Eric McAllister discusses how RMU football’s growth as a team has paid dividends on the field

Samuel Anthony, Digital Content Manager
October 13, 2018

To put it bluntly, the Robert Morris football team has been having a good year offensively. Minus the one game in which they played a far superior James Madison team, the Colonials have put up a combined 131 points in four games which is good for 32.75 points per game. A team that can put up 30 points a game is an offensive coordinator’s dream.

And this spectacular showing of offense comes after half a decade of some of the worst offense in the country, and while one can spend much of the time looking at the additions to the offense: Alijah Jackson, Terence Stephens, Anthony Dellefemine or the many sophomores and recent transfers who have transformed this offense into an NEC powerhouse.

But if you ask starting center and redshirt sophomore Eric McAllister, he’ll tell you that there is also a huge off the field reason that this offense has been firing on all cylinders.

“One thing that I think is bringing us a little bit closer together is just us knowing each other a little bit more,” said McAllister “We have more conversations outside of football which might sound a little bit crazy, but I mean if you know your teammates a little bit better, know where they come from, know their family situation and everything about them, you’re going to play a little bit harder and we’re going to be a little bit more tight-knit.”

McAllister is specifically built a great relationship with starting quarterback Jimmy Walker as the two teammates live together during the school year.

“Jimmy is my guy, that’s my dude. Living with him, we talk football all night. We’ll be watching TV especially football,” said McAllister. “So we were watching football, the whole game we’re just talking concepts, talking different things, what does he want from the O-line, what does the O-Line want from the quarterback.”

Additionally, to being roommates, McAllister and Walker also like to play host to the rest of the team.

“Weekly we’ll have the offensive line come over to my house,” said McAllister “Jimmy (Walker) and I, we throw down, get some pizza and we watch Thursday Night Football together. Just to get to know each other a little bit more, enjoy some football and obviously get the O-line fed a little bit.”

Football coaches and experts constantly preach the importance of team chemistry and McAllister and the Robert Morris offense show a prime example of that. The time together off the field is paying off on Saturdays for the offense as it continues to produce at a high level weekly.

The team is looking forward to their upcoming match-up against the Duquesne Dukes on Saturday as they look to get their first conference win of the season.

“This is one of the games you come here for,” said McAllister “If we do the fundamentals, we work hard this week in practice and we’ll see what happens.”