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Thursday, November 26, 2009 10:23 PM CST
Edwardsville's Allaria among SIU's top weapons
By BRIAN NIELSEN, Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON -- Serious Charleston Holiday Basketball Tournament observers should remember Edwardsville’s all-tourney guard Joe Allaria.
Now he is the leading receiver for Southern Illinois’ football team.
Certainly not the feature player for the Salukis, whose Deji Karim ranks second among the nation’s Football Championship Subdivision running backs in rushing, Allaria has Eastern Illinois defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni’s attention heading into a 1 p.m. Saturday first-round playoff game at Carbondale.
“They can run the ball,” Bellantoni said, “not that they can’t throw it. Joe Allaria played quarterback a little bit against us two years ago and now they’ve moved him to wide receiver. He’s a good athlete. They ran a reverse pass for him because he still has an arm.”
Allaria has completed a 20-yard pass in his only attempt this season and netted five yards on four rushes but his main contribution is a team-high 49 pass receptions for 684 yards and four touchdowns for the Salukis, who are 10-1 and ranked No. 1 in the FCS by Sports Network.
The 6-foot-2, 195-pound junior just provides another worry as Eastern tries to find a way to slow down Karim, who is averaging 7.4 yards per carry and has carried 205 times for 1,512 yards and 16 touchdowns.
“He’s obviously very good,” Bellantoni said. “He pops about one long run a game. When he gets the ball in the open field he’s hard to catch. He reminds me of the (Evan) Royster guy from Penn State. He catches the ball on screens and is good there too.”
Redshirt freshman Paul McIntosh throws the ball to Karim, who has 13 catches for 161 yards, Allaria and others.
“No. 18 (Bryce Morris) and 4 (Marc) Cheatham are physical receivers,” Bellantoni said. “They have a lot of weapons. It’s not just Deji. McIntosh moves the ball.”
At least in this upset bid Eastern, 8-3, could draw from a positive frame of reference with its 28-20 Ohio Valley Conference win over Jacksonville State this year.
“It’s a different style but they’re similar to Jacksonville State,” Bellantoni said. “They definitely have a better running back than Jacksonville. If I were to compare them to anyone in our league they play like Jacksonville State but they’re better than anybody in our league, which is obvious; they’re ranked first in the country.”
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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