Indiana University Athletics
State of the (Art) Program: Building
5/28/2019 3:51:00 PM | Football
Fewer than 100 days now remain to Indiana kicking off its 2019 football season, Aug. 31 against Ball State at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. IU head coach Tom Allen here provides a broad overview of where he feels his program stands heading into summer preparation for the fall campaign.
By Andy Graham
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The artistic renderings, perched on stands, are pretty much everyplace one looks in Tom Allen's office.
They depict varying views of how the new Indiana football locker room currently taking shape underneath Memorial Stadium's west stands will look when completed this summer.
So the planned 25,000-square-foot facility isn't reality just yet. It remains a vision. But it's already coming together.
And that seems analogous to Allen's program as a whole.
Foundational pieces for what Allen wants to build keep coming into place. And the vision Allen has for the program continues to resonate with players, prospects, fans, boosters and the Hoosier community.
Hoosier football fans have had their patience tried for decades. But in the wake of two 5-7 seasons that had their share of disappointment, many people are not just getting on board with Allen, they are doing so with increasing enthusiasm and optimism.
Because they know the plan is long-term. And they can see it taking shape.
Allen expounded upon that and related topics during an extensive interview regarding the state of the program with IUHoosiers.com.
Below are excerpts from that interview, grouped by general topic.
RECRUITING, PART I: WHAT WORKS
Recruiting is the life blood of any program. Indiana's 2019 signees, on the heels of a potent 2018 group, constitute IU's highest-rated class since internet player ratings started about a quarter-century ago. And the Hoosiers are already off to a strong start with the 2020 class.
Tiawan Mullen – one of seven 2019 Indiana signees to merit a four-star rating from at least one of the recruiting services – showed how much IU's case resonated with him during a recruiting visit to Allen's office.
Mullen, a cornerback from Fort Lauderdale who played in the 2019 All-American Bowl, asked Allen for a piece of paper.
"I didn't say anything and he was just writing on his own," Allen recalled, "and he wrote down 50/26/10."
Those were numbers Allen had previously cited to his Hoosiers, reflecting the years since Indiana made the Rose Bowl, the last time it won a bowl game and the last time it had a winning season. Motivational numbers.
"I didn't even know where he got it from," Allen said of Mullen. "(I think) he watched it off of YouTube.
"He said, 'Coach, we're going to do all three of those things when I get here.' He signed it and put a date on it and told me that he was coming to Indiana. How about that?"
Mullen told Matt Weaver of Peegs.com why he signed that pledge to Allen.
"What drew me to him is, whenever me and my mom would talk to him, we could tell that he was a very special guy," Mullen said of Allen. "He is someone that puts God and family first and he really cares about his players. He cares more about them as people than he does as football players and that means a lot to me.
"He wants to win games and I want to win games, but it is about more than that. It is about winning in life, and he can help me do that."
Mullen also told Weaver he thinks Indiana will win more games soon. He saw the same sort of transformation in high school:
"I believe in that a lot, and I'm very focused on making that happen. I feel like we're the underdogs, and that is similar to what it was like for me and my teammates at Coconut Creek H.S. We went from a 1-9 team early in my career to a playoff team.
"I feel like at Indiana we're going to ball out and make a name and make some noise. And how we're going to do it will be in a first class way."
Now that Allen is in his fourth year on the IU staff, having arrived as the defensive coordinator in 2016, he's had more time to develop the in-depth relationships so crucial to recruiting, going back to the freshman seasons of players graduating from high school this spring.
Allen noted how important that was with Matthew Bedford – an offensive tackle in the 2019 class who graduated early from Cordova (Tenn.) High and was a January enrollee at Indiana, where he impressed everybody during spring practice.
SEC schools wanted Bedford badly. They didn't get him.
"I think we really are building relationships with the families," Allen said. "I keep coming back to Matt Bedford. Even though he wasn't a four-star out of high school, the kid is going to be, if he stays healthy, an NFL guy. He's going to be really good. And we knew it.
"One reason we got him is because you identify guys that fit who you are. I think you have to do a good job of figuring that out.
"If all he cared about was going to the NFL, then he never would've picked Indiana. He would've picked South Carolina or Mississippi State. The things that we value here, and that are our strengths:
"(Number one) which is you want to get a world-class education…
"Number two, the family piece. That is to make those moms and dads, or whoever it is that is in their life, make them feel so valued. (It's) 'You're going to take care of my son, and you're going to help him become the man that I want him to be' … you had a mom and a dad who cared about those two key things.
"And then you mix in the faith component to it. If a family cares about that, we stick out in those areas. Those are things that you're not going to get at just any ol' place."
RECRUITING PART II: A SOUTHERN STRATEGY
Tom Allen is a born and bred Hoosier, and it naturally behooves IU to recruit its home state and contiguous states well. Allen is in the process of doing so.
IU's 2019 recruiting class, according to 247 Sports, contained three of the state's top five prospects: Avon running back Sampson James, Carmel defensive end Beau Robbins and Andrean outside-linebacker Cameron Williams.
That marked the first time ever the Hoosiers had such a haul in the 247 listings. IU, in fact, had never recruited more than one of the state's top five prospects in any of the previous 20 years.
Decatur Central defensive back Larry Tracy III gave Indiana four of the state's top 12 for 2019. IU got four of the state's top 17 players in 2018 and seven of the state's top 21 in 2017. Allen clearly is not neglecting his home state.
But Allen began his career coaching at the high school level in Florida, and coached at the college level there – at South Florida – right before arriving in Bloomington. As a result, he and his staff look at Florida as akin to an "in-state" situation,
given Allen's status and reputation there.
Coming out of the spring and counting the incoming 2019 class, IU's roster featured a whopping 26 players from Florida. That was only three fewer than those hailing from Indiana.
Allen indicated IU's recruiting pitch down south isn't clouded by the program's history of struggles that are better known in Big Ten country.
"We still fight a lot of perceptual things for the Midwest kids," Allen said. "We have a stronger appeal further away, at this point. I was talking to Kane (Wommack, IU's defensive coordinator) this morning and he has just been so amazed by our perception in the south. It is really high.
"They are shocked when they hear the numbers…26 years, now it's 28 years, since we won a bowl game. They are like, 'How is that possible? You guys are right there.' They view us as being right on the heels of Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan State.
"They see us right there with those guys because they see the games (on TV) and they watch us play and they know that it's the fourth quarter and we've got a chance to go and win the game. You don't get the derogatory stuff down there.
They are like, 'They're in the Big Ten. That's awesome.' So that's kind of how they view it."
