4-star S Bryan Allen Jr. signs with Texas

After spending the previous several months serving as one of the more vocal recruiters in the class, Aledo safety Bryan Allen Jr. is officially a member of the Texas Longhorns after signing his National Letter of Intent on Wednesday during the early signing period.

A long-time Longhorns pledge, Allen was one of the earliest additions to head coach Steve Sarkisian’s 2022 class.

A one-time LSU commit, Allen’s second recruitment hardly lasted more than a month. After reopening his recruitment on Jan. 21, Allen fairly quickly joined Sark’s 2022 class on Feb. 28, choosing the Horns over a top group that also included Oklahoma, Jacksonville State, Texas A&M, Auburn, USC, and Ohio State.

In doing so, Allen provided Texas with the No. 109 player nationally and the No. 10 safety, per the 247Sports Composite.

BON’s Daniel Seahorn detailed what Texas is getting in Allen.

Allen is not a guy that is going to blow you away on the hoof with physical measurables, but he still has solid size at roughly 6’0, 185 pounds. Allen has a lean, athletic build that will allow him to continue to fill out over time once he hits a college nutrition plan. It should not be a problem for him to get up to around 200 pounds in time. Allen checks a lot of evaluation boxes for me. He is a multi-year starter for perennial powerhouse Aledo and has produced at a high level during his time as a starter. In 2019, he accumulated 122 total tackles, forced 3 fumbles, recovered 2 fumbles, and recorded 3 interceptions on his way to being named his district’s Defensive Newcomer of the Year. As an encore in 2020 he was named Class 5A’s Defensive Player of the Year on the way to helping Aledo secure yet another state championship. He is a decorated player both on and off the field and he still has one more year to add to his resume before hitting a college campus.

On tape Allen is a player that looks comfortable playing center field on the back end of the defense. Allen shows the ability to punish mistakes and overthrows and displays good speed and range to make plays at all three levels. Allen shows he can get downhill in a hurry in run pursuit and has the ability to erase plays coming from the safety spot. He also shows he can be a sure tackler and will wrap up ball carriers and get them to the ground. Allen has good ball production and shows considerable ability to force turnovers. Allen pitches in on special teams both as a returner, as well as running down to cover kickoffs. While I do not see Allen’s return ability translating to the collegiate level, I can see his willingness to run down and cover kicks as a plus. If I had to nitpick about his tape, I would like to see more of him in man coverage and he has some clips where he arrives and contacts receivers early before the ball gets there. Again, that is me nitpicking.

Overall, Allen is a really nice player who projects as a starter down the road who has special teams value that could help him get on the field early in his career.

Allen will arrive in Austin as an early enrollee in the coming weeks with a fairly unique opportunity.

At this stage, Texas is replacing each of its starting safeties in Brenden Schooler and BJ Foster, and attrition elsewhere in the secondary has paved the way for early playing time if Allen can make an impact on a shallow depth chart. So, it would be a bit premature to expect him to become a year one starter even though there will be two new starters out there, but given the significant need for depth in the secondary, Allen is a guy who should get some opportunities in 2022.