Indiana University Athletics
Stay the Course – Tom Allen Won’t Stop Pushing
1/13/2021 12:00:00 PM | Football
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Tom Allen keeps pushing.
You know that, right?
Win or lose, earn national coaching honors or not, make history you want (beating Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin in the same season) or repeat one you don't (another bowl loss), it doesn't matter.
Allen has a vision, a dream, and he's built an Indiana football program positioned to achieve it, even amid pandemic-fueled uncertainty (a season postponed, then reinstated, then two games against Purdue called off).
"The adversity and challenges gave us an opportunity to find out who we are and who we want to be as a program," he says.
So, even as Allen considers what the just-concluded season has meant, he pushes for where he wants the Hoosiers to go, what he calls, "The next step."
"That's to win the Big Ten."
IU came tantalizingly close with a 6-1 conference record and a seven-point loss to national runner-up Ohio State, the only regular-season glitch. If the Hoosiers had scored a final touchdown in a game in Columbus, so riveting it had NBA superstar LeBron James tweeting Hoosier praise, Allen would have gone for two and the win, because glory doesn't come to the meek, and if you've ever seen IU play, you know meek is not in his DNA.
As Allen puts it, "If you have a dream in your heart, go after it, chase it. Don't ever live with regrets."
The regret-free Hoosiers will resume workouts next week. College transfers (including former Florida State wide receiver D.J. Matthews, ex-Michigan offensive lineman Zach Carpenter and former Ole Miss defensive end Ryder Anderson) and early enrollees will join a veteran group boosted by the return of such standouts as Ty Fryfogle (the Big Ten Receiver of the Year), husky Marcelino Ball (who missed last season with a torn ACL) and more.
This was a team that was ranked as high as No. 7 before finishing No. 12 in the AP Poll and No. 13 in the Coaches Poll.
IU has finished higher only twice in its program history -- it was ranked No. 4 in 1967 and 1945.
Guess what? More of the same is expected next season.
"That is what you strive for," Allen says with Zoom press conference intensity. "Now you have to live up to those expectations.
"Belief is the key. You've got to understand that we got here for a reason. We got here a certain way. Sometimes it is harder to stay there and keep growing than it is to get there. That is where you have to have a hungry football team, a hungry set of coaches."
IU has that hunger, and will soon add a new defensive coordinator to the mix after Kane Wommack left to take over the South Alabama program.
"It excites me to bring in a new defensive coordinator to put his personality and his identity and leadership within the realm of what we created," Allen says.
"I am excited for these younger players to have the opportunity to step up and grow and develop. That is why you recruit. It excites me to bring in a new infusion of guys that have that passion and want to come here and help us continue to build this program."
Having such success amid pandemic conditions, and doing it the right way behind a Love Each Other philosophy that inspired so many in and out of the program helped Allen win the AFCA National Coach of the Year award. He had earlier won Big Ten Coach of the Year honors.
To put it in perspective, only two other Hoosier coaches have won national awards -- John Pont in 1967 and Bo McMillin in 1945.
It's a "humbling" honor, Allen says, given the sacrifices he and his family made to achieve it.
Allen gave up a great high school coaching job at Indianapolis Ben Davis to start a decade-long college coaching odyssey (7 schools in 10 years) that would have broken a weaker man.
"I had no idea where I was going to end up," he says. "There were times where I almost went back to high school because I did not want to put my family through more hard moves, more uncertainty, no money, and all of those struggles that it creates.
"There is nothing special about me. I just stayed the course and had a belief in something. There were jobs I tried to get that I did not get. Guys even tease me about it now. They are like, 'Man I did not hire you, and now look where you are.'
"That is part of persevering. That is the grit piece in all of this."
Allen says the one over-riding factor that defines success in life is, "the ability to overcome setbacks and disappointments."
"If you have a dream in your heart," Allen adds, "stay the course and never give up."
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Tom Allen keeps pushing.
You know that, right?
Win or lose, earn national coaching honors or not, make history you want (beating Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin in the same season) or repeat one you don't (another bowl loss), it doesn't matter.
Allen has a vision, a dream, and he's built an Indiana football program positioned to achieve it, even amid pandemic-fueled uncertainty (a season postponed, then reinstated, then two games against Purdue called off).
"The adversity and challenges gave us an opportunity to find out who we are and who we want to be as a program," he says.
So, even as Allen considers what the just-concluded season has meant, he pushes for where he wants the Hoosiers to go, what he calls, "The next step."
"That's to win the Big Ten."
IU came tantalizingly close with a 6-1 conference record and a seven-point loss to national runner-up Ohio State, the only regular-season glitch. If the Hoosiers had scored a final touchdown in a game in Columbus, so riveting it had NBA superstar LeBron James tweeting Hoosier praise, Allen would have gone for two and the win, because glory doesn't come to the meek, and if you've ever seen IU play, you know meek is not in his DNA.
As Allen puts it, "If you have a dream in your heart, go after it, chase it. Don't ever live with regrets."
The regret-free Hoosiers will resume workouts next week. College transfers (including former Florida State wide receiver D.J. Matthews, ex-Michigan offensive lineman Zach Carpenter and former Ole Miss defensive end Ryder Anderson) and early enrollees will join a veteran group boosted by the return of such standouts as Ty Fryfogle (the Big Ten Receiver of the Year), husky Marcelino Ball (who missed last season with a torn ACL) and more.
This was a team that was ranked as high as No. 7 before finishing No. 12 in the AP Poll and No. 13 in the Coaches Poll.
IU has finished higher only twice in its program history -- it was ranked No. 4 in 1967 and 1945.
Guess what? More of the same is expected next season.
"That is what you strive for," Allen says with Zoom press conference intensity. "Now you have to live up to those expectations.
"Belief is the key. You've got to understand that we got here for a reason. We got here a certain way. Sometimes it is harder to stay there and keep growing than it is to get there. That is where you have to have a hungry football team, a hungry set of coaches."
IU has that hunger, and will soon add a new defensive coordinator to the mix after Kane Wommack left to take over the South Alabama program.
"It excites me to bring in a new defensive coordinator to put his personality and his identity and leadership within the realm of what we created," Allen says.
"I am excited for these younger players to have the opportunity to step up and grow and develop. That is why you recruit. It excites me to bring in a new infusion of guys that have that passion and want to come here and help us continue to build this program."
Having such success amid pandemic conditions, and doing it the right way behind a Love Each Other philosophy that inspired so many in and out of the program helped Allen win the AFCA National Coach of the Year award. He had earlier won Big Ten Coach of the Year honors.
To put it in perspective, only two other Hoosier coaches have won national awards -- John Pont in 1967 and Bo McMillin in 1945.
It's a "humbling" honor, Allen says, given the sacrifices he and his family made to achieve it.
Allen gave up a great high school coaching job at Indianapolis Ben Davis to start a decade-long college coaching odyssey (7 schools in 10 years) that would have broken a weaker man.
"I had no idea where I was going to end up," he says. "There were times where I almost went back to high school because I did not want to put my family through more hard moves, more uncertainty, no money, and all of those struggles that it creates.
"There is nothing special about me. I just stayed the course and had a belief in something. There were jobs I tried to get that I did not get. Guys even tease me about it now. They are like, 'Man I did not hire you, and now look where you are.'
"That is part of persevering. That is the grit piece in all of this."
Allen says the one over-riding factor that defines success in life is, "the ability to overcome setbacks and disappointments."
"If you have a dream in your heart," Allen adds, "stay the course and never give up."
Players Mentioned
WR
/ Football
WR/RS
/ FootballFB: Spring Game - Postgame Press Conference
Thursday, April 23
FB: Bray Lynch - Spring Practice No. 11
Tuesday, April 21
FB: Drew Evans - Spring Practice No. 11
Tuesday, April 21
FB: Nico Radicic - Spring Practice No. 11
Tuesday, April 21