Although wide receiver Devon Allen went to the Olympics to represent the United States, NBC’s television coverage showed him, more often than not, as a University of Oregon representative.
Whenever Allen was spotlighted throughout the coverage, much of the talk centered around his role on the Oregon football team, as well as being an Olympic track athlete.
“I think that Oregon has a pretty big name already, so anybody associated with Oregon is going to get a little bit more pub,” Allen said. “It’s just kind of cool, you know, because I’m still in college representing the country as well as the school and myself and my family.”
Thursday, after Allen’s second day back with the football team since he finished fifth overall in the 110-meter hurdles final in Rio De Janeiro, Oregon held a press conference for Allen to reflect on his Olympic experience and answer questions about his future. Most significantly, the question of whether or not he will turn professional in track and field.
“I haven’t really decided yet, but there’s a good—I don’t know. We’ll see,” Allen said. “I guess, for me, it’s just there’s not much more I could do in college track other than break the collegiate record, which I was a couple hundredths off.”
With all of Allen’s success in track, many wonder why he doesn’t focus all of his time on track and leave football. He said he values playing with his teammates and coaches in Eugene.
“Football is a great thing, but, you know, it doesn’t last forever,” Allen said. “I love these guys on the team here and I just want to play with them as long as I can. So that’s pretty much the deciding factor on me whether to come back or not.”
Despite missing the majority of fall camp, Allen believes he is ready for the first game of the season. The Ducks host UC Davis on Sept. 2 at Autzen Stadium to open the 2016 season.
“I know the plays pretty well. Obviously I went through some stuff today and was kind of like, OK, maybe I need to brush up on some stuff,” Allen said. “So I’ve got about a week to do that. We’ll see, as long as Coach Helf and Coach Lubick see fit that I’m ready to play, they’re going to put me in there and kind of just go with the flow and get reps, and the reps will grow as the season goes.
“I think we have a lot of guys that can make plays too, so it’s not really a dire need for me to play anytime soon.”
Track is something that Allen believes can take him places. With next year’s World Championships in London and the next Olympic Games in Tokyo, he’s not wrong. But at the same time, Allen dreams of playing in the NFL.
“In four years, I want to win a gold medal,” Allen said, “so there’s one more stepping stone to that dream, but now my next dream is to play in the NFL and, you know, the Super Bowl is always the height of that sport, too.”
Follow Kylee O’Connor on Twitter @kyleethemightee