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Coach Tom Allen


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I'm a huge homer, and he is NOT perfect, but I can tell he is trying. 

-hires Debord.. solid hire for a 1st time HC and MD was sort of calming figure to help CTA along for two years

-CTA recognizes MD isn't the answer, he goes and hires Kalen Deboer and my goodness we looked good offensively for much of the year 

-he was HC/DC his 1st year or 2... recognized that didnt work.. so he goes and gets Kane Wommack to take his spot. Someone he has an incredible relationship with and could potentially be a big time DC later on. Think Bud Foster at VT. 

-Been willing to make MULTIPLE other coaching personal changes. 

-We have a GREAT combo of young and older coaches. You have to have both.

-The last point and this one go hand in hand... Wilson got us going recuiting wise with recognizing some underrated but uber talented dudes .. Coleman, Feeney, Spriggs, Latimer, etc. CTA has continued to do a good job at recognizing diamonds in the rough (Whop, Ramsey, McFadden)... but he's also won some big time recruitments (McCulley, James, Robbins, Williamsx2, Jones, etc)... recuitment isn't perfect yet, but we are miles ahead of where we were. (Not trying to count my chickens before they hatch with McCulley and Jones). 

-Dude has balls. I believe him when he says we don't back down from anyone. It shows in how hard his teams play. We play with energy, we play with passion, honeslt its all LEO.

-He has a presence on social media, but it isn't over the top. He says what needs said and moves on. 

-Finally... at the end of the day and someone that has had IUFB season tickets since they were 8 years old.... he's someone I'm proud to be running our football program. He's a hard worker, he is a devote Christian, he is self humbling, and I can tell he cares for young people. 

.... its hard to beat someone that won't quit.  

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I used to think Hoeppner was our perfect coach, but I think Allen takes everything he did up a notch. I think Hoeppner was going to be the best coach we've had in my lifetime, but Allen is the absolute perfect fit here.

I think his biggest thing, which you mentioned, is that he is humble. He's always looking in the mirror at things he can do to improve. That's pretty rare in the egomaniacs club known as college football.

So many things I appreciate about him. Remember before last year when some people questioned how good he was and complained that we didn't do a search for a head coach? I think he's shown why a search wasn't needed.

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2 minutes ago, Leathernecks said:

I used to think Hoeppner was our perfect coach, but I think Allen takes everything he did up a notch. I think Hoeppner was going to be the best coach we've had in my lifetime, but Allen is the absolute perfect fit here.

I think his biggest thing, which you mentioned, is that he is humble. He's always looking in the mirror at things he can do to improve. That's pretty rare in the egomaniacs club known as college football.

So many things I appreciate about him. Remember before last year when some people questioned how good he was and complained that we didn't do a search for a head coach? I think he's shown why a search wasn't needed.

100% shut them up quick

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I'll add this. I was a Hep guy so much more than a Mallory guy. Mallory took us to a level we never experienced consistently. Hep loved Indiana. Hep had me when he confronted Michigan pregame (those of us fans know the game). Was good with Wilson because offense sells and recruits. I was dead wrong with Allen. Thought it was a safe hire. Few years later so glad I was dead wrong. This guy has the juice and energy to get us what we all want. A solid 8 win program with a chance to have a special year every 3-4. 

His message and leadership resonates. You can sense and tell with kids on team and recruits on social media. Facilities are perfect for us, leadership is outstanding....now it's our turn to take over Sparty in their role. Step by step and glad Allen is the guy leading the charge because personally.....I don't think he's ever leaving. 

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40 minutes ago, btownqb said:

Forgot all about his Strength and conditioning hire. Big time. 

I think the Wellman hire is big time, but I can't state how much I love the Cam Josse hire.  That dude is an absolute beast.  He seems kind of like the Rhea of the Ballou/Rhea combo with Wellman being the Ballou.  I strongly recommend people check him out if they haven't.  Dude has the smarts and scientific approach of Rhea, and can still explain things in their simplest form.

I think the Wellman/Josse combo is going to do great things.

Edit: some of our other "athletic performance" coaches are excellent too.

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7 hours ago, Sark said:

TA quietly goes about his job the right way. Not sure if he’ll get the desired breakthrough he’s looking for anytime soon, but he’s a great representative of IU. Plenty to like about him.

What type of breakthrough is he looking for?

I'm sure 8 wins wasn’t as much as he wanted, but for most of the fan base that was a pretty big breakthrough.

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34 minutes ago, Sark said:

Pushing up through the OSU, PSU, UM logjam above us in the Big 10 East, for starters. I loved 8-5, bit we need to beat some of those teams above us. If you look around at other successful programs in the last few decades, that’s been a common achievement, and we’ve not gotten there yet.

I do like that we have 5 chances to knock off a really good team this year. Hopefully we can at least get 1.

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17 minutes ago, Sark said:

That would be great. I think we could go 4-6 or 5-5 and be a pretty good team. Some will look at those records and assume failure or mediocrity, but I think it would be a good result. As for the breakthrough, I believe we have to be able to legitimately beat those top teams for us to truly up recruiting, which I think is the key to a true breakthrough.

There's a grand canyon between the top 5 and bottom 5 on our schedule this year. I just want 1 of the top 5 this year.

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I really think Penn State at home is the one to mark on the schedule as the best opportunity for an upset. Last year IU had the national embarrassment (played over and over on sports channels) fake punt and who can forget the Whop non-touch on the kick; I still think Whop's immediate reaction (throwing his hands up) and the replay should have made it obvious he did not touch the ball.  Despite those gifts IU gave Penn State, IU was still going toe-to-toe with them in State College.  Correct those errors, improve upon last year, and Beat Penn State !!!

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Lots of people want to dog on Fred Glass but he made a big, gutsy decision to fire Wilson when the news came out and he made the decision that he had a diamond in the rough - Tom Allen - that he was going to lose to a head coaching job at some point, so he might as well just do both at once.

Still early but looks like a potential home run.  I also think, like others, that we might have a lifer.  If you find a good coach who loves IU and might not be swayed by other jobs if they come calling?  Big time.

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I’m definitely high on Tom Allen. Post Mