How long will ‘good feeling’ last for Austin Allen?

It’s starting to look like Austin Allen will be on the field Saturday night against Alabama.

After hearing Bret Bielema and Dan Enos on Monday, then Allen on Tuesday, yeah, you can probably expect to see him on the field.

“I like to think of myself as a quick healer,” Allen said. “I like to think I’ll be feeling pretty good by Saturday.”

If he plays against the Crimson Tide how long that good feeling lasts is anybody’s guess.

Against South Carolina last week, Allen completed just 12-of-24 passes for two touchdowns, which includes one the Gamecocks intercepted and brought back for a score. He also had a fumble that South Carolina returned for a touchdown.

That will be one of the games he’ll try to forget.

Of course that’s not knowing how things will work out Saturday night, although the coaches think he’s going to be there.

Nobody can see him taking a break to get better.

“If you’re talking about Austin Allen, I don’t think that even enters it,” Bielema said Monday.

Hard-headed, stubborn quarterbacks aren’t the ones coaches should listen to. I once heard Troy Aikman inform the trainer he was, by God, in Henryetta, Oklahoma, when asked if he knew where he was, then tried to find his helmet so he could go back in the game.

You get the feeling Allen might try the same thing.

By all reports he didn’t do much in Tuesday’s practice.

“I did handoffs and just kind of ran around and did some stuff,” Allen said. “Kind of just taking it slowly, day by day.”

Letting the shoulder rest?

“A little bit,” Allen said.

Apparently everything checked out okay from the physical end of things.

“Got an MRI yesterday and everything and everything came back looking good,” Allen said. “Just like [Bielema] said yesterday, taking it day by day and seeing how it all feels.”

You feel optimistic you can play against Alabama?

“Yeah, I like to think of myself as a quick healer,” he said.

There are some who think Bielema, Enos, somebody should save Allen … from himself if not Alabama’s defense.

Allen’s injury sounds like one of those things that tends to come back on quarterbacks.

“It was just kind of like a dead arm type of deal, where you feel it kind of pinches, but it’s all good,” Allen said.

Those are the things that have a way of not going away in a week, sometimes longer. They also tend to come back a little more frequently.

Sorta like those high ankle sprains, except it’s in the shoulder … the starting quarterback’s throwing shoulder.

“He was out there today doing what he could,” wide receiver Jonathan Nance said. ” We’ll just see how it progresses this week.

Allen has taken a ton of hits. The SEC Network pointed out Allen had taken more hits than any FBS quarterback since the start of 2016, putting the figure at 125 through part of the first half on Saturday.

“It is what it is. It’s my job. I signed up for it,” he said. “Stand in there and make the throws and take the hits. It’s my job.”

That’s good old fashioned hard-headed stubbornness, which Webster’s defines as “dogged determination not to change one’s attitude or position on something.”

Bielema did kind of hint that the injury may not have been the only factor keeping Allen out for the fourth quarter against South Carolina. Frustration may have played a role.

“I think he was a guy that was trying to do everything he can and needed relief and that was a way to get it to him in the end,” Bielema said Monday.

Bielema also is getting frustrated that officials aren’t giving Allen any breaks.

“He’s had two plays now where he’s been hit and they’ve thrown the flag away after the play,” he said Monday. “It gets frustrating to think your quarterback should be protected better than that.”

But it appears likely Allen will be the one going out there.

Even backup Cole Kelley expects it.

“I am prepared, but knowing Austin, he’ll probably be ready to go,” Kelley said after Saturday’s loss.

Which is pretty much the expectation everybody is having.

And everybody is hoping it’s the right call.