Behind the Scenes with Alabama Football's Mr. Invaluable: Jeff Allen

welcome in to a quick check-in with Alabama's sports medicine program this is Jeff Allen you know him you love him my name is Emily Grace McCord and we're going to talk about everything from pet peeves favorite practices and maybe coach Savin if we'll get there absolutely love to so not many athletic trainers are as beloved as you are we'll put it that way but you're also known as McKenna's dad that's right which is another great role to have that's right did you do your stretches this morning are you practicing what you're preaching I am definitely practicing what I preach and the older I the more I have to practice it because the older I get the harder it is for me to keep up with these young guys so I have to I have to make sure I get my mind right every day to get going so you've been here for quite a while wearing the script A we know you've had opportunities to go elsewhere there's been a very famous transition in the last couple of months what keeps you here uh the script day you said it it's a special place and um you know when we came here we came here my wife and I and my daughter she was 7 years old at the time I think been a long time 18 years we I came here for the job right but I think we've stayed because of the community and the city and the people in just this place we just have embraced it and it's become home and we know we had some other opportunities and some things come up but this is a really really hard place to leave and uh just felt like you know at a lot of those times I our daughter you know she was in Middle School or high school or wherever she was I'm like can't pull her out I can't do it and where are you going to go that's better than Alabama you know it's awesome when it comes to your beginning here at Alabama I've heard a story about a practice and some weather and some lightning yeah do you feel like you have become a better weatherman throughout the years coach sa definitely made me a better weather man there's no question I didn't really know that that was going to be part of my job description but I quickly learned that I was responsible for not only telling him the weather but I think he thought I could be responsible for controlling the weather you know um I love him um and and he wanted to us to be able to control and handle everything so that was one of my first introductions to uh to him and how he wanted things done I'll never forget we were in the indoor we were practicing there had a bad storm outside and it cleared up went away our lightning morning expired I said coach we can go outside if you want to cuz he was really itching to get on the field and he said yeah let's go out so the next period ends we go outside we transition outside and I tell you he was 5T out the door and I think a lightning bolt hit Coleman Coliseum and he turned to me and he said I hope you're a better trainer than you are a weatherman so but he kept sticking with me with the weather so I I don't see me taking James band's job anytime soon but um I have definitely gotten better at that what do you feel like you've learned the most under coach Sabin you know I think I mean God I don't know how long we got here I learned so much working for him so many valuable things that have made me better at what I do and not things about medicine per se at all obviously but things about habits and discipline the same things that you hear him preaching to the players that he used to preach to players the same thing he preached to us as a staff you know and being with him for you know 17 Seasons that got embedded into me so I'm incredibly grateful for my time with him and the and the valuable life lessons that that I watch from a guy that you know had incredible success but he had that success because of his discipline because of his habit when I say the words most resilient what player do you think of oh wow man again a laundry list of guys probably the guy that comes to my mind um and I'm going to leave a bunch of people out but this guy sticks in my head and will forever's Kenyan Drake so Kenyan as everybody that knows Alabama knows very well was injured his junior year that year he had a fractured ankle we were playing Old Miss on the road broke his ankle obviously had to have surgery missed the remainder of that season comes back the next year and is having a great season it's his last year fractures his arm on the road at Mississippi State breaks his arm the state of Mississippi was never good to Kenyon but breaks his arm and I'll never forget it's still to me God I don't know what year that was 14 or 15 but it sticks out of my head to this day we were walking off the field as I was taking him to get X race and we knew he had a fracture and I'm just trying to calm him down and and I'll never forget his words he looked at me and said my career in Alabama is not going to end like this and you know at that point I'm like you know I'm thinking it's late in the season right you got a broken arm I don't know if you're going to make it back but I didn't say that to him and you know we did everything we do Dr Kane and his team at Andrew Sports Medicine did everything that they do and probably one of the most special moments I don't know that I'll ever top it was that same year about eight weeks later he returns a kickoff in the national championship game against Clemson and if if you look at the pictures he's diving across the goal line holding the ball in the arm that he broke wow so that that moment just sticks out to me for a lot of reasons but that the term resilient definitely what players do you find yourself keeping up with the most that are currently in the in the NFL you know I try to keep up with all of them I mean not necessarily talking to them all the time but just watching them on TV and and it's so easy cuz every NFL game you turn on you're going to have an Alabama guy but I love that I love to turn the TV on and hear them talking about an Alabama player so you know I I watch