Chase Allen, Iowa State tight ends take methodical approach to position

AMES - Chase Allen always has been interested in the mechanics of things.

As a kid, Iowa State's redshirt freshman tight end was methodical and captivated by taking things apart and reassembling them. Sometimes to the chagrin of his parents, Allen would disassemble things he maybe shouldn't have, but it fueled his curiosity.

Allen and his younger brother, Alex, found the most joy in tearing down and rebuilding remote control cars.

'We used to have remote control car battles,” Allen said. 'My brother and I would take apart several remote control cars to make the deadliest remote control car. That was a lot of fun.”

Those early days ended up leading Allen to become a mechanical engineering major at Iowa State. The way the 6-foot-7, 230-pound tight end approaches school and football isn't so different either. He's still that same methodical, curious kid.

'We can go through the script of the next day, go through the plays and work through everything,” Allen said. 'That's kind of something engineers do, we like to solve problems in a certain way.”

Outside of the quarterback, the tight ends have to be the most plugged-in players on any given offensive play. Those are the only two positions that know what every single player on offense is doing on every play. A room full of engineering majors leads to lots of analytical discussions.

'Sometimes we're too smart for our own good,” said senior Sam Harms. 'We overthink things too much, but it's a fun group to be around.”

The tight ends caught seven passes for 68 yards last season combined, but are poised for more production in Year 2 under Coach Matt Campbell. The Cyclones have three guys - Allen, redshirt freshman Dylan Soehner and freshman Charlie Kolar - who are at least 6-foot-6 and pass-catching threats.

'You think scoring zone is when (having taller, rangier guys) really, really comes to fruition,” said tight ends coach Alex Golesh. 'I think even just in the open field, the quarterback doesn't necessarily have to hit it right on the dime, he can give them a good ball that we can then go get.”

Harms and junior Sam Seonbuchner are the other cogs in the machine. At 6-foot-4 and 240 pounds, Harms fits into that pass-catching tight end mold while Seonbuchner (6-3, 232) will be primarily a blocker.

'Not to be negative, but it's great to finally have some tight ends in the program that we can develop and that we can really work to start to build what we want to do offensively,” Campbell said. 'Are we there yet and are those young guys there yet? Boy, you're talking redshirt freshmen that are just growing. They're puppies. We'll use them as they're able to help us as our football team continues to grow.”

Since Allen signed with Iowa State, expectations have been high. His father, Terry, was the head football coach at Northern Iowa, Kansas and Missouri State, and was an assistant at Iowa State from 2002-05. Allen picked Iowa State over Nebraska and Michigan.

An adverse fall last year, which forced him to redshirt, heightened expectations even more. Allen was in the hospital with an illness and was hit by a car all within the first month of fall camp. The silver lining in it all is Allen enters this season more 'relaxed.”

'I think it's probably a little too much hype for somebody that hasn't played yet,” Golesh said. 'It comes with recruiting and it comes with people in this state that care, which is awesome. You'd rather have it that way than the other way.

'I think he can handle it, I just think he's got to set realistic expectations and I've got to push him beyond those. To put a number on it or to say, ‘This is what we hope to get out of Chase,' I think is unfair to him.

'As the season goes and him and (quarterback) Jacob (Park) develop a relationship I think the ceiling is sky high. We've just got to develop him and it's one thing we take a lot of pride in our program is we're going to develop these guys. He's got to continue to develop physically. The mental side is there.”

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