Hawkeyes offer DE Brian Allen Jr.

After making an official visit to Iowa, defensive end Brian Allen Jr. has a new scholarship offer from the Hawkeyes. For the 6-foot-4, 243-pound Allen, the offer from Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz did not come as a surprise, but was still welcome news to his ears.

"It was a great feeling honestly," said Allen. "Even though I already knew what was going to happen, when he said it, it was still huge for me. Getting an offer from Iowa with them having such a great football program and having the classes for my major and the resources I need, it's huge."

Academics played a key role in Allen's official visit this weekend as the Chicagoland native had a chance to learn more about Iowa's sports broadcasting program.

"I would say one of the biggest highlights for me was the academic breakfast that we had on Saturday morning," Allen said. "I want to go into sports broadcasting, so they brought in one of the teachers for that specific program. He's a guy that's done sports broadcasting for a long time and has called baseball games and all that stuff and teaches at Iowa now. Hearing from him was great and then also hearing about the resources they have like former Iowa football players that do exactly what I want to do, which is work for ESPN and the Big Ten Network as a sports broadcaster."

Allen's host for the weekend was defensive end Deontae Craig and he also spent time with linebacker Jay Higgins as he learned more about life outside of football at Iowa.

"They were cool guys," said Allen. "I asked a lot of questions and got them all answered, which was good especially when you're away from the coaches and all that so you can ask the real questions about what goes on and how their daily life is with school and football. They were really open with me and we had a lot of fun."

Allen, who attends prep school at St. Thomas More in Connecticut, is now looking over a list of nearly 20 scholarship offers including Iowa, Illinois, Virginia Tech, Purdue, Kansas, and Iowa State, as he looks to decide his next move in the recruiting process coming off the Iowa visit this weekend.

"There's a lot to think about," Allen said. "This really does have me thinking."

"I think I'm still going to end up making my decision in the fall, but I will be announcing my top three or top five here real soon. I've still got to think about it though and talk to my family and pray on this. My decision could be made earlier or later, either the summer or the fall, but I'll definitely be narrowing it down soon."