Former Badger Christian Alliegro is getting pressure heaped on him like crazy at Ohio State. The obvious is what all Ohio State players feel: the pressure of winning a National Championship, playing perfect football, and all eyes on the Buckeyes. For Alliegro, it gets ramped up even more; recently, a report was put out that Rasheem Biles, a linebacker who transferred to Texas, said he never got an offer from Ohio State. Which means the Buckeyes chose Alliegro over Biles; that's a big deal.
Andrew Hughes, a writer at Scarlet and Game, writes, "Any issues Alliegro has ever had are now under the microscope, given he will be seen by many as the guy the Buckeyes ended up with over Biles because of past relationship-building (or lack thereof)."
That pressure may not matter much for Alliegro as the competitive juices will flow, but as soon as Alliegro makes a mistake, misses a tackle, drops an interception, or even Biles' stats start looking better, the stress may ramp up.
Former Badger Christian Alliegro has 3 clear pressures at Ohio State
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However, that's not it for the former Badger linebacker. Alliegro is also going to be the Ohio State linebacker wearing the green dot, which means all the pre-snap communication will fall on him. He'll be getting the defense set in front of him and behind him, calling out gaps and lanes, and helping execute the defensive play call. This is a big deal for Alliegro and something that only mounts the pressure for the senior and former 3-star recruit.
For Alliegro, he's already got a comparison trap set up for him; he's the man with the pressure of the defensive pre-snap communication, and he's doing it under the scrutiny of Ohio State. Are we sure transferring to the Buckeyes was what he wanted? It didn't help that at Wisconsin, true freshman were taking some of the leadership from him and pushing their way into the rotation. Which brings us to the third pressure he has to be feeling.
Alliegro is projected to start, as you can see from all the above, but it's not a sure thing. He's still in a Fall Camp competition at Ohio State. Riley Pettijohn is still pushing for the chance to take the job from Alliegro. Pettijohn is a talented young true sophomore linebacker, a 5-star recruit a couple of seasons ago.
Alliegro heard the footsteps behind him at Wisconsin when Mason Posa (and even Cooper Catalano in another way) were taking his job. And Luke Fickell even has talked about how the veterans weren't the best leaders towards the end of the year. When Alliegro transferred, Fickell said that he wanted to focus on the players that stayed and stuck it out, believed in Wisconsin, and then added a "Maybe [Wisconsin is] not for everybody."
Who knows if Alliegro is feeling all this pressure, but it's clear there's plenty of it to weigh him down, if he lets it. He had to know in some ways what he was signing up for when he transferred to Ohio State, and he has to know that in some ways he bailed when the road got tough at Wisconsin, and now he's expected to be the guy for a National Championship team; it's going to be a lot.
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