ALLEN PARK, Mich. – Zach Zenner’s wife, Alyssa, does not like one specific thing that is happening with her husband right now. And it relates to his face.

The two are newlyweds, but that didn’t mean the Detroit Lions running back was going to break with his tradition. Training camp was starting, which meant football was coming back. It meant Zach Zenner once again would try to grow a beard.

And Zenner said his wife, well, she doesn’t appreciate it. Even he knows that it doesn’t compare to his teammates DeAndre Levy or A’Shawn Robinson. Not even close.

“It’s horrible,” Zenner said. “My beard is disgusting. It’s really weak. It doesn’t grow thick. It just kind of collects down here. It’s really nasty.”

And yet, it still exists. There’s a reason for it, though. It’s not superstition, Zenner said, but in training camp he finds he just doesn’t have time for “anything extra” and that apparently includes taking a razor to his face every once in a while.

So for the second straight NFL season, he’s going to let his beard try – and kind of fail – to take over his face. This is something he started in college.

“My junior year, I didn’t shave the whole season. That was a thing that I did with the offensive line,” Zenner said. “They don’t shave at South Dakota State. At least they used to not. And then my senior year, I didn’t shave all the way up until I had a medical school interview. So unfortunately, I decided I had to for that. So I shaved one time during the season my senior year.”

It likely wouldn’t have mattered for the med school interview – he got into the Sanford School of Medicine and has deferred enrollment. But he is insistent on keeping the beard going.

For now.

The beard hasn’t hurt his running, either. Last year, as an undrafted rookie, he led the NFL in rushing during the preseason and his play was strong enough for the Lions to keep him on the initial 53-man roster. He started to get more playing time until he was placed on injured reserve after being hospitalized with cracked ribs and a partially collapsed lung in Week 6 against Chicago.

He hasn’t received as much work so far this preseason, gaining 28 yards on 11 carries and catching three passes for 32 yards, mostly with the second team.

“You know, it’s gone OK,” Zenner said. “I think it can go a lot better. That’s what I’m looking to do, just improve, keep improving.”

He’s put himself in decent position for a roster spot; he’s competing with rookie Dwayne Washington and the man he beat out for a roster spot last season, George Winn.

And like last season, he knows his best shot at making the roster – beard or no beard – is through the different things he can do.

“He’s a valuable member of our special teams, but he’s also a guy that’s very, very versatile from the backfield,” Lions coach Jim Caldwell said. “... He also has an uncanny ability to catch the ball out of the backfield and find seams.

“He’s a well-rounded player, very smart, makes few mistakes.”