AMES, Iowa -- Five days before his anticipated debut as a true freshman last fall, Chase Allen, the much-hyped tight end who seven months earlier picked Iowa State over Michigan and Nebraska in a recruiting coup for new head coach Matt Campbell, earned a small role in the Cyclones' game plan.
Finally, game week.
He had fought through preseason camp, with the wounds sewn shut with 103 stitches after emergency room doctors at Mary Greeley Medical Center pulled chunks of a windshield from his back, neck and left armpit on July 21. Allen walked into the path of a Pontiac Grand Prix on South 4th Street, a four-lane stretch that separates Jack Trice Stadium and the Iowa State football facility from a set of commuter parking lots.