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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 8, 2016

Marcus Allen

University Park, Pennsylvania

Q. James Franklin was in here telling us about how you guys are trying to focused on trying to stop the shot plays against Indiana. How would you assess what you've seen on film versus what you think you have to do to try to slow that offense down?
MARCUS ALLEN: We've seen that they are a nice, fast-paced team. They like to shoot their shot down the field. The quarterback is a nice, precise thrower. It's going to be a good test for the secondary. See if we can like shut that down.

Q. Do you guys like thrive on that?
MARCUS ALLEN: I love that. I mean, as far as a quarterback that likes to like give us chances like to break on the ball and like make more, you know, impact plays in the passing game. So that's a great feeling to have. Last game we played against Iowa, it was more like more running. But this is a great week to play against a throwing quarterback.

Q. How much fun are you having this season, and is it easier to improve as a team on defense when the fun factor is maybe as high as it's been here?
MARCUS ALLEN: That's a part of the game for me. As long as I'm having fun, that's going to have a big impact on the team, also. When everybody is having fun and everything's energetic, it brings more excitement to the game. I think that's why everybody came to Penn State to play football. It's just to have fun and win big games.

Q. Speaking of having fun, that mannequin challenge video went viral. Whose idea was that and did you expect it to be shared as much as it has been the last couple days?
MARCUS ALLEN: Yeah, I expected it to blow up like how it did because anything we post up, I believe it's going to blow up. But the idea, I believe Antoine White, he said he wanted to do it, like when we got in there and we just did it. So it was pretty fun.

Q. Do you feel like the chemistry in that locker room is getting better each and every week with each and every win or has it been pretty consistent?
MARCUS ALLEN: To be honest I think it's always been consistent. Like since camp, everybody has been like real close with each other and like bringing a lot of excitement to the game of football and like just competing.

So like from camp as far as the competing vibes it was like crazy, extraordinary, like that I have ever been a part of. I knew it was going to be like this.

Q. Who are cure locker mates in the locker rooms? Who is on your left and right? We heard it's a little mixed up.
MARCUS ALLEN: It's mixed up, definitely. You've got Evan Schwan to my left, and you've got Brendan Mahon to my right. So like as far as left and right. And then way down there, you've got Saquon and Chris Godwin. But it's definitely mixed up.

Q. Do you think Saquon is a legit Heisman contender?
MARCUS ALLEN: Of course. Hey, that's that. You don't got to ask me that. You know I'm going to say he is. I don't know why people ain't talking about him. Everybody should know that he's a Heisman contender.

Q. I'm just curious if any of you guys watched the College Football Playoff rankings, how much you pay attention to that, and if it would mean any -- I know we seem to be asking every week but if it makes it any more special if you guys would be ranked within the Top-10.
MARCUS ALLEN: We love all the talk about being ranked and everything, like that's something special to us, but like it's like we're so focused on like the next game that it's like we don't really like have our mind wrapped around it that much.

So I can't even be like going to my phone or anything and like talk about, oh, we this, we that. This is more, I go on my phone and go look at film and look at Indiana and stuff. Like yesterday, that's all I was doing, looking at Indiana. It's a nice thing to have, though, have that number by our name.

Q. LaVar Arrington tends to give you a lot of love on Twitter. How long have you known him and what impact has he had on you as a player and a person?
MARCUS ALLEN: I look at him like as a mentor. He gives me a lot of wisdom and like things to go by throughout my career and life as far as like on and off the football field. I look at him as like an older brother to be honest but that's the role that he plays in my life.

Q. So people describe you as an interesting guy, and I've also heard Evan Schwan described as an interesting guy. How would you talk about Evan, his personality, having a locker next to him?
MARCUS ALLEN: Evan is just Evan. He's like, he has his own personality just like I do. I mean, he can be a character at times and he can be serious at times so. That's like, it's no telling what he going to do.

But as far as like me and him being next to each other, we both like, you know, have those two vibes like colliding with each other. So it would be like funny. Everybody be laughing when we be talking and stuff in the locker room.

Q. What are those two vibes?
MARCUS ALLEN: It just different vibes. Like I got my own type of personality and he has his own type of personality and it's like with both of them are mixed, it's going to be like a funny environment.

Q. James was telling us that the seniors do the team shares; do you remember anything about Paris Palmer's, or maybe one person that their story stuck with you or something about them that you learned?
MARCUS ALLEN: Somebody's story that stuck with me, to be honest, like Jordan Smith, although I knew his story before he said it, some things that he said made me like wonder like, wow, I never knew about that about Jordan but like for him to tell me and the team about like his whole life like that, that really made me feel like good, that he felt good to tell us that.

Q. Coming out of right field on this one. Kris is getting a little nervous. James told us that you guys do media training. What do you remember about doing that and what was that process like so you could get comfortable dealing with us?
MARCUS ALLEN: Just answer the questions right. Like just answering them honestly, that's it.

Q. You're a pretty honest guy it seems like. Do they put cameras in your face?
MARCUS ALLEN: Yeah, we be in a room with 150 cameras, and they press us out -- I'm playing. (Laughter). It's way more than this. It's like 107K in there (Laughter). It's just simple, simple training to be honest.

Q. Come easy to you?
MARCUS ALLEN: Feels good. Like when we're doing the training and everything, feels good.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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