Armando Allen is returning home to Hialeah Miami Lakes High School.
The former Trojan standout and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Chicago Bears running back is the new running backs coach for his alma mater.
Head coach Horane Allison told The Miami Laker that Allen will join his staff for the 2015 season.
Allison said Allen will coach the Trojans’ top three running backs, Romeo Brown, Maliak Shannon and Maliak Burns, in hopes of strengthening the ground attack.
“They can learn from his experience,” Allison said.
Allen rose to fame at HML, rushing for 1,095 yards and scoring 12 touchdowns as junior despite missing three games due to an injury.
Though he missed his entire senior season after fracturing his fibula in preseason, Allen chose to play at Notre Dame and started four games as a freshmen and recorded a team best 1,176 all-purpose yards and averaging 98 yards per game.
He finished his college career with 2,144 rushing yards on 469 carries and scored eight touch-downs.
In total, Allen recorded 4,337 all-purpose yards, which was the 5th most in Notre Dame’s history.
Allen was signed by the Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent in 2011 and played for the Chicago Bears from 2012-2013.
Allen scored his first career touchdown run against the Jacksonville Jaguars, which was the longest touchdown run by a Bears player since Matt Forte’s 68-yard run in 2010.
Allison said another alumni is joining his staff.
Eric Pullen, a military veteran, will coach his players as Allison’s team finds itself competing in a new and tough district with Northwestern, Central, Carol City and Norland, the team he helped coach to state title with former Miami Hurricanes star running back Duke Johnson.
“Those four teams won state titles,” Allison said. “That is what we are up against.”
Allison said the challenge for his team in the Spring is lacking depth.
He said some of his players will play on both sides of the ball.
“Depth is a problem,” he said. “We are trying to build a program with a lot of talent, but we need depth.”