Kliff Kingsbury always saw Dakota Allen’s career ending here, as a senior defensive leader for a resurgent Red Raiders defense. He’d close out his career and go onto the NFL. 

He just never envisioned the detour that nearly turned this season into an impossibility. Two years ago, Allen sat in Kingsbury’s office in tears. 

Texas Tech’s coach choked back a few of his own. It didn’t make sense. One of his defense’s leaders, an otherwise model teammate and student, had been charged with felony burglary for breaking into a home with two of his teammates, stealing a gun cabinet, two cameras and a 40-inch TV.

“It just didn’t feel right,” Kingsbury said. “I just hated that he had kind of wasted a great opportunity and we were losing a great person.”

Allen ended up at East Mississippi Community College, also known as Last Chance U, after the popular Netflix documentary series that chronicled the 2015 and 2016 seasons. It proved literal for Allen.

“That was the only school that would take him,” defensive coordinator David Gibbs said. “He couldn’t get in anywhere else.”

It was a year at the bottom of college football’s barrel.

“I went there with one goal, and that was to get back to the Division I level,” Allen said.

The charges were dropped in August 2016, and after a year at junior college staying out of trouble, Gibbs began to explore the possibility of bringing Allen back to Lubbock, rather than fill out his roster with an unknown JUCO transfer or a freshman who would need time to develop.

“I just thought, we know his warts, but we know he’s a good kid,” Gibbs said. “Is there any chance we can get him back?”

Kingsbury and athletic director Kirby Hocutt both signed off. And last summer, before Allen suited back up for the Red Raiders, fans got to see what his time at EMCC was really like by watching the Netflix show. One episode in particular focused on his rediscovered faith and exit from Texas Tech.

“I’m just happy they got to see what actually happened,” Allen said. “If the show didn’t come out, people would still have their own opinions or speculation.”

He picked back up where he left off and led the Red Raiders with 102 tackles in his first season back on the field.

“He made a really bad mistake and paid for it,” Kingsbury said.

And with that penance paid, Allen is right back where Kingsbury imagined when he first arrived inside the doors of the program.