Indiana University Athletics
DIPRIMIO COLUMN: Allen’s Gamble Pays Off for Hoosiers
12/12/2019 9:30:00 AM | Football
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Tom Allen gambled on himself and won.
Check that.
The Indiana Hoosiers won, for this season certainly, for a decade of seasons to come, quite possibly.
IU's 8-4 resurrection season -- its best record in a generation -- earned the Hoosiers a TaxSlayer Gator Bowl bid against Tennessee (7-5) in Jacksonville, Fla., and Allen a new seven-year, $27 million contract, but it's so much more than that.
This is hope for a program that badly needs it.
Don't believe it? Check out the Old Oaken Bucket, symbolic of the fierce rivalry with Purdue that is proudly displayed in the Terry Tallen Football Complex courtesy of the season-ending 44-41 double-overtime victory in West Lafayette.
"We see it right when we walk in the locker room every day," quarterback Peyton Ramsey says. "That's a pretty cool deal."
There was no guarantee Allen would find this success. He gave up a great high school job as the head coach of perennial Indiana state power Ben Davis, and with it a good salary and benefits, to follow a coaching dream, starting with a low-paying job as special teams coordinator/secondary coach at Wabash College, a solid small-school program in south-central Indiana.
Given Allen was married with two daughters and a son, why do it? Critics thought he was, well, "crazy."
"It was a big risk, but it was an easy decision," Allen says. "I knew in my heart what I wanted. I would have lived with a lot of regret if I had never taken the opportunity to try college football."
Allen and his family endured a 10-year coaching odyssey that saw stops at Wabash, Lambuth, Drake, Arkansas State, Mississippi and South Florida before arriving at Indiana in 2016 as defensive coordinator.
"The beauty of all this was I was very naïve," Tom's wife, Tracy, says. "I never anticipated living in seven states in 10 years, so I was all for it.
"I remember sitting in our living room when we were at Ben Davis. I specifically asked him what the dream was. He said, 'I want to be a Big Ten defensive coordinator.' I said, 'OK, let's go.'
"Over time, his dream has become our dream."
That dream has delivered 18 Cream & Crimson victories. That's four more wins than any other IU coach ever won in his first three seasons.
It also delivered a life-changing contract, although if you know Allen, you know it won't affect what really matters – family, faith and team.
"That was not part of the plan," he says. "The discussions I had with individuals, one of those being my wife, and all the sacrifice she had to make. She was a school teacher and she had to get a new job every time we moved. She had the brunt of that. She was making more than I was in most of those places. Small-college coaching doesn't pay a lot.
"You hoped one day you'd make a little more, but to say I'd ever dream of this, no. It was beyond my wildest dreams. That's why I feel amazingly blessed and appreciative."
*****
Fred Glass gambled on his instincts and won.
Indiana's vice president and director of athletics replaced departed head coach Kevin Wilson with Allen, a man with zero college head-coaching experience. Glass didn't conduct a national search. He didn't hire a consulting firm or do any of the things normally associated with filling a position of this magnitude.
Given the importance of a strong football program to overall athletic department financial health, the stakes were huge.
But Glass liked what he saw in Allen, on and off the field. He believed Allen would one day make an outstanding college head coach, and saw no need to look elsewhere when the right man was already in Memorial Stadium as defensive coordinator.
"It was very clear to me we had our guy in Tom Allen," Glass says. "I had no interest in a national search because I didn't want anybody else.
"I think he's the complete package for us, and the kind of guy who can win here, which takes a certain type of person."
Does it ever.
Twenty-nine men have coached IU since the program began in 1887. Six finished with winning records, five before 1922. The only man to have a winning record since then is Bo McMillin. He went 63-48-11 from 1934-47 and won the 1945 Big Ten title.
Former IU All-America linebacker Ken Kaczmarek sees a championship coming under Allen.
"I think he can get them to the Rose Bowl. He has a passion. He's very sincere. He knows how to build a team."
And so he has.
****
Allen coaches from his heart, from an inner fire that leads to, well, unorthodox celebration. He races down sidelines to embrace big-play-making players, sometimes cutting his head or hurting his back in the process.
Even team mascots feel the excitement.
Several years ago, when Allen was coaching at Mississippi, the Rebels were playing at LSU, where few visiting teams win. Mississippi was leading at halftime. Allen was so excited that he tackled the Mississippi mascot. Allen's son, Thomas, was there to watch and wonder.
"I was like, 'Dad, what are you doing?' He jumps up smiling. That's kind of the guy he is. He's crazy. He's psycho. He can't hit his players, so he'd hit me for the fun of it."
For the record, these were not the kind of hits to generate parental abuse concerns, but they were hard enough to annoy.