Allen has devoted considerable resources to recruiting Florida and other places down south.
"It's grown since I've been here," he said. "We have almost every coach down there. We have seven of the 10 (assistants working Florida.) I've put so many down there and kept them in areas, and treat it like our four- to six-hour radius (here).
"I want guys that want to be here. We'll go and get a kid like Jerome Johnson (a redshirt junior defensive tackle from Mississippi) who didn't have a whole lot going on and now he could be an NFL guy. Those guys are down there.
"But we will always start here first and give them a chance. A guy like Sampson James, he committed to Ohio State, but we stayed kind of in the periphery and just kept in front of him. Then he finally saw that this is where he wanted to be."
Allen's high school tenure in the Tampa area cemented his reputation there and his stint as South Florida's defensive coordinator under Willie Taggart did the same in Miami and environs.
"When I went to USF as the DC … the way we turned the defense around so fast, and did it predominantly with kids from the Miami area (sent a message)," Allen said. "We had a ton of kids on our team from that area.
"So those coaches immediately just latched onto me to say, 'Hey, that's the guy that was at South Florida when everything changed.' I was with Willie so it was just a great connection with them. So that now connected the whole south part of the state to me."
"And now … I go down there and it is an immediate connection to, 'Hey, that's one of our guys.' That's how we got (sophomore defensive end) James Head, because his coach had a player that played at South Florida."
"Getting Tiawan (Mullen) was huge because he's like the pied piper down there," Allen said regarding Miami. "They know him, they want to play with him, and the coaches are like, 'Man, you got that guy?'"
"You get the kids from (Tampa) Plant. There are four of them and they're all good players, and they're playing and they're going to be playing. And now you've got James Miller from Armwood (just outside Tampa, where Allen coached in 1995 and 1996) … so that just continues to grow, when the kid does well."
And that includes kids doing well off the field, too.
"There is a lot of trust being built that we're going to take care of their guys, and what I mean by that is we're going to help them become men," Allen reiterated. "We're going to hold them accountable. We're going to make them go to class.
They're going to do little things right.
"We're going to teach them to be the husband and father that we want them to be, that their families want them to be, and that their coaches want them to be."
Indiana has sent its share of players to the NFL in recent seasons. And Allen knows that resonates, too. He knows how important that is, to the general perception of the program. But he is resolute that IU is known for more — much more.
"There is some truth to the fact that, at a lot of schools, it can become so football focused, and you're just going there to play ball," Allen said. "Most people want more than that. They really do.
"I can play ball anywhere, but if I can play ball and get a great education and get a chance to be developed as a man … then that is what those coaches want for their boys, and that's what families want for their sons.
"That, to me, is what is resonating now. To me the next step is just continuing to be successful, close the gap on the field, and stay true to who we are. And the final piece, for me, is the chance that you can be one of the reasons why we break through. And that appeals to some kids."
COORDINATING CHANGE (DEFENSE)
Allen was overseeing new coordinators on both sides of the ball this spring, Kane Wommack on defense and Kalen DeBoer on offense. Both seemed to click, and both have players excited.
Wommack is in many respects a son of the south, so recruiting below the Mason-Dixon Line should come somewhat naturally.
Born in Missouri, Wommack played his college football at Arkansas and Southern Mississippi. His coaching stops have included Tennessee-Martin, Jacksonville State, Mississippi (where his father Dave was defensive coordinator, and the linebacker coach was Tom Allen), Eastern Illinois and South Alabama.
When Allen divested himself of IU defensive coordinator responsibilities this past December, he elevated erstwhile linebackers coach Wommack, and has subsequently seen Wommack grow into the role.
"Kane left our staff (at Ole Miss) and went to Eastern Illinois to be the DC," Allen said. "Now, first of all, most guys don't go straight from being a (grad assistant) to a coordinator, I don't care what level it is, and especially at the Division 1AA level. But he did that role for two years and did a great job there. Then he did the same thing at South Alabama, moving up a level.
"I wanted to see that from him. And he did it. Then he came here for a whole year and was just an assistant again. And I thought that was really big, because I thought he needed to see how I had kind of shaped the defense."
While Dave and Kane Wommack and Tom Allen have long subscribed to roughly the same 4-2-5 defensive approach, Allen needed the younger Wommack to absorb the IU-based version.
"Yeah, we came from the same system, but kind of put our own personalities on it. He did the same thing when he left," Allen said. "And we talked all the time during the season, and the off-season, and he's probably the one guy I talked with the most. I shared ideas and he shared ideas with me. But I thought it was important for him to be with us for a year, watching me call it, to learn how we were doing it here.
"When I turned it over to him here, I was intentionally not part of any defensive staff meetings for the first two weeks. I just wanted them to learn to look to him, and for him to handle all of it. He went over some things, some adjustments he wanted to make, and we went over that together, so I knew what he was doing. But I just felt like it was important for him (to lead the meetings on his own)."
Allen had two primary goals in that regard.
"Number one, I wanted to be more involved in the offense and, number two, I wanted him to have (the defensive staff and players) to look to him. Otherwise, the natural tendency is to look to me. You get into a meeting and there's a little sticking point, you know, 'How are we going to do it the right way?' And I wanted them looking to him. I intentionally was not there and it kind of helped them grow together.
"You get in the staff room, (several people) might have good ideas, but there's only one person in charge. They'd been assistants together. Now it's a new dynamic. So I felt that was important to let him have that time.
"So I thought it was a really, really good spring. The defensive staff is close. They do a great job together. And they had to work through that dynamic. And I think he brings some new things.
"When I meet (individually) with the players, they are so excited about the defense."
One reason for that is they know the defense better and can more readily accept adjustments. A combined total of 40 players saw action as true freshmen or redshirt freshmen the past two seasons, the majority of them on defense. Of the 16 true freshmen who played in 2018, 10 played defense.
"There's no doubt that we had so many young guys a year ago (and) those young guys now feel different," Allen said. "A year ago, they're trying just not to screw up. Now, they're trying to make plays.
"It's a completely different feel because they have the system under their belt and they have a year of experience under their belt. We're still not 'old,' but we're 'an experienced young team.' That's kind of what I call our team. Experienced, young team, especially on defense.
"Freshmen and sophomores are going to be doing a lot of the playing. We've got a good older core, but there's not a lot of them. You've got one defensive lineman (Allen Stallings IV), you've got one linebacker (Reakwon Jones), and two corners (Andre Brown Jr., A-Shon Riggins) and zero safeties who are seniors. So that's it, for seniors on our defense.
