Inside the Game: Wyoming QB Josh Allen naked and famous

Josh Allen’s scar is “pretty gnarly,” as he likes to put it. It stretches about six inches across, right over his collarbone, which he broke in seven different places during his first career start at Wyoming almost exactly a year ago.

“They opened me up pretty good,” said Allen, the Cowboys' quarterback. “I've got eight screws and a plate in there right now. It was definitely a doozy of a surgery.”

He remembers the hit, which came on the 13th play of the Cowboys’ second game last season. The defender’s helmet hit his collarbone at an awkward angle. As Allen went down to the ground, he thought and hoped it might be just a bruise. He quickly found out that was not the case.

Allen went in for reconstructive surgery soon after, spent two weeks in a sling, then two more weeks letting his arm hang. Then came two more weeks moving his hand up a wall, trying to get his arms and shoulders moving. By the two-month mark of his rehabilitation, he could start to lift light and moderate weights. Then, he could start to throw a football again. By spring ball, he had grabbed his starting quarterback spot back.

Allen’s second career start came Saturday against Northern Illinois and it was, to pull a word from the redshirt sophomore’s vocabulary, also quite a doozy. After a severe weather delay of about two hours due to lightning in the area, Wyoming won in a triple-overtime thriller that ended just past 2:30 am MT. It was Wyoming's fourth victory in its past 20 games dating to the 2014 season.

The final play ended with the 6-5, 222-pound Allen on his back on the ground — but for a good reason this time.

Northern Illinois had missed a field goal earlier in the overtime period, so all the Cowboys needed to do was put points on the board. They got to the 7-yard line, and the play call on third down and four was simple: A naked bootleg. Allen could hit the tight end for a short gain, scramble himself or even throw it away if he had to. At the very least, offensive coordinator Brent Vigen figured, it’s safe enough that they wouldn’t lose yardage and could still attempt a winning field goal.

The ball was snapped, and Allen began to roll out to his right.

“My only job as an offensive lineman is to try and fake out the D-line, make them think that it's a run going one direction, and then the quarterback's going back the other direction with a pass,” senior center Chase Roullier said. “We did our job, we faked them out, and what happened was that we end up turning around and looking at the play — because you're so far away from it at that point. The linemen are all turning around, and Josh starts coming back our way, and we're like, "Oh! Well, we better get blocking again."

“We're all turning around and trying to find someone to block. I turned around, couldn't find anyone, then started running with Josh, try to find somebody. Really, he was just making people miss the entire time.”

After Allen crossed the goal line, his teammates leaped on top of him, celebrating the victory against a perennial Mid-American Conference powerhouse and letting it sink in just how far he’d come to get his first win as a Division I quarterback. All those times he felt overlooked as a high school player. That year spent at Reedley (Calif.) Community College. Starting the season as a backup last year. Then, the injury — and the comeback.

“I was under the dogpile for a little bit,” Allen said. “A little scary down there, I'm not going to lie. It was a little painful, but it was the right type of pain after getting a win like that.”

Allen's winning play wasn't the only one that involved a fake on a naked bootleg. Watch what happens to the CBS Sports Network cameraman — and the Northern Illinois defense — here early in the third quarter:

Allen’s stat line after halftime was sensational: 14-of-18 passing for 190 yards and three touchdowns, two through the air before the final scramble. He had 10 carries — nine were not designed quarterback runs — which was typical for his style of play, but also nerve-wracking for his coaches who didn’t want to see another devastating injury.

“He can run,” Vigen said. “He's a big, strong guy, so that's got to be part of this game. But teaching him how to think more about self-preservation was part of what we did this fall camp.”

So far, so good. Allen said afterward he felt good, and at full strength. He sure looked it.

“It's one game, but it's a pretty monumental game for him and for our program,” Vigen said. “For him to succeed in that one game like he did, I think that's a pretty big step for him. I know there are going to be other obstacles in his way as we move forward, but you hope his experiences coming out of high school, junior college and getting hurt and all that continue to pave the way for success. He's got a lot of ability and we'll try to put a lot on his shoulders in these weeks and years to come.

“We hope he keeps coming through like he did.”