"I was like, OK I'm not going to stand by you anymore," Thomas says. "But I enjoyed every minute of it. He's all fire. He's fun to be around and to be a player for."
Thomas should know. He's an Indiana linebacker.
*****
Midnight strikes and Tracy Allen is ready for a conversation. That's when her husband is most likely at home.
"That's our time to talk," she says, "because he works 18-hour days."
Otherwise, Allen is at Memorial Stadium or on the recruiting trail or off doing something to help deliver a winner. It's a non-stop pace that works because, most of all, it's a labor of love.
This break-through season was the result.
"It's important to have passion," Tracy says. "Tom is passionate about his job. He's a high-energy guy. He doesn't need much sleep."
Indiana football often limits sleep. It's an often unforgiving challenge that only the toughest of coaches can meet. Tracy believes her husband is tough enough. She calls him the Lion Chaser, and it is not some cute nickname people give loved ones.
It comes from the Bible, from Joshua 1-9, and it says, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."
A framed photo of a lion is in Allen's Memorial Stadium office as a reminder.
*****
Why has Tom Allen succeeded when so many other Indiana coaches failed?
Dick Dullaghan has the answer, and it doesn't involve corner-cutting coaching.
Dullaghan is arguably the best high school football coach in Indiana history. He retired with eight state titles and one national championship. He's also Allen's former boss at Ben Davis High School. He says all good coaches have the IT factor.
He insists Allen has it, and more.
"He's genuine," Dullaghan says. "He says it like it is. He's honest, but never profane or egotistical. He never attacks people. He attacks their effort and their belief in themselves. He challenges them. He does it in a manner that doesn't demean them."
Dullaghan calls it "loving them into submission."
"Players don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. When they know you do care, they give you more than you imagined. They put it all out there. They don't want to let you down."
These Hoosiers haven't let Allen down. They won the games they were supposed to, and just missed winning two they weren't. They gave up nine points in the final five second to lose at Michigan State, 40-31. They came within seven points and a couple of missed plays of winning at powerhouse and No. 9 Penn State.
Allen connects to IU's football past, to the glory days of Bill Mallory and the unshakeable optimism of Terry Hoeppner, to the improbable 1967 Rose Bowl run, the dominating 1945 Big Ten championship and the zany Holiday Bowl victory under Lee Corso.
Because of this, Dullaghan insists, the best is still ahead.
"I don't know how soon," he says, "but Indiana will win a Big Ten championship. It's going to happen."
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Tom Allen gambled on himself and won.
Check that.
The Indiana Hoosiers won, for this season certainly, for a decade of seasons to come, quite possibly.
IU's 8-4 resurrection season -- its best record in a generation -- earned the Hoosiers a TaxSlayer Gator Bowl bid against Tennessee (7-5) in Jacksonville, Fla., and Allen a new seven-year, $27 million contract, but it's so much more than that.
This is hope for a program that badly needs it.
Don't believe it? Check out the Old Oaken Bucket, symbolic of the fierce rivalry with Purdue that is proudly displayed in the Terry Tallen Football Complex courtesy of the season-ending 44-41 double-overtime victory in West Lafayette.
"We see it right when we walk in the locker room every day," quarterback Peyton Ramsey says. "That's a pretty cool deal."
There was no guarantee Allen would find this success. He gave up a great high school job as the head coach of perennial Indiana state power Ben Davis, and with it a good salary and benefits, to follow a coaching dream, starting with a low-paying job as special teams coordinator/secondary coach at Wabash College, a solid small-school program in south-central Indiana.
Given Allen was married with two daughters and a son, why do it? Critics thought he was, well, "crazy."
"It was a big risk, but it was an easy decision," Allen says. "I knew in my heart what I wanted. I would have lived with a lot of regret if I had never taken the opportunity to try college football."
Allen and his family endured a 10-year coaching odyssey that saw stops at Wabash, Lambuth, Drake, Arkansas State, Mississippi and South Florida before arriving at Indiana in 2016 as defensive coordinator.
"The beauty of all this was I was very naïve," Tom's wife, Tracy, says. "I never anticipated living in seven states in 10 years, so I was all for it.
"I remember sitting in our living room when we were at Ben Davis. I specifically asked him what the dream was. He said, 'I want to be a Big Ten defensive coordinator.' I said, 'OK, let's go.'
"Over time, his dream has become our dream."
That dream has delivered 18 Cream & Crimson victories. That's four more wins than any other IU coach ever won in his first three seasons.
It also delivered a life-changing contract, although if you know Allen, you know it won't affect what really matters – family, faith and team.
"That was not part of the plan," he says. "The discussions I had with individuals, one of those being my wife, and all the sacrifice she had to make. She was a school teacher and she had to get a new job every time we moved. She had the brunt of that. She was making more than I was in most of those places. Small-college coaching doesn't pay a lot.
