ALBANY – By all accounts, Ian Allen is doing quite well in his first training camp as a prominent player with the Giants. Although he’s never played a single NFL snap as a lineman with the offense, Allen has been thrust into the role of starting right tackle. It’s his job to lose.

Less than a week into camp, Allen has done nothing to lose it. Coach Jim Fassel has singled him out for praise. Jim McNally, the offensive line coach, insists he does not hit the pillow at night worrying how Allen will fare. Michael Strahan, the defensive end who lines up opposite Allen, says thus far he’s been impressed.

Yet just the other night, Allen entered his dorm room at the University of Albany and broke down and cried for what he says was a solid half hour. He tried to find solace in sleep but it would not come.

“It hurts . . . it hurts a lot,” Allen said. “You just miss your mother. My mother was like my best friend. I’d tell my mom anything. Talk to her every day.”

Such admissions may be rare for a hulking 6-4, 310-pound mountain of a man, but Allen freely and openly speaks of his pain. Last March 16, his mother, Willette B. Allen-Eady, died of a lung disease. That came nine months after his father, Otis Allen, died June 1 of an aneurysm.

Allen’s father left the family home in Newark when Ian was 3 and he was reared by his mother. The two losses combined to jar a 25-year old athlete who is ecstatic about the opportunity he’s been given, but also scarred by what’s transpired.

“Life is weird,” Allen said. “Stuff happens in life. I just kind of learned to not worry about those things.”

The overwhelming feeling of sorrow hits Allen all different times, such as the surge of emotion that jolted him a few days ago. “It just comes and goes, comes and goes,” he said.

Allen’s roommate, center Omar Smith, did not witness the momentary breakdown but heard about it the next day.

“He said he had a rough night,” Smith said. “We talk a lot about that. I lost my mom last year. I know the pain he’s going through. It’s an unfortunate bond.”

As he continues to mourn, Allen refuses to use the death of his mother as incentive.

“I can’t say that’s a motivation,” he said. “I try to keep that aside from football, because if you let that become your motivating force, if you don’t win you get all confused upstairs.”

Allen’s family left Newark for Atlanta when he was 12. He quit the marching band (he played tenor sax) for football in high school and in college made only four starts at Purdue. He was not drafted.

The Chiefs signed him and cut him. He had a brief stay on the Falcons practice squad before the Giants took a look, noticed his quick feet and brought him in last season. Now he’s a starter, taking the place of Mike Rosenthal, who signed with the Vikings.

This is another leap of faith for the Giants, with Allen and guard Tam Hopkins forming an all-new right side of the offensive line.

“This is the NFL,” Allen said, “and I would think the front office is smart enough that they’re not going to put some idiot out there who can’t play football and get one of their franchise players hurt.”

So far, Allen is making things work on the field while trying his best to manage his emotions off it.