Brady Allen settling in as a Sycamore

During this off-season, Indiana State’s football team received a transfer quarterback by the name of Brady Allen.

A 6-foot-6, 225-pound redshirt junior and graduate student in the classroom, Allen hails from Fort Branch and went to Gibson Southern High School, during which time he won the 2021 3A state championship and received the Indiana Mr. Football award.

Before transferring to ISU, Allen was at Purdue and then Louisville. During his time at Purdue, Allen completed one of three passing attempts for 8 yards in 2022 as a freshman.

In 2023, he completed one pass for 7 yards against Murray State.

At Louisville, he went 2 of 2 for 28 yards against Austin Peay in 2024 before starting the second half of the 2025 season opener against Eastern Kentucky. He went 6 of 9 for 69 yards and his first career touchdown pass EKU, then went 2 of 3 for 6 yards at SMU.

This season, the Sycamores will travel to Purdue on Sept. 5 for their second game after hosting Southeast Missouri State on Aug. 29. Kickoff times are to be determined.

Allen is excited for the game at Purdue, mentioning that he’s still buddies with a couple of guys on the team.

“It’ll be cool to go up against those guys,” Allen told the Tribune-Star.

He said his career has been kind of a journey. In transferring to ISU, Allen said he hoped to receive an opportunity to get on the field.

“I felt like I wasn’t getting that and so that was a big reason for me getting in the portal,” Allen said. “Just wanted an opportunity to compete.”

Allen said he’s thankful to coach Curt Mallory and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach John Bear for reaching out to him.

Mallory said Allen is doing a great job so far.

“He’s right where he should be,” the Sycamores’ coach assessed. “He’s in there competing.”

Mallory said Allen is still learning the offense, but they’re excited to have him and he’s continuing to compete for the starting job.

However, Mallory said no decision has been made on who will open the season behind center between Allen and redshirt junior and previous starter Elijah Owens. While Allen is fitting in, Mallory noted that Owens has been practicing at a really high level lately.

“He’s a very mature young man,” Mallory said of Allen. “He’s very grounded sometimes, when you get young men that transfer in like he has, you forget that he just got here. We’ve been very fortunate to bring in the right character type young men like Drew Page, Rashad Rochelle and Keshon Singleton.”

Mallory explained that those players — who were in similar situations as Allen — have come in and joined the family. He said they’re all about the team atmosphere and are team-first guys who do whatever it takes to help the team win.

Leadership-wise, Mallory said Allen is similar to how Page was when he came in. He said Allen jumped right in and is getting to know his teammates.

“You just see him fitting right in,” Mallory said. “He’s always out in front.”

Mallory said Allen possesses the trait they want at the quarterback position.

“You see the team welcome him and obviously gravitate to those type of leadership skills,” Mallory explained.

Mallory said the quarterback room is special as each works really well with the wideouts.

“They’re all together, but he’s gelled just great,” Mallory said of Allen. “Sometimes I forget he just got here, but he’s building a bond, and that’s what you want with all the quarterbacks.”

He said he feels as good as he ever has with that room right now.

“I feel like we have a really great group of guys,” Allen said. “It’s a great room on the offensive unit.”

Allen explained he knew of a lot of the guys coming in, so it’s been cool to relate to them and put faces to names. He’s been able to get to know the guys this spring as he mentioned they’ve been able to hang out and spend time together.

Owens and Allen have been throwing into tight windows, making deep throws and doing well on their feet, according to Mallory.

Allen said the offense is different from what he’s used to. He said it’s more of a spread-out kind of air raid.

Allen said it’s been awesome to be able to pick Owens’ brain with how he’s spent a year in it already. He’s been able to pick [returnee] Brock Riddle’s brain as well trying to figure out the little things with the offense.

Allen said being able to learn from his fellow QBs has helped him tremendously.

“They’ve been in it for a year and so they understand it really well,” Allen pointed out. “They’ve been on the field and they’ve been able to help me and give me little tips for different plays.”

Allen explained the play calling is different from his past stops as well.

“It’s different too, in the fact that, like with with my old offense that I was in, we would have 10 to 15 word play calls and they would kind of give you everything in the headset,” Allen said.

“Now we may have five or six calls at max and most of our calls are two or three words, and then you have to know the protection and know certain words that go with the play.”

He said Mallory and Bear have been tremendous in helping him get adjusted and learning the playbook, especially with defense.

“I think you can never learn enough about defense as a quarterback,” Allen said. “So that’s really cool being with coach Mall, that being his background and being able to pick his brain.”

He said he’s also able to get with coach Bear about the offense to try and fine tune and learn the little things with the offense.

Allen knows the Missouri Valley Football Conference is tough and acknowledged there are a lot of MVFC players who end up at the professional level. He said they expect a tough year coming up and they have to keep getting better each and every day to be ready for the tough matchups in the fall.

ISU’s Blue-White spring game is set for 2 p.m. May 2 at Memorial Stadium.