"You hoped one day you'd make a little more, but to say I'd ever dream of this, no. It was beyond my wildest dreams. That's why I feel amazingly blessed and appreciative."
*****
Fred Glass gambled on his instincts and won.
Indiana's vice president and director of athletics replaced departed head coach Kevin Wilson with Allen, a man with zero college head-coaching experience. Glass didn't conduct a national search. He didn't hire a consulting firm or do any of the things normally associated with filling a position of this magnitude.
Given the importance of a strong football program to overall athletic department financial health, the stakes were huge.
But Glass liked what he saw in Allen, on and off the field. He believed Allen would one day make an outstanding college head coach, and saw no need to look elsewhere when the right man was already in Memorial Stadium as defensive coordinator.
"It was very clear to me we had our guy in Tom Allen," Glass says. "I had no interest in a national search because I didn't want anybody else.
"I think he's the complete package for us, and the kind of guy who can win here, which takes a certain type of person."
Does it ever.
Twenty-nine men have coached IU since the program began in 1887. Six finished with winning records, five before 1922. The only man to have a winning record since then is Bo McMillin. He went 63-48-11 from 1934-47 and won the 1945 Big Ten title.
Former IU All-America linebacker Ken Kaczmarek sees a championship coming under Allen.
"I think he can get them to the Rose Bowl. He has a passion. He's very sincere. He knows how to build a team."
And so he has.
****
Allen coaches from his heart, from an inner fire that leads to, well, unorthodox celebration. He races down sidelines to embrace big-play-making players, sometimes cutting his head or hurting his back in the process.
Even team mascots feel the excitement.
Several years ago, when Allen was coaching at Mississippi, the Rebels were playing at LSU, where few visiting teams win. Mississippi was leading at halftime. Allen was so excited that he tackled the Mississippi mascot. Allen's son, Thomas, was there to watch and wonder.
"I was like, 'Dad, what are you doing?' He jumps up smiling. That's kind of the guy he is. He's crazy. He's psycho. He can't hit his players, so he'd hit me for the fun of it."
For the record, these were not the kind of hits to generate parental abuse concerns, but they were hard enough to annoy.
"I was like, OK I'm not going to stand by you anymore," Thomas says. "But I enjoyed every minute of it. He's all fire. He's fun to be around and to be a player for."
Thomas should know. He's an Indiana linebacker.
*****
Midnight strikes and Tracy Allen is ready for a conversation. That's when her husband is most likely at home.
"That's our time to talk," she says, "because he works 18-hour days."
Otherwise, Allen is at Memorial Stadium or on the recruiting trail or off doing something to help deliver a winner. It's a non-stop pace that works because, most of all, it's a labor of love.
This break-through season was the result.
"It's important to have passion," Tracy says. "Tom is passionate about his job. He's a high-energy guy. He doesn't need much sleep."
Indiana football often limits sleep. It's an often unforgiving challenge that only the toughest of coaches can meet. Tracy believes her husband is tough enough. She calls him the Lion Chaser, and it is not some cute nickname people give loved ones.
It comes from the Bible, from Joshua 1-9, and it says, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."
A framed photo of a lion is in Allen's Memorial Stadium office as a reminder.
*****
Why has Tom Allen succeeded when so many other Indiana coaches failed?
Dick Dullaghan has the answer, and it doesn't involve corner-cutting coaching.
Dullaghan is arguably the best high school football coach in Indiana history. He retired with eight state titles and one national championship. He's also Allen's former boss at Ben Davis High School. He says all good coaches have the IT factor.
He insists Allen has it, and more.
"He's genuine," Dullaghan says. "He says it like it is. He's honest, but never profane or egotistical. He never attacks people. He attacks their effort and their belief in themselves. He challenges them. He does it in a manner that doesn't demean them."
Dullaghan calls it "loving them into submission."
"Players don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. When they know you do care, they give you more than you imagined. They put it all out there. They don't want to let you down."
These Hoosiers haven't let Allen down. They won the games they were supposed to, and just missed winning two they weren't. They gave up nine points in the final five second to lose at Michigan State, 40-31. They came within seven points and a couple of missed plays of winning at powerhouse and No. 9 Penn State.
Allen connects to IU's football past, to the glory days of Bill Mallory and the unshakeable optimism of Terry Hoeppner, to the improbable 1967 Rose Bowl run, the dominating 1945 Big Ten championship and the zany Holiday Bowl victory under Lee Corso.
Because of this, Dullaghan insists, the best is still ahead.
"I don't know how soon," he says, "but Indiana will win a Big Ten championship. It's going to happen."
Players Mentioned
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