"It's just a very young group of guys. You have a bunch of guys who are freshmen and sophomores, whether it's redshirt freshmen, true freshmen, redshirt sophomores or sophomores – in those four categories, you've got a ton of guys.
"But those guys are all excited about how we did a few things a bit different in the spring on defense. So Kane just got them sort of re-energized, I thought. Just a lot of confidence."
Allen saw tangible evidence of that during spring practice.
"They're playing faster," he said. "They can feel that. They feel like they've got depth. A lot of guys are competing (for playing time), and they know it. They can't let up. That's what forces, even in the summertime, (the attitude of), 'I can't miss something because, if I do, this guy is going to beat me out.' And there's nothing like that."
COORDINATING CHANGE (OFFENSE)
Allen is seeing the same sort of thing, the same excitement from players on offense since the advent of DeBoer.
While the difference is just one letter in the surname, IU's transition from retired offensive coordinator Mike DeBord to newcomer DeBoer probably portends a bigger on-field alteration.
What Indiana does offensively might not change radically, but how it is done will. Asked about the transition to DeBoer's approach during spring ball, Allen said:
"It went really, really well. I think it has been very positive. I go through and meet with all the players and I wanted in their own words how they felt about where we are right now coming out of spring ball, and there is a lot of excitement in our guys.
"You can just sense it in their voice and you can see it in their eyes. They really like the stuff that Coach (DeBoer) has added to our offense. There are certain concepts…inside zone is inside zone…outside zone is outside zone…that stuff doesn't change…power is power. (But) it's more of the way he's building it.
"I think they see the concepts – and the system part of it – that's got so much potential to grow. I think they see the ability for us to be very multiple, a lot more multiple than we've been in a lot of different ways. They see that and that excites them. They feel like we can maximize our roster by what we're going to be doing in terms of our receiver skill, our O-linemen, and our quarterbacks."
DeBoer will have important decisions to make. They include sorting out what shapes up as a spirited quarterback competition between returning starter Peyton Ramsey, the school's career completion percentage leader (.658) and a pair of talented redshirt freshmen in Michael Penix Jr. and Jack Tuttle, the latter having transferred from Utah for the spring semester with immediate eligibility.
Allen is gaining faith in DeBoer's judgement and considers him somewhat of a kindred spirit. The personalities may differ somewhat, with DeBoer less boisterous, but both men worked their way up from the small-college ranks. And both built reputations for the quick turnaround of football fortunes, for the better, upon their arrival on campus.
"He kind of exudes a quiet confidence," Allen said of DeBoer. "He's not a real rah-rah guy, but he believes in what he's doing and he's got a track record of success.
"He's been at places similar to where I've been to where he's had to adapt. When you're coaching NAIA football you've got to be able to…you recruit yes, but it's not like you just cookie cutter everything, you've got to really be creative and you really have to be a guy that can utilize your personnel to maximize the output."
If Indiana has had more than its share of football misfortune over the decades, Eastern Michigan's gridiron history is even more dire. But DeBoer joined head coach Chris Creighton (a former Allen mentor at Wabash College in Indiana) at
EMU and in 2016 helped the Eagles to their first winning season since 1995.
"Eastern Michigan, that's a tough job, now," Allen said with an appreciative grimace. "(DeBoer) was a part of the initial staff that was part of the turnaround. That was impressive to me.
"And Kalen was part of that initial staff that went in there and turned it around. And, trust me, they had to be very creative on offense to make things happen."
DeBoer then helped Fresno State go from 120th nationally in total offense to 47th. The Bulldogs went 4-20 the previous two years before DeBoer's arrival but, during his two years as coordinator, went 22-6.
"They were 1-10 or something like that, 1-11, the year before he got there. Then it completely changed," Allen said. "They had a Top 25 offense in the country, year two.
"So just being able to have a track record of creating change, changing cultures, creating belief. Doing it in a creative way. That's what appealed to me with Kalen. And he's brought that with him here.
"He also has got a very comprehensive system of preparation. And we've kind of grown our summer of work because of his influence, and the things he feels we need to do, by adding an extra player practice and doing some more things."
IN THE GOOD OL' SUMMERTIME, PLAYERS LEAD
Allen, while incorporating DeBoer's input, has also structurally revamped the way IU is approaching the player-led summer workouts.
"In our Leadership Council, we have every different position represented," Allen said. "I made them come up with a 'vision statement' for their position. The players came up with it themselves.
"So if you're an offensive lineman in our program, this is how it's going to be and what you're going to be. We made them create it and give it to each position coach.
"And then I had each guy write three things that they've got to work on, that we've got recorded, and each coach has a copy of it and I've got a copy of it (as we head into) this summer. And the leaders of those groups are going to have it, too.
So it's all about accountability. Every single guy has three things he's supposed to be working on."
Which allows team leaders to approach teammates with specific, substantive critiques rather than vague exhortations.
"What I'm trying to do is create confidence in these leaders to confront their teammates," Allen said. "If you don't know what to confront them about, it's, 'Hey, just work hard.' The biggest thing we've lacked here, since I've been here, is strong verbal leadership.
"Leadership by example is not leadership. That's just doing your job. We've had too much of guys just doing their job. Doing your job is not a bad thing, obviously. It's a good base level to start with. But it's not leadership.
"You can't lead anybody if you don't talk, and that's been our biggest problem. (Former IU All-American linebacker and current Pittsburgh Steeler) Tegray Scales finally figured it out. He and (Greg) Gooch, those two guys, my second year here, they took the defense over. They didn't take the team over, but they took the defense over.
"We really haven't had that happen on offense since I've been here. The guys will tell you the last guy who did it was Nate Sudfeld (now possessed of a Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl ring). He's the last guy that ran the team on offense. And it's the last time we were really elite on offense.
"So I've been trying to change (that) and not just talk about it, trying to find ways to help our guys, giving them tangible things to confront (their teammates) about. It's hard to confront a teammate. It's hard to 'call you out.' That's not comfortable. Some guys, by personality, have that in them, but most guys don't.
"Now they're going to have specifics for each player to address. And each guy's 'one word' (motto), too. Everybody is going to have your one word and the three things you're supposed to be working on and you're going to be accountable for that (by) both the coaches and the players. The leadership guys are going to know that."
It's no accident Allen cited former quarterbacks and linebackers as successful leaders of past Hoosier teams. He considers leadership an inherent part of those positions. And that could well prove a factor as to which quarterback eventually earns the starting role in 2019.
"A guy like Peyton Ramsey knows he needs to be more verbal, and our other quarterbacks need to be more verbal," Allen said. "Michael Penix has got to be able to step up, if a receiver isn't running a route right (and say something).
