CHICK-FIL-A PEACH BOWL: OLE MISS VS PENN STATE

December 27, 2023

Kaytron Allen

Mercedes-Benz Stadium

Penn State Nittany Lions

Quick Quotes

KAYTRON ALLEN: Keep pushing myself every day. Obviously you're not always going to have good days. You can have bad days. You've just got to stay down, stay poised. Just try to get better each and every day for myself. I don't know, just be great. Just trying to be great and stay down and keep going and keep grinding.

Q. Do you know how you can be greater or better already for next year? Do you know what that's about?

KAYTRON ALLEN: Not yet. Like I said, trying to get through this bowl game. Then I can see what I can work on with the things I can do better.

Q. What do you feel like you do best as a running back?

KAYTRON ALLEN: The way I just play the game. Just you could tell -- you can tell I love playing football. It isn't just about me. It's about my family and my brothers, playing for them, playing my all for the last game.

Q. When you're going as good as you can, what does that look like?

KAYTRON ALLEN: I don't think I've hit my best peak yet, so I don't know yet.

Q. What do you think you've proved to yourself this year?

KAYTRON ALLEN: Just I don't know. Like I said, just stand down through the goods and bad. Just trying to stay level headed and just trying to keep going for real.

Q. Is that sometimes difficult to do when you have to catch in stride when you're splitting snaps with someone else? How is that?

KAYTRON ALLEN: It could be, but at the same time, it's good because you get to learn off each other. You get to support each other, you feel me. It is not just about what you see. It's about what he's seeing too. So just helping each other.

Q. Is there anything you've learned in particular from Nick this year?

KAYTRON ALLEN: Yeah. I'd say the battle is for real, you feel me? Everybody has their different battles that they're going through, you feel me? Everybody's just playing. I don't know. We're just playing football.

Q. What kind of battles?

KAYTRON ALLEN: It's like the expectation that people have. You can't just worry about what they got. You've just got to, like I said, stay level headed and do what you do best and just keep playing ball.

Q. What were the expectations?

KAYTRON ALLEN: Just -- I don't know.

Q. Did Coach Seider ever talk to you about those?

KAYTRON ALLEN: Yeah, he's always got expectations for us. Just playing the game the way it's supposed to be played as a running back and just keep going.

Q. What did you and Nick talk about regarding expectations? People placing them on you, not yours, not yourself, but stuff that people tell you. You've got to run this many yards? You've got to get this many touchdowns?

KAYTRON ALLEN: I don't really worry about it. We just try to control what we can control. All of that doesn't matter. It's just about you can do and what you want to do. That's all that matters.

Q. Is that what you mean by expectations?

KAYTRON ALLEN: Yes.

Q. Ja'Juan told us, you guys are roommates, you and Nick?

KAYTRON ALLEN: Yeah.

Q. What is it like living with him; good roommate, bad roommate?

A. He's my dawg, you know what I mean? Good roommate.

Q. You guys always live together?

KAYTRON ALLEN: When I first got here, my roommate was Zane in the dorms. But like at the end of the year, we were roommates. Then we moved off campus, and we became roommates off campus. It's just the bond and relationship, keep getting closer and closer.

Q. Any players stand out?

KAYTRON ALLEN: Yeah, Olu, Theo, all of them are leaders for real.

Q. Do you feel like next year as a leader, do you think you'll ever be that vocal guy?

KAYTRON ALLEN: No, that's not me. I just try to stay what I am. I just love playing football. Of course I say like something in the running back room, I'll say something a little bit, just trying to help everybody get better. But I'm not really a vocal leader for real.

Q. So you're never going to try to be something that you're not?

KAYTRON ALLEN: No, I'll never try to be something that I'm not.

Q. You said you and Nick like to look at film a lot together. Have you done any of that at all during this off period?

KAYTRON ALLEN: We definitely did it. Yeah, we did. When we got here, we came and looked at it, checked the film out. We just looked at a little, few plays, but we didn't get the chance to do everything the whole season. We definitely did it, though.

Q. Did you see anything that stood out to you?

KAYTRON ALLEN: What do you mean?

Q. Was there a play you saw -- could have been your play, could have been one of his plays that you liked a lot more than the others?

KAYTRON ALLEN: Yeah. The physicality, the way he was running. It's not all the time he had home runs, but you see the things like he's running people over, doing things like that. That translated to me. That helped me keep going.

Q. How do you feel like you and Nick are going to be better next year? I think everybody looks -- we talk about expectations and this is maybe the best -- potentially in college football. How do you feel you guys are going to be even better next year in a new offense?

KAYTRON ALLEN: Just trying to do the little things. It's always the little things because, at the end of the day, the little things add up. You don't want them to add up in a bad way. You want them to add up in a good way.

So doing the little things, trying to get better each and every day, 1 percent better. It doesn't matter if it's going around the cone. It doesn't matter if -- you feel me, always trying to do the little thing that's going to translate, help us in the long run.

Q. We've seen a lot of backs and offenses and catching a lot of passes, we've seen you guys get more involved with that. Do you feel like you've improved in that area this year?

KAYTRON ALLEN: Yeah, I definitely think I improved in that area, catching the ball, and I want to keep improving in that area. I want to improve in the run game. I want to improve in everything.

If I have to change, always try to do something every day that can help me out in the long run.

Q. When you think about the practice field today, what are some of those little things that you want to focus on?

KAYTRON ALLEN: Just seeing the defense, seeing what they give me, seeing what -- like everything, like the back end, the linebackers trying to do, where they try to fit in, like things like that, and just try to capitalize on the things that they're missing or missing the hole, things like that for real.

Q. Ja'Juan told us, I think it was last week, he said that you and Nick, he feels like you're both taken good care of NIL-wise. They said getting both guys in front of the camera, they would hate to talk and do that. Are you satisfied with that? It's part of --

KAYTRON ALLEN: I ain't never satisfied, so no. I'll never be satisfied, you feel me? That's it for real.

Q. What's the most like interesting thing or most creative thing you've had through NIL this year? Has there been something cool or interesting out of it?

KAYTRON ALLEN: Not really. I guess I could just say signing.