Jeffrey Allison did everything he could to block it all out.
The size and brute of the Alabama offensive lineman who got in his facemask. The throbbing pain in his injured hand. The growing deficit on the Bryant-Denny Stadium scoreboard.
The Fresno State sophomore linebacker had to forget all of that, because with Hurricane Irma churning at the speed of devastation toward his birthplace of Miami, his family needed him to help them forget about home for a few distracted hours Saturday.
“I wasn’t thinking about the hurricane at all,” Allison said, his career-high 14 tackles shining as a hopeful beacon in Fresno State’s 41-10 loss to the top-ranked Crimson Tide.