"(Former Colts star) Peyton Manning runs the team … I guarantee you he did at Tennessee. You know he did. So that, to me, is what we've got to get to. And it needs to be, in my mind, preferably a quarterback and a linebacker."
Allen acknowledged he has to give Tuttle, who only arrived this past semester, more time to get to know teammates before he can expect the sort of leadership traits he wants to see out of Ramsey and Penix, who have both been in Bloomington longer.
But Allen thinks Tuttle's personality lends itself to a leadership role. "I think he can (lead) and I think he has to," Allen said. "The position demands it."
IU's coaches can and will run program meetings in June and could do the same in July, but Allen is opting to have players lead the meetings in the latter month to take more "ownership" of their respective positions and units.
Not that the coaches won't still monitor things from afar.
"Our whole strength staff gets to be out there during player practices," Allen said. "They'll see everything. They'll know if this guy is going off, or if this guy needs to tone it down a bit.
"I know Coy (Cronk, the senior left tackle) is going to be a bull in the china shop sometimes. We've already seen that a little bit. He took a group of guys and just dog-cussed the offensive line for about 20 minutes (laughs). And it was, like,
'Hey, love the passion, love the energy, but let's have it a bit more constructive.'
"But that's him, though. And even Simon (Stepaniak, the fifth-year senior right guard). He said, 'Coach, I've seen what you're talking about. That whole 'lead by example' thing doesn't work.' And I said, 'I know it doesn't work.' So he knows he's got to take this thing over. And we're seeing signs of that."
" … It's not going to be perfect. Some guys are probably going to say too much at times, get on guys too much. They have to learn to work through that. That's part of growing."
GROWING 5-7 INTO 7-5 … OR BETTER
Indiana was within a single score in the fourth quarter of losses to Michigan, Purdue, Minnesota, Penn State and Michigan State last fall. So the Hoosiers were in position to win or tie late in five of their seven losses.
The year before that, it was four of the seven, against Michigan, Michigan State, Maryland and Purdue. And that was an autumn when IU spent some time with essentially zero healthy quarterbacks.
Allen refers to both of those campaigns as disappointments, though the potential to break through for a bowl bid was clearly there both years. He understands that the IU fan base was also disappointed.
He asks for patience, which he knows long-suffering Hoosier fans have shown for decades-on-end at times, because he's avoiding ephemeral remedies and building for the long term. But Allen wants that breakthrough soon and wants it as much as anybody.
"We're trying to build this thing for the long haul, and not take short-cuts and quick fixes," Allen said. "We're trying to have a program that can sustainably be what we want it to be. It takes patience and we're in an impatient world.
"I don't want to go through another 5-7 season, either. I totally 100 percent agree that's not what we want, but at the same time I don't control a lot of things. I just think it's a matter of stay the course. If we weren't recruiting at a high level…the thing about that is…a lot of those kids aren't even here yet…the majority of the 2019 class is not even on campus yet. Obviously kids we're recruiting right now won't be here for another year. And the (2018) class has only been here a year.
"So you've got your top(-rated) two classes that are the youngest two groups of guys on the team, in terms of just raw talent. So to me, it just takes time, but I get it. Shoot, I wanted us to break through two years ago, and I thought we could in our first year.
"I want us to play better football in 2019 than we did in 2018, and I believe we will. But at the same time we're still going to be a young football team. That's what they've got to understand. We're not going to be…I mean we've got 12 seniors right now and 10 juniors…that's it…that's one class in two (in terms of a normal-size class).
"So you're talking about a young football team that has some experience, and has a core of some older guys that are good players, yes, but not a lot of them. When you've got 22 guys that make up your junior and senior class out of 85 scholarships, that's not very many."
But there is already improved depth, team-wide, especially on defense. Allen feels the recent influx of young, fleet talent puts the Hoosiers in a more competitive position moving forward.
"The bench is a great motivator," Allen said. "But the bench can't be utilized if there's nobody to take your place. And that'd been the case with us, so it's been hard.
"Tegray Scales was an awesome guy – good thing, because there was nobody to take his place. That's why he played too many snaps. Now we're at the point where you've got good players, but there are guys behind them who can do a great job, as well, and haven't played as much."
And are, therefore, all the more hungry to play.
So Allen thinks winning football isn't too far away.
"It's really a very young group of guys, but at the same time, I have high expectations," he said. "I expect us (eventually) to be a top 25 defense and a top 25 offense, and if we do those two things we're going to be a top 25 football team. So you go from where you feel like you've been on the outside looking in, to you win a few games here and there and everything can completely flip.
"I've lived it and I've seen it. I've been places where that's happened and it just catapults you. It does."
It's going to take winning more of those one-score games against the conference's big boys. But Allen isn't shrinking from that challenge. He and his players are embracing it.
"I would just tell people to believe in what we're doing and see how we're recruiting and see how we're developing," he said. "We've been able, in this off-season, to secure our strength staff and keep these guys here. That was an enormous, enormous thing."
INVESTMENTS CAN AND DO PAY OFF
IU's Memorial Stadium was finished for the 1960 season at a cost in today's dollar equivalent of $39 million.
But the stadium has garnered roughly $100 million in improvements just since 2009, most recently the completion of the $53-million South End Zone Student-Athlete Excellence Center that left the facility fully enclosed.
The North End Zone Student-Athlete Development Center, which came on-line in 2009, also helps ensure that IU football players and their colleagues from other sports can have virtually all their student-athlete needs met in one facility.
And the on-going investment in people, too, is continuing apace for IU football.
By 2017, funding for assistant coaches had exceeded $4 million and that number continues to rise.
David Ballou and Dr. Matt Rhea, who have shown impressive results since taking over the IU football strength and conditioning program last year, had respective salaries of $215,000 and $150,000 when they arrived. The corresponding numbers are now $400,0000 and $375,000, helping repel NFL teams and others who have sought their services.
"People have no idea how big it was to keep Dave Ballou and Dr. Rhea and tie their contracts into my contract," Allen said, "and to keep them here for the long term.
"That, to me, should show you that we're building some foundational things…the infrastructure of the facilities…those things help and they make a difference."
And then there is that new locker room that will be great for the program – and prospects and their families – this fall. With a player's lounge, a recruiting lounge, 130 new player lockers, coaches' lockers and all sorts of fancy bells and whistles.
Allen has recruited well. He'll recruit better now.
"We've always showed them our (old) locker room and we've never shied away from it, but it was a major negative," Allen said. "Now you've got something that's a 'Wow!' look compared to before."
Eliciting a "Wow!" from recruits?
That takes investment.
And there is an art to it.
Indiana football is showing capacity in both realms.
And that could make for a pretty picture.
By Andy Graham
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The artistic renderings, perched on stands, are pretty much everyplace one looks in Tom Allen's office.
They depict varying views of how the new Indiana football locker room currently taking shape underneath Memorial Stadium's west stands will look when completed this summer.
So the planned 25,000-square-foot facility isn't reality just yet. It remains a vision. But it's already coming together.
And that seems analogous to Allen's program as a whole.
Foundational pieces for what Allen wants to build keep coming into place. And the vision Allen has for the program continues to resonate with players, prospects, fans, boosters and the Hoosier community.
Hoosier football fans have had their patience tried for decades. But in the wake of two 5-7 seasons that had their share of disappointment, many people are not just getting on board with Allen, they are doing so with increasing enthusiasm and optimism.
Because they know the plan is long-term. And they can see it taking shape.
Allen expounded upon that and related topics during an extensive interview regarding the state of the program with IUHoosiers.com.
Below are excerpts from that interview, grouped by general topic.
RECRUITING, PART I: WHAT WORKS
Recruiting is the life blood of any program. Indiana's 2019 signees, on the heels of a potent 2018 group, constitute IU's highest-rated class since internet player ratings started about a quarter-century ago. And the Hoosiers are already off to a strong start with the 2020 class.
Tiawan Mullen – one of seven 2019 Indiana signees to merit a four-star rating from at least one of the recruiting services – showed how much IU's case resonated with him during a recruiting visit to Allen's office.
Mullen, a cornerback from Fort Lauderdale who played in the 2019 All-American Bowl, asked Allen for a piece of paper.
"I didn't say anything and he was just writing on his own," Allen recalled, "and he wrote down 50/26/10."
Those were numbers Allen had previously cited to his Hoosiers, reflecting the years since Indiana made the Rose Bowl, the last time it won a bowl game and the last time it had a winning season. Motivational numbers.
"I didn't even know where he got it from," Allen said of Mullen. "(I think) he watched it off of YouTube.
"He said, 'Coach, we're going to do all three of those things when I get here.' He signed it and put a date on it and told me that he was coming to Indiana. How about that?"
Mullen told Matt Weaver of Peegs.com why he signed that pledge to Allen.
"What drew me to him is, whenever me and my mom would talk to him, we could tell that he was a very special guy," Mullen said of Allen. "He is someone that puts God and family first and he really cares about his players. He cares more about them as people than he does as football players and that means a lot to me.
"He wants to win games and I want to win games, but it is about more than that. It is about winning in life, and he can help me do that."
Mullen also told Weaver he thinks Indiana will win more games soon. He saw the same sort of transformation in high school:
"I believe in that a lot, and I'm very focused on making that happen. I feel like we're the underdogs, and that is similar to what it was like for me and my teammates at Coconut Creek H.S. We went from a 1-9 team early in my career to a playoff team.
"I feel like at Indiana we're going to ball out and make a name and make some noise. And how we're going to do it will be in a first class way."
Now that Allen is in his fourth year on the IU staff, having arrived as the defensive coordinator in 2016, he's had more time to develop the in-depth relationships so crucial to recruiting, going back to the freshman seasons of players graduating from high school this spring.
Allen noted how important that was with Matthew Bedford – an offensive tackle in the 2019 class who graduated early from Cordova (Tenn.) High and was a January enrollee at Indiana, where he impressed everybody during spring practice.
SEC schools wanted Bedford badly. They didn't get him.
"I think we really are building relationships with the families," Allen said. "I keep coming back to Matt Bedford. Even though he wasn't a four-star out of high school, the kid is going to be, if he stays healthy, an NFL guy. He's going to be really good. And we knew it.
"One reason we got him is because you identify guys that fit who you are. I think you have to do a good job of figuring that out.
"If all he cared about was going to the NFL, then he never would've picked Indiana. He would've picked South Carolina or Mississippi State. The things that we value here, and that are our strengths:
"(Number one) which is you want to get a world-class education…
"Number two, the family piece. That is to make those moms and dads, or whoever it is that is in their life, make them feel so valued. (It's) 'You're going to take care of my son, and you're going to help him become the man that I want him to be' … you had a mom and a dad who cared about those two key things.
"And then you mix in the faith component to it. If a family cares about that, we stick out in those areas. Those are things that you're not going to get at just any ol' place."
RECRUITING PART II: A SOUTHERN STRATEGY
Tom Allen is a born and bred Hoosier, and it naturally behooves IU to recruit its home state and contiguous states well. Allen is in the process of doing so.
IU's 2019 recruiting class, according to 247 Sports, contained three of the state's top five prospects: Avon running back Sampson James, Carmel defensive end Beau Robbins and Andrean outside-linebacker Cameron Williams.
That marked the first time ever the Hoosiers had such a haul in the 247 listings. IU, in fact, had never recruited more than one of the state's top five prospects in any of the previous 20 years.
Decatur Central defensive back Larry Tracy III gave Indiana four of the state's top 12 for 2019. IU got four of the state's top 17 players in 2018 and seven of the state's top 21 in 2017. Allen clearly is not neglecting his home state.
But Allen began his career coaching at the high school level in Florida, and coached at the college level there – at South Florida – right before arriving in Bloomington. As a result, he and his staff look at Florida as akin to an "in-state" situation,
given Allen's status and reputation there.
Coming out of the spring and counting the incoming 2019 class, IU's roster featured a whopping 26 players from Florida. That was only three fewer than those hailing from Indiana.
Allen indicated IU's recruiting pitch down south isn't clouded by the program's history of struggles that are better known in Big Ten country.
"We still fight a lot of perceptual things for the Midwest kids," Allen said. "We have a stronger appeal further away, at this point. I was talking to Kane (Wommack, IU's defensive coordinator) this morning and he has just been so amazed by our perception in the south. It is really high.
"They are shocked when they hear the numbers…26 years, now it's 28 years, since we won a bowl game. They are like, 'How is that possible? You guys are right there.' They view us as being right on the heels of Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan State.
"They see us right there with those guys because they see the games (on TV) and they watch us play and they know that it's the fourth quarter and we've got a chance to go and win the game. You don't get the derogatory stuff down there.
They are like, 'They're in the Big Ten. That's awesome.' So that's kind of how they view it."
Allen has devoted considerable resources to recruiting Florida and other places down south.
"It's grown since I've been here," he said. "We have almost every coach down there. We have seven of the 10 (assistants working Florida.) I've put so many down there and kept them in areas, and treat it like our four- to six-hour radius (here).
