After four nominations so far this season, Kentucky’s Josh Allen was named Lott IMPACT Player of the Week for Week 5.
Ronnie Lott phoned the senior linebacker this week and opened the conversation asking where the heart in Allen’s play comes from.
“It comes from the motivation of my son,” who turned nine months old just one day after Lott and Allen’s conversation.
Allen’s devotion to his son is hardly a secret. Try to find the Kentucky senior on Twitter or Instagram and the first thing you’ll see is ‘Father to Wesley DeVon Allen.’
“Ever since he came, I feel like I stepped up as a person, as a man, to have a great impact on his life. Everything I do, I do it for him.”
Lott then asked Allen who had made an impact on his life.
“I had a lot of support growing up,” Allen answered, specifically naming his Uncle James, who acted as a father figure when Allen moved to Alabama from Montclair, NJ. “Going down there I looked up to him a lot. I respected what he did with his life. He passed a lot of knowledge onto me which I still use to this day.”
Although his uncle didn’t play a sport, Allen remarked that the impact he had on his life was so huge that the linebacker models his game after how he was “as a man.”
Lott noted that Allen’s uncle seemed like someone who “knows how to get everything out of life,” and asked if Allen was trying to do the same.
“Yes sir. You know the next day is not promised so I just live life to the fullest. I do what I can each day to do my best at everything I do,” Allen replied.
“I have two little eyes looking up at me. Right now he doesn’t know what’s going on, but in a couple years once he starts to realize what his dad’s doing, I want him to realize that I did it the right way.”
Lott wouldn’t let the conversation finish without a little football talk, first asking Allen which player he admired most in the NFL.
“Khalil Mack, hands down. The way he plays is so different than a lot of players. He’s a great pass rusher. He uses power, speed, agility, all that when he moves,” Allen noted.
The conversation concluded with Lott asking about Kentucky’s Week 6 match up against Texas A&M.
“We have to win our one-on-ones, that’s what we’ve done all year is win on one-on-ones at each position that free up people to make big plays,” said Allen.
“This would be a big team-win for our team and our program,” he continued. “We have a team full of veterans and this is our last go around. This is one of the biggest games against one of the best teams in the country, in prime time.”
The No. 13 Wildcats travel south to take on the Aggies on October 6 at 4:00 pm PST.