Crim: Mustangs’ Allen ready to turn 2024 season into stuff dreams are made of

MENDON, Ill.— It wasn’t the debut Sawyer Allen envisioned.

After winning the starting quarterback job with his work over the summer and through preseason practice, the Unity-Payson sophomore approached the 2023 season opener at home against Winchester West Central with eager anticipation.

“I had every opportunity to show Coach I want to be the quarterback and lead this team to the playoffs,” he said. “I was glad I got it.”

The dream quickly turned into a nightmare. While Allen completed 12 of 25 pass attempts for 148 yards and two touchdowns, he was intercepted three times, including one returned for a touchdown late in the first half.

The result was a 28-15 loss.

“I was trying to throw the ball away and didn’t get it to the sideline,” he said of the pick-6. “They had returned the opening kickoff (for a touchdown), so we knew we had to score touchdowns to win. It was the first game, and I was trying to do too much.

“It was a learning experience. Everybody kept encouraging me, and I got better as the season went on.”

Much better.

Allen threw for 1,169 yards and 13 touchdowns and led the team in rushing with 497 yards and 12 scores. He completed 56% of his passing attempts overall and, importantly, threw only one interception during the regular season after Week 2.

His dual threat capabilities enabled the Mustangs to overcome a 1-3 start to win five consecutive games to earn their fourth playoff berth since 2019. He’s one of the reasons why they are eyeing another, possibly longer, postseason appearance this fall.

“Sawyer is a good, natural athlete to begin with,” Unity-Payson coach Matt Woodworth said. “We saw flashes when he was a freshman playing on the JV team. It was a matter of getting his confidence built up, getting him comfortable with the offense.

“He had a couple of sophomore moments in that first game, but he’s a very coachable player. He’s willing to learn from his mistakes – a sophomore quarterback is going to make mistakes – to get better and make the team better. You could see his confidence grow week to week and he became a much more dangerous quarterback that made our offense hard to defend.”

The Mustangs averaged 42 points per game over those final five games of the regular season. Allen threw for three touchdowns in victories over both Pleasant Hill and North Greene to nail down the playoff berth. He had three games where he rushed for 90 or more yards.

“We knew we had to win out,” he said. “We couldn’t lose and be 5-4 and leave it up to the people who make the decision on who makes the playoffs.”

Standing 6-foot and weighing 200 pounds, Allen proved to be as much a threat running as he did passing. He added another dimension to an offense that likes to share the wealth.

“After I run a few times, it opens up the pass game,” he said. “I have a big body, so if I have to run over somebody to get a few yards after the tackle, I can do that.”

His body used to be bigger.

Allen was relegated to playing the line earlier in his career because of his weight. But he said he grew six or seven inches as a seventh grader and informed coaches he wanted to be a quarterback.

“The coaches thought I was crazy,” he said.

Allen went to work to prove them wrong. He began running up and down the road near his home. He religiously did push-ups, sit-ups and other exercises. He started eating healthier.

The result: He lost 40 pounds his eighth-grade year.

“I gained a lot of muscle and lost a lot of fat,” he said. “I realized if I was going to be the athlete I wanted to be, I needed to lose weight and become more versatile and work on things I needed to work on. It has made every sport, not just football, easier.”

Allen believes the lessons he learned last season, the good and the bad, will help him become a better playmaker and leader this season. While he knows there will be challenges, he also realizes expectations are high.

“I have to make my reads and know when not to throw a contested ball and when to take a sack rather than throwing it up there,” he said. “Our skill positions are just as good as last year. We’ll be able to score touchdowns and put points on the board.

“We want to get a home playoff game and play before our own crowd.”

That would be living the dream.