"I want guys that want to be here. We'll go and get a kid like Jerome Johnson (a redshirt junior defensive tackle from Mississippi) who didn't have a whole lot going on and now he could be an NFL guy. Those guys are down there.
"But we will always start here first and give them a chance. A guy like Sampson James, he committed to Ohio State, but we stayed kind of in the periphery and just kept in front of him. Then he finally saw that this is where he wanted to be."
Allen's high school tenure in the Tampa area cemented his reputation there and his stint as South Florida's defensive coordinator under Willie Taggart did the same in Miami and environs.
"When I went to USF as the DC … the way we turned the defense around so fast, and did it predominantly with kids from the Miami area (sent a message)," Allen said. "We had a ton of kids on our team from that area.
"So those coaches immediately just latched onto me to say, 'Hey, that's the guy that was at South Florida when everything changed.' I was with Willie so it was just a great connection with them. So that now connected the whole south part of the state to me."
"And now … I go down there and it is an immediate connection to, 'Hey, that's one of our guys.' That's how we got (sophomore defensive end) James Head, because his coach had a player that played at South Florida."
"Getting Tiawan (Mullen) was huge because he's like the pied piper down there," Allen said regarding Miami. "They know him, they want to play with him, and the coaches are like, 'Man, you got that guy?'"
"You get the kids from (Tampa) Plant. There are four of them and they're all good players, and they're playing and they're going to be playing. And now you've got James Miller from Armwood (just outside Tampa, where Allen coached in 1995 and 1996) … so that just continues to grow, when the kid does well."
And that includes kids doing well off the field, too.
"There is a lot of trust being built that we're going to take care of their guys, and what I mean by that is we're going to help them become men," Allen reiterated. "We're going to hold them accountable. We're going to make them go to class.
They're going to do little things right.
"We're going to teach them to be the husband and father that we want them to be, that their families want them to be, and that their coaches want them to be."
Indiana has sent its share of players to the NFL in recent seasons. And Allen knows that resonates, too. He knows how important that is, to the general perception of the program. But he is resolute that IU is known for more — much more.
"There is some truth to the fact that, at a lot of schools, it can become so football focused, and you're just going there to play ball," Allen said. "Most people want more than that. They really do.
"I can play ball anywhere, but if I can play ball and get a great education and get a chance to be developed as a man … then that is what those coaches want for their boys, and that's what families want for their sons.
"That, to me, is what is resonating now. To me the next step is just continuing to be successful, close the gap on the field, and stay true to who we are. And the final piece, for me, is the chance that you can be one of the reasons why we break through. And that appeals to some kids."
COORDINATING CHANGE (DEFENSE)
Allen was overseeing new coordinators on both sides of the ball this spring, Kane Wommack on defense and Kalen DeBoer on offense. Both seemed to click, and both have players excited.
Wommack is in many respects a son of the south, so recruiting below the Mason-Dixon Line should come somewhat naturally.
Born in Missouri, Wommack played his college football at Arkansas and Southern Mississippi. His coaching stops have included Tennessee-Martin, Jacksonville State, Mississippi (where his father Dave was defensive coordinator, and the linebacker coach was Tom Allen), Eastern Illinois and South Alabama.
When Allen divested himself of IU defensive coordinator responsibilities this past December, he elevated erstwhile linebackers coach Wommack, and has subsequently seen Wommack grow into the role.
"Kane left our staff (at Ole Miss) and went to Eastern Illinois to be the DC," Allen said. "Now, first of all, most guys don't go straight from being a (grad assistant) to a coordinator, I don't care what level it is, and especially at the Division 1AA level. But he did that role for two years and did a great job there. Then he did the same thing at South Alabama, moving up a level.
"I wanted to see that from him. And he did it. Then he came here for a whole year and was just an assistant again. And I thought that was really big, because I thought he needed to see how I had kind of shaped the defense."
While Dave and Kane Wommack and Tom Allen have long subscribed to roughly the same 4-2-5 defensive approach, Allen needed the younger Wommack to absorb the IU-based version.
"Yeah, we came from the same system, but kind of put our own personalities on it. He did the same thing when he left," Allen said. "And we talked all the time during the season, and the off-season, and he's probably the one guy I talked with the most. I shared ideas and he shared ideas with me. But I thought it was important for him to be with us for a year, watching me call it, to learn how we were doing it here.
"When I turned it over to him here, I was intentionally not part of any defensive staff meetings for the first two weeks. I just wanted them to learn to look to him, and for him to handle all of it. He went over some things, some adjustments he wanted to make, and we went over that together, so I knew what he was doing. But I just felt like it was important for him (to lead the meetings on his own)."
Allen had two primary goals in that regard.
"Number one, I wanted to be more involved in the offense and, number two, I wanted him to have (the defensive staff and players) to look to him. Otherwise, the natural tendency is to look to me. You get into a meeting and there's a little sticking point, you know, 'How are we going to do it the right way?' And I wanted them looking to him. I intentionally was not there and it kind of helped them grow together.
"You get in the staff room, (several people) might have good ideas, but there's only one person in charge. They'd been assistants together. Now it's a new dynamic. So I felt that was important to let him have that time.
"So I thought it was a really, really good spring. The defensive staff is close. They do a great job together. And they had to work through that dynamic. And I think he brings some new things.
"When I meet (individually) with the players, they are so excited about the defense."
One reason for that is they know the defense better and can more readily accept adjustments. A combined total of 40 players saw action as true freshmen or redshirt freshmen the past two seasons, the majority of them on defense. Of the 16 true freshmen who played in 2018, 10 played defense.
"There's no doubt that we had so many young guys a year ago (and) those young guys now feel different," Allen said. "A year ago, they're trying just not to screw up. Now, they're trying to make plays.
"It's a completely different feel because they have the system under their belt and they have a year of experience under their belt. We're still not 'old,' but we're 'an experienced young team.' That's kind of what I call our team. Experienced, young team, especially on defense.
"Freshmen and sophomores are going to be doing a lot of the playing. We've got a good older core, but there's not a lot of them. You've got one defensive lineman (Allen Stallings IV), you've got one linebacker (Reakwon Jones), and two corners (Andre Brown Jr., A-Shon Riggins) and zero safeties who are seniors. So that's it, for seniors on our defense.
"It's just a very young group of guys. You have a bunch of guys who are freshmen and sophomores, whether it's redshirt freshmen, true freshmen, redshirt sophomores or sophomores – in those four categories, you've got a ton of guys.
"But those guys are all excited about how we did a few things a bit different in the spring on defense. So Kane just got them sort of re-energized, I thought. Just a lot of confidence."
Allen saw tangible evidence of that during spring practice.
"They're playing faster," he said. "They can feel that. They feel like they've got depth. A lot of guys are competing (for playing time), and they know it. They can't let up. That's what forces, even in the summertime, (the attitude of), 'I can't miss something because, if I do, this guy is going to beat me out.' And there's nothing like that."
COORDINATING CHANGE (OFFENSE)
Allen is seeing the same sort of thing, the same excitement from players on offense since the advent of DeBoer.
While the difference is just one letter in the surname, IU's transition from retired offensive coordinator Mike DeBord to newcomer DeBoer probably portends a bigger on-field alteration.
What Indiana does offensively might not change radically, but how it is done will. Asked about the transition to DeBoer's approach during spring ball, Allen said:
"It went really, really well. I think it has been very positive. I go through and meet with all the players and I wanted in their own words how they felt about where we are right now coming out of spring ball, and there is a lot of excitement in our guys.
"You can just sense it in their voice and you can see it in their eyes. They really like the stuff that Coach (DeBoer) has added to our offense. There are certain concepts…inside zone is inside zone…outside zone is outside zone…that stuff doesn't change…power is power. (But) it's more of the way he's building it.
"I think they see the concepts – and the system part of it – that's got so much potential to grow. I think they see the ability for us to be very multiple, a lot more multiple than we've been in a lot of different ways. They see that and that excites them. They feel like we can maximize our roster by what we're going to be doing in terms of our receiver skill, our O-linemen, and our quarterbacks."
DeBoer will have important decisions to make. They include sorting out what shapes up as a spirited quarterback competition between returning starter Peyton Ramsey, the school's career completion percentage leader (.658) and a pair of talented redshirt freshmen in Michael Penix Jr. and Jack Tuttle, the latter having transferred from Utah for the spring semester with immediate eligibility.
Allen is gaining faith in DeBoer's judgement and considers him somewhat of a kindred spirit. The personalities may differ somewhat, with DeBoer less boisterous, but both men worked their way up from the small-college ranks. And both built reputations for the quick turnaround of football fortunes, for the better, upon their arrival on campus.
"He kind of exudes a quiet confidence," Allen said of DeBoer. "He's not a real rah-rah guy, but he believes in what he's doing and he's got a track record of success.
"He's been at places similar to where I've been to where he's had to adapt. When you're coaching NAIA football you've got to be able to…you recruit yes, but it's not like you just cookie cutter everything, you've got to really be creative and you really have to be a guy that can utilize your personnel to maximize the output."
If Indiana has had more than its share of football misfortune over the decades, Eastern Michigan's gridiron history is even more dire. But DeBoer joined head coach Chris Creighton (a former Allen mentor at Wabash College in Indiana) at
EMU and in 2016 helped the Eagles to their first winning season since 1995.
"Eastern Michigan, that's a tough job, now," Allen said with an appreciative grimace. "(DeBoer) was a part of the initial staff that was part of the turnaround. That was impressive to me.
"And Kalen was part of that initial staff that went in there and turned it around. And, trust me, they had to be very creative on offense to make things happen."
DeBoer then helped Fresno State go from 120th nationally in total offense to 47th. The Bulldogs went 4-20 the previous two years before DeBoer's arrival but, during his two years as coordinator, went 22-6.
"They were 1-10 or something like that, 1-11, the year before he got there. Then it completely changed," Allen said. "They had a Top 25 offense in the country, year two.
"So just being able to have a track record of creating change, changing cultures, creating belief. Doing it in a creative way. That's what appealed to me with Kalen. And he's brought that with him here.
"He also has got a very comprehensive system of preparation. And we've kind of grown our summer of work because of his influence, and the things he feels we need to do, by adding an extra player practice and doing some more things."
IN THE GOOD OL' SUMMERTIME, PLAYERS LEAD
Allen, while incorporating DeBoer's input, has also structurally revamped the way IU is approaching the player-led summer workouts.
"In our Leadership Council, we have every different position represented," Allen said. "I made them come up with a 'vision statement' for their position. The players came up with it themselves.
"So if you're an offensive lineman in our program, this is how it's going to be and what you're going to be. We made them create it and give it to each position coach.
"And then I had each guy write three things that they've got to work on, that we've got recorded, and each coach has a copy of it and I've got a copy of it (as we head into) this summer. And the leaders of those groups are going to have it, too.
So it's all about accountability. Every single guy has three things he's supposed to be working on."
Which allows team leaders to approach teammates with specific, substantive critiques rather than vague exhortations.
"What I'm trying to do is create confidence in these leaders to confront their teammates," Allen said. "If you don't know what to confront them about, it's, 'Hey, just work hard.' The biggest thing we've lacked here, since I've been here, is strong verbal leadership.
"Leadership by example is not leadership. That's just doing your job. We've had too much of guys just doing their job. Doing your job is not a bad thing, obviously. It's a good base level to start with. But it's not leadership.
"You can't lead anybody if you don't talk, and that's been our biggest problem. (Former IU All-American linebacker and current Pittsburgh Steeler) Tegray Scales finally figured it out. He and (Greg) Gooch, those two guys, my second year here, they took the defense over. They didn't take the team over, but they took the defense over.
"We really haven't had that happen on offense since I've been here. The guys will tell you the last guy who did it was Nate Sudfeld (now possessed of a Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl ring). He's the last guy that ran the team on offense. And it's the last time we were really elite on offense.
"So I've been trying to change (that) and not just talk about it, trying to find ways to help our guys, giving them tangible things to confront (their teammates) about. It's hard to confront a teammate. It's hard to 'call you out.' That's not comfortable. Some guys, by personality, have that in them, but most guys don't.
"Now they're going to have specifics for each player to address. And each guy's 'one word' (motto), too. Everybody is going to have your one word and the three things you're supposed to be working on and you're going to be accountable for that (by) both the coaches and the players. The leadership guys are going to know that."
It's no accident Allen cited former quarterbacks and linebackers as successful leaders of past Hoosier teams. He considers leadership an inherent part of those positions. And that could well prove a factor as to which quarterback eventually earns the starting role in 2019.
"A guy like Peyton Ramsey knows he needs to be more verbal, and our other quarterbacks need to be more verbal," Allen said. "Michael Penix has got to be able to step up, if a receiver isn't running a route right (and say something).
"(Former Colts star) Peyton Manning runs the team … I guarantee you he did at Tennessee. You know he did. So that, to me, is what we've got to get to. And it needs to be, in my mind, preferably a quarterback and a linebacker."