those guys and just and just couldn't be happier for their success I think when you do what we do in college athletics and any sport any position you just you really are doing it to watch those athletes grow and have success and the great thing for me after being here for 17 seasons is I get a chance to look back and have relationships with those guys and still see them I love it when they come back to campus I think it's the I tell people all the time it's the best compliment any program can have is for their former players to come back and we see it all the time our guys that are in the NFL constantly show up here in the off season to to rehab to train with Coach Belo to just to be around the program and I tell recruits and I meet with them I said you know every place you go they're going to mention the word family but if you want to see what a familyes like you know if you're family you go home and I don't think there's a place in the country where the former players blck back to like they do here yeah you mentioned those 17 Seasons from an athletic training standpoint what has been the biggest change you've seen for the better from when you started until now and what is something that you kind of shake your head out I can't believe we were doing that well that the Shake in the head part is a lot of different things and I've been here for 17 years but when I think back on my career this is actually my 36th season of college football a lot of Seasons lot of lot a lot of wins a lot of losses fortunately here a lot more wins and losses EXA but um you know prior to being here there were a lot of years before and so it's it it just strikes me I don't feel old but I guess I'm getting old but 36 years of it and I think okay how we manage certain injuries now is just light years different than how we managed them you know 15 certainly 20 years ago but even the last 5 to 10 years just the the advancements and um I I I think to this is no secret but concussions is a huge one and that we've gotten so much better at how we manage and so much more knowledge about how to return players safely from those than what it used to be so that's something that I think people will see in know five or 10 years hopefully we're not going to have some of the issues that that we've seen from how players were managed 20 to 30 years ago when you look at this current roster who on the team do you think enjoys treatment and Recovery the most I tell you it's easy um Justice Haynes is like he is so in tune with taking care of himself I was messing with him the other day I said I'm going to give you a key to this room okay you're practically on my staff you know but he's not a guy that's coming in here to try to get out of anything he's a guy that's coming in here to try to get better and that's another thing if you ask what's changed over the years I think players understanding the value of taking care of their bodies in terms of how they practice recovery habits how they sleep how they eat certainly in our dining hall with our nutrition staff but I think that right there is huge but Justice he is on it okay he beats me here without a doubt so in your 36 37 years of this industry I'm curious what is your favorite venue to go to to play game at other than Briant Denny wow that's a great question um a lot of them over the years and certainly in the SEC just about I love going every road game is fun it's incredibly challenging it's a lot of fun probably for me though and um is Tennessee I I just I love that rivalry I have grown up loving that rivalry but I loved it from the other side which is probably a little bit shocking to people my dad uh was born and raised in Tennessee so my dad was a Tennessee fan and by default kind of got me in you know when I was a younger in high school and whatnot kind of got out of it when I went to college but uh certainly grew up going to Knoxville with him to ball games and then now to be on this side of it um but I love going there it's a it's a really unique place it's an incredibly hard place to play didn't have a whole lot of fun the last time we were there but the other years we had a great time so hopefully we can get that switched around before I let you go I'm curious what is your favorite thing to hear as an athletic trainer you know my favorite thing to hear as an athletic trainer is a player saying thank you you know uh that means the world to me you know and uh and just I had it today we were out there today at practice and it was hot today it was incredibly hot and these guys have been working their tail off and I had a guy come up you know coach theor is great at the end of practice he he has the guy all kind of Shake It Out he says or you know together and everybody talking to each other right at the end of practice which has really been neat to watch their camaraderie but I had a player come up to me today and goes man I just want to thank you I wouldn't have made it without y'all today I'm like wow you know so things like that u mean a lot to me and um especially I think at the end of the year when like you know when you're it's the last game and and honestly whether You've Won or whether you've lost I've had some really special moments with guys in locker rooms even after a tough loss at the at the end of the year year with guys really expressing theel so that means the world yeah okay now my real last question between Kayla deor taking a spill in the facility and coach wck in full sweatsuits what coach do you keep your eye on the most to practice I had no idea coach dorfel I heard I read it in the media you I'm like gosh I should have helped you out um who do I watch the most at practice right I I keep my eye on Kane now okay with that wearing that sweatsuit out there every day in 95 100° weather what are you doing my boy you know but uh everybody has their habits when they go on that field and that's his habit that's his routine and I love it Jeff thank you so much for sitting down we're excited for this season at Alabama thank you Emily roll time