Gator Country

The internet message boards may give the average college football fan a voice but without accountability, they can be the source of all too many rumors, particularly when it comes to recruiting. Armando Allen fell victim to one juicy rumor Monday but he quickly let it be known this one had no legs.

A message board posting for one of Florida’s power programs said the four-star running back from Hialeah Miami-Lakes had committed to Florida State over the weekend, but Allen laughed that one off. Allen, who was injured in a game two weeks ago and will be out for most of the season, had actually considered going to see Florida State take on Miami at the Orange Bowl Monday night, but he decided against it.

“I haven’t heard that one yet,” Allen said laughing about the supposed commitment. “I was going to go see (the game) but I am going to stay home and watch it.”

Watching the Seminoles on television is about as close as he will come to a commitment to FSU, at least at this moment. Right now, the Seminoles aren’t even in his top five teams.

“I like the teams that are recruiting me hard,” he said. “I would say Florida, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, and Georgia. Really all of them are kind f the same. They all have good coaching and really down to earth. They keep it real.”

Since he’s out with a broken leg, Allen is concentrating on recruiting. One of the things he’s planning is to watch plenty of games of his five favorites on television, checking out the offenses to see where he might fit in.

“Basically I am doing my homework and watching college football every Saturday and seeing which offense is a fit for me,” he said. “I want a team that gets the running back the ball in many different ways. Whether it is running the ball or getting them in the slot and passing it. I want to see if they utilize the running back skills as much as possible.”

This past weekend he was able to catch four of his favorites.

“Notre Dame and Georgia Tech was a good game, but I can’t say much about it.” Allen said. “I didn’t have time to watch Tennessee. Georgia was all right. They did a lot of things with the running backs so I guess that was okay. The Florida offense was pretty open. I see a lot of things that can happen in that offense. Actually we have a very similar offense.”

Thursday Allen will see the doctor and if all has gone well in the healing process, he hopes he’ll have the leg in a boot. Instead of dodging tacklers, he’s doing his recruiting homework and dodging an internet rumor or two. So goes the life of a big time football recruit.

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