clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Bearcat Freshman Profile: Hakeem Allonce

Hakeem Allonce is a newcomer to Football having spent all of his high school days playing basketball. He is an extremely promising prospect, but he is extraordinarily raw. He is a classic low risk, high reward kind of player for the Bearcats

Diego Barajas

The Essentials

  • School: Pierce College
  • Position: Defensive Tackle
  • Height: 6'6"
  • Weight: 290
  • Consensus Rank*: 84 (***)

* As determined by 24/7 sports composite algorithm which combines and weights the rankings of 24/7, Rivals, Scout and ESPN to come up with one number

Everyone had high hopes for Allonce coming into this season, but those hopes seem to be destined to not be fulfilled, at least not this season. When you watch the tape you see all the things that gave the Bearcat fans hope about the defensive tackle position. Allonce is an enormous human being. It's one thing to read 6'6" 290, its another thing to see the way he moves at that size. The few times the camera drops to field level the "oh my god" just sort of slips out.

The problem is that Allonce is rawer than raw. He is able to make plays at the JUCO level without having good technique because he is such a freak of an athlete and the competition is so much lower than it is at UC. But technique is what separates the good from the great at this level. For Allonce the two biggest things that he has struggled with are hand placement and pad level, and until he fixes those technique issues he is going to have a hard time getting on the field.

Which is why we might see the Bearcats do that highly unusual and red shirt Allonce this year. That almost never happens with JUCO's but Allonce has a ways to go before he can be a reliable contributor. The rest of the defensive tackles have been better than expected this camp, and that gives the coaches this flexibility. It makes a lot of sense to do it if it can be done.