Editing Marcus Allen (section)

==College career==
Allen played running back at the [[USC Trojans football|University of Southern California]] (USC) from 1978 to 1981, playing on the same team as fellow hall of famer [[Ronnie Lott]] for his first three seasons and hall of famer [[Anthony Munoz]] for his first two. He was recruited as a safety, but head coach [[John Robinson (American football coach)|John Robinson]] switched him to tailback.<ref name="greatath" /> As a freshman in 1978, Allen was a member of the Trojans' [[AFCA National Championship Trophy|National Championship]] team (as recognized by the [[coaches poll]]), playing as a backup to eventual [[Heisman Trophy]] winning running back [[Charles White (American football)|Charles White]].<ref name="MA" />

In 1979, he was moved to fullback, recording 879 yards from scrimmage. Eventually, in 1980, Allen became the starter at tailback and rushed for 1,563 yards, the third-most in the nation that year (behind [[George Rogers (American football)|George Rogers]] of S. Carolina – 1,781 yards and [[Herschel Walker]] of Georgia – 1,616). In 1981, Allen rushed for 2,342 yards, becoming only the second player in NCAA history to rush for over 2,000 yards in one season,{{citation needed|date=June 2016}} passing the 2,000-yard mark in a win at [[California Golden Bears football|Cal]]. He also gained a total of 2,683 offensive yards, led the nation in scoring, and won the Heisman Trophy, the [[Maxwell Award]], and [[Walter Camp Award]]. He was also the [[Pacific-10 Conference|Pac-10]] Player of the Year. Allen shares the [[National Collegiate Athletic Association|NCAA]] record for most 200-yard rushing games with [[Ricky Williams]] and [[Ron Dayne]], each completing the feat twelve times.{{citation needed|date = March 2025}}

Allen finished his four college seasons with 4,664 rushing yards, 5,232 total yards, and 46 touchdowns, while averaging 5.2 yards per carry.{{citation needed|date = March 2025}}

USC has retired his jersey No. 33.{{citation needed|date = March 2025}}

===College statistics===
{|class=wikitable style="text-align:center;"
|-
! rowspan="2"| Season
! colspan="5"| Rushing
! colspan="5"| Receiving
|-
! Att !! Yds !! Avg !! Lng !! TD !! Rec !! Yds !! Avg !! Lng !! TD
|-
! [[1978 USC Trojans football team|1978]]
| 31 || 171 || 5.5 || 17 || 1 || — || — || — || — || —
|-
! [[1979 USC Trojans football team|1979]]
| 105 || 606 || 5.8 || 38 || 8 || 20 || 273 || 13.7 || 34 || 0
|-
! [[1980 USC Trojans football team|1980]]
| 354 || 1,563 || 4.4 || 45 || 14 || 30 || 231 || 7.7 || 19 || 0
|-
! [[1981 USC Trojans football team|1981]]
| 403 || 2,342 || 5.8 || 74 || 22 || 29 || 217 || 7.5 || 50 || 1
|-
! Totals<ref>{{Cite web |title=1981 USC Trojans |url=http://www.totalfootballstats.com/Team_College.asp?id=156&Season=1981 |access-date=August 1, 2012 |publisher=TotalFootballStats.com}}</ref> !! 893 !! 4,682 !! 5.2 !! 74 !! 45 !! 79 !! 721 !! 9.1 !! 50 !! 1
|}