‘I’ve got to start playing.’ Beau Allen’s transfer driven by urgency, father says

If his father is correct, quarterback Beau Allen’s unexpected decision last week to transfer from the Kentucky football program may have taken root during UK’s 31-17 drubbing at Mississippi State last Oct 30.

Before Mike Leach left the head coaching job at Washington State for the same position at MSU, he and his staff put a full-court recruiting press on Allen. So in Starkville last season, Allen was greeted by many of the support-staff members who had ardently wooed him for Washington State.

Once the game started, the Kentucky offense laid a dinosaur egg, with starting quarterback Will Levis throwing three interceptions.

“Obviously, we didn’t play very well, and Beau doesn’t get to see the field at all,” Bill Allen says. “I don’t know that that set really well with him, necessarily.”

On Tuesday, Tarleton State, a Football Championship Subdivision program in Stephenville, Texas, announced that Beau Allen had joined its team. Having waited to transfer until well after the May 1 cutoff for immediate eligibility at another FBS school in 2022, moving down a division was the clearest path Beau Allen had to playing immediately this fall.

According to Bill Allen, a mid-1980s-era UK QB himself, Beau Allen’s feeling that he needed to be playing in games to develop motivated the former Lexington Catholic High School star to take action. “He wants to play,” Bill Allen said. “He couldn’t just stand there anymore, in my opinion.”

One of the most-decorated quarterbacks produced in the commonwealth in the past decade, Allen chose UK over scholarship offers from Cincinnati, Duke, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Washington State and West Virginia, among others.

A four-star recruit by Rivals.com, Allen was seen as UK’s quarterback of the future when he signed with Kentucky in its recruiting class of 2020. However, UK head coach Mark Stoops fired Eddie Gran and Darin Hinshaw, the offensive brain trust that recruited Allen, after the 2020 season.

Stoops hired Liam Coen off the staff of the Los Angeles Rams to install a more pro-style offense in 2021. For a system that puts major emphasis on arm strength at the quarterback position, Coen brought in Penn State transfer Will Levis and installed him as UK’s starting QB.

Both decisions panned out, as Kentucky went 10-3 and upset No. 15 Iowa in the VRBO Citrus Bowl. Levis enters UK’s 2022 season considered a possible first-round choice in the 2023 NFL Draft.

At Lexington Catholic, Allen threw for 11,439 yards and 127 touchdowns as a four-year starter. A quick release, accuracy and a soft touch on his throws were seen as the strengths of the 6-foot-2, 207-pound Allen.

However, once UK switched to its pro-style attack, some questioned whether Allen had the arm strength to drive the ball down the field in the manner required by the system.

“I actually think Beau would have been all right in this system,” Bill Allen says.

What became an issue for Beau Allen, his father says, was another facet of what is perceived as the NFL philosophy for coaching quarterbacks. Both Coen, now back with the Rams, and new UK offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello, hired from the San Francisco 49ers, came to Lexington directly from the NFL.

“If I were Coach Stoops and Coach Coen and Coach Scangarello, I am not saying I would do any different than how they do things,” Bill Allen says. “But it appears, especially from the pro standpoint, the development and the number of reps from an 11-on-11 standpoint in practice is extremely limited for a backup quarterback.

“Obviously, in the pro game, the backup never really gets into the game unless the starter gets hurt — and nobody wants anybody to get hurt. But, just from a football standpoint, it made it challenging for (Beau Allen) to develop. I think he just felt like he’s got one shot at football and the main caveat is ‘I’ve got to start playing.’”

In the two full seasons he spent at UK, Beau Allen attempted only 19 passes in games, completing 11 for 132 career yards.

Tarleton State is located 105 miles from the Dallas/Fort Worth airport. It is the college alma mater of ex-UK football coach Hal Mumme. The current Tarleton State men’s basketball coach is former Wildcats head man Billy Gillispie. Tarleton State’s president, James Hurley, is an alumnus of and former president of the University of Pikeville.

In football, coach Todd Whitten’s Texans went 6-5 last season, including a 20-3 loss at Eastern Kentucky on Oct. 2. Former Western Kentucky Hilltoppers QB Steven Duncan was the starter for Tarleton State last year, completing 62.5 percent of his passes for 2,505 yards with 19 touchdowns vs. nine interceptions.

Listed as a junior in 2021, Duncan chose to give up his remaining eligibility. Beau Allen will be competing with Holy Cross transfer Marco Siderman and redshirt freshman Alex Thole to win the Tarleton State starting QB job.

Tarleton State scored 26.9 points a game in 2021 and averaged 239.9 passing yards and 415.5 total yards a contest. Bill Allen says the Texans offensive system is not an Air Raid but has some similarities to what Art Briles ran when head coach at Baylor.

The Texans will open their season Sept. 1 against Mississippi Valley State. Tarleton State will play TCU of the Big 12 on Sept. 10.

Should things go well for Beau Allen with Tarleton State this fall, he could conceivably transfer back to an FBS program for 2023 — with three seasons of college eligibility (thanks to the 2020 “free COVID-19 year) remaining.

“That could be the road, but I don’t think you can go into it thinking that,” Bill Allen said. “You just have to go in there and try to do what you can to help your team. You try to perform well and you get better. Then, whatever happens, happens.”

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