile airport Thursday afternoon, minutes after arriving, we saw Reggie McKenzie, the general manager of the Oakland Raiders, waiting in line to get on the plane we just got off.
Louis Riddick, the brilliant analyst for ESPN, was on his cell, headed to his gate and a plane ride home.
Gary Kubiak, the former head coach of the Houston Texans and the Denver Broncos (who is a now an advisor to his old Broncos’ teammate, John Elway), was sitting at an airport cafe, with a colleague and a few tall empties.
They all had seen what — or who, actually — they had come to see.
And that included Campbell and Allen.
CHRISTIAN CAMPBELL
The past week was like a dream come true for Campbell, who grew in Phenix City, Alabama, just two hours from Mobile. He’d watch the game on television every year and promised himself that one day he’d earn an invitation.
“I used to watch these games and these practices all the time,’ he recalled at bowl headquarters in downtown Mobile on Friday. ‘That was my goal — to make it to the Senior Bowl. I’m just very thankful being here.’
Campbell, who broke up seven passes and had an interception during a week of practices in the run-up to the Senior Bowl, was named the week’s top defensive back by Pro Football Focus.
“It was tunnel vision this week with no distractions,’ he said. ‘I think I did excellent. My goal was to get better each day and every day. I feel like I achieved that goal.’
The recognition by PFF ‘means a lot,’ he added. ‘It shows you’re working hard. I’ve achieved my goals. I set goals before I do a task and I achieved that task. It’s very honorable to be in that category and I feel very humbled just being here. I’m just blessed.”
Here is the scouting report Campbell, listed at 6-foot-1 and 194 pounds, got from the Denver coaches he worked with and the scouts from various NFL teams with whom he met:
“They liked my physicality and my man coverage. I’m somebody who can press at the line and just play off. I’m somebody that’s a tall corner who can move his feet and move his hips and be all over the field and on special teams. Those are my biggest strengths as a physical cornerback.”
MARCUS ALLEN
Allen is built from a different mold than the much quieter Campbell, in more ways than one. A safety at Penn State, he is 6-2 and a sturdy 207 pounds. There had been some talk during the week that Allen may be shifted to linebacker in the NFL, but he said on Friday that’s been overblown.
‘I’ve heard that maybe, once, out of all the teams,’ Allen said. ‘So it really wasn’t a thing or a topic. But wherever they want to put me, I’ll go.’
Allen did say that he was asked about which part of his game needs improvement, and he offered his ability to create turnovers. Despite making 46 starts over four seasons at Penn State, Allen had just one interception in his Penn State career — against Georgia State in 2017. He did force five fumbles as a Nittany Lion, and that was that huge blocked field goal attempt against Ohio State, but Allen said that he needs to do better at the next level.
‘I want to produce more turnovers,’ Allen said. ‘That’s something I want to create in my game. The game of football is all about the football. The more you can get your hands on the football, the better. That’s one thing I need to add to my game.’
Allen, a bruising tackler who had a career-high 22 against Minnesota in 2016, finished as Penn State’s No. 5 all-time tackler. So it is understandable that some pro teams think of him as more than a safety.
Allen likes to liken himself to Kam Chancellor, a big-hitting safety for the Seattle Seahawks. Chancellor is 6-3 and 225, with 12 career interceptions and 11 forced fumbles in eight NFL seasons.
‘I try to model myself after Kam Chancellor,’ Allen said on Friday. ‘As a big safety, he has to constantly show he is able to flip his hips as well as a corner, but that he also belongs as a safety. I’m inspired by that and I have to do that as well. People may see me as an outside linebacker, so I have to constantly prove that I’m not just a big, stiff safety and that I can really move.’
So who told Allen what he needs to do at safety?
Kam Chancellor himself.
‘I’ve talked to Kam Chancellor, and he said that’s something that you have to constantly keep improving,’ Allen said. ‘He said that us being so big, it’s going to be our downfall. People will always want to criticize that. I need to keep working on that and improve my backpedaling and opening up my hopes, because that’s what the next level is going to harp on.’