Allen acknowledged he has to give Tuttle, who only arrived this past semester, more time to get to know teammates before he can expect the sort of leadership traits he wants to see out of Ramsey and Penix, who have both been in Bloomington longer.
But Allen thinks Tuttle's personality lends itself to a leadership role. "I think he can (lead) and I think he has to," Allen said. "The position demands it."
IU's coaches can and will run program meetings in June and could do the same in July, but Allen is opting to have players lead the meetings in the latter month to take more "ownership" of their respective positions and units.
Not that the coaches won't still monitor things from afar.
"Our whole strength staff gets to be out there during player practices," Allen said. "They'll see everything. They'll know if this guy is going off, or if this guy needs to tone it down a bit.
"I know Coy (Cronk, the senior left tackle) is going to be a bull in the china shop sometimes. We've already seen that a little bit. He took a group of guys and just dog-cussed the offensive line for about 20 minutes (laughs). And it was, like,
'Hey, love the passion, love the energy, but let's have it a bit more constructive.'
"But that's him, though. And even Simon (Stepaniak, the fifth-year senior right guard). He said, 'Coach, I've seen what you're talking about. That whole 'lead by example' thing doesn't work.' And I said, 'I know it doesn't work.' So he knows he's got to take this thing over. And we're seeing signs of that."
" … It's not going to be perfect. Some guys are probably going to say too much at times, get on guys too much. They have to learn to work through that. That's part of growing."
GROWING 5-7 INTO 7-5 … OR BETTER
Indiana was within a single score in the fourth quarter of losses to Michigan, Purdue, Minnesota, Penn State and Michigan State last fall. So the Hoosiers were in position to win or tie late in five of their seven losses.
The year before that, it was four of the seven, against Michigan, Michigan State, Maryland and Purdue. And that was an autumn when IU spent some time with essentially zero healthy quarterbacks.
Allen refers to both of those campaigns as disappointments, though the potential to break through for a bowl bid was clearly there both years. He understands that the IU fan base was also disappointed.
He asks for patience, which he knows long-suffering Hoosier fans have shown for decades-on-end at times, because he's avoiding ephemeral remedies and building for the long term. But Allen wants that breakthrough soon and wants it as much as anybody.
"We're trying to build this thing for the long haul, and not take short-cuts and quick fixes," Allen said. "We're trying to have a program that can sustainably be what we want it to be. It takes patience and we're in an impatient world.
"I don't want to go through another 5-7 season, either. I totally 100 percent agree that's not what we want, but at the same time I don't control a lot of things. I just think it's a matter of stay the course. If we weren't recruiting at a high level…the thing about that is…a lot of those kids aren't even here yet…the majority of the 2019 class is not even on campus yet. Obviously kids we're recruiting right now won't be here for another year. And the (2018) class has only been here a year.
"So you've got your top(-rated) two classes that are the youngest two groups of guys on the team, in terms of just raw talent. So to me, it just takes time, but I get it. Shoot, I wanted us to break through two years ago, and I thought we could in our first year.
"I want us to play better football in 2019 than we did in 2018, and I believe we will. But at the same time we're still going to be a young football team. That's what they've got to understand. We're not going to be…I mean we've got 12 seniors right now and 10 juniors…that's it…that's one class in two (in terms of a normal-size class).
"So you're talking about a young football team that has some experience, and has a core of some older guys that are good players, yes, but not a lot of them. When you've got 22 guys that make up your junior and senior class out of 85 scholarships, that's not very many."
But there is already improved depth, team-wide, especially on defense. Allen feels the recent influx of young, fleet talent puts the Hoosiers in a more competitive position moving forward.
"The bench is a great motivator," Allen said. "But the bench can't be utilized if there's nobody to take your place. And that'd been the case with us, so it's been hard.
"Tegray Scales was an awesome guy – good thing, because there was nobody to take his place. That's why he played too many snaps. Now we're at the point where you've got good players, but there are guys behind them who can do a great job, as well, and haven't played as much."
And are, therefore, all the more hungry to play.
So Allen thinks winning football isn't too far away.
"It's really a very young group of guys, but at the same time, I have high expectations," he said. "I expect us (eventually) to be a top 25 defense and a top 25 offense, and if we do those two things we're going to be a top 25 football team. So you go from where you feel like you've been on the outside looking in, to you win a few games here and there and everything can completely flip.
"I've lived it and I've seen it. I've been places where that's happened and it just catapults you. It does."
It's going to take winning more of those one-score games against the conference's big boys. But Allen isn't shrinking from that challenge. He and his players are embracing it.
"I would just tell people to believe in what we're doing and see how we're recruiting and see how we're developing," he said. "We've been able, in this off-season, to secure our strength staff and keep these guys here. That was an enormous, enormous thing."
INVESTMENTS CAN AND DO PAY OFF
IU's Memorial Stadium was finished for the 1960 season at a cost in today's dollar equivalent of $39 million.
But the stadium has garnered roughly $100 million in improvements just since 2009, most recently the completion of the $53-million South End Zone Student-Athlete Excellence Center that left the facility fully enclosed.
The North End Zone Student-Athlete Development Center, which came on-line in 2009, also helps ensure that IU football players and their colleagues from other sports can have virtually all their student-athlete needs met in one facility.
And the on-going investment in people, too, is continuing apace for IU football.
By 2017, funding for assistant coaches had exceeded $4 million and that number continues to rise.
David Ballou and Dr. Matt Rhea, who have shown impressive results since taking over the IU football strength and conditioning program last year, had respective salaries of $215,000 and $150,000 when they arrived. The corresponding numbers are now $400,0000 and $375,000, helping repel NFL teams and others who have sought their services.
"People have no idea how big it was to keep Dave Ballou and Dr. Rhea and tie their contracts into my contract," Allen said, "and to keep them here for the long term.
"That, to me, should show you that we're building some foundational things…the infrastructure of the facilities…those things help and they make a difference."
And then there is that new locker room that will be great for the program – and prospects and their families – this fall. With a player's lounge, a recruiting lounge, 130 new player lockers, coaches' lockers and all sorts of fancy bells and whistles.
Allen has recruited well. He'll recruit better now.
"We've always showed them our (old) locker room and we've never shied away from it, but it was a major negative," Allen said. "Now you've got something that's a 'Wow!' look compared to before."
Eliciting a "Wow!" from recruits?
That takes investment.
And there is an art to it.
Indiana football is showing capacity in both realms.
And that could make for a pretty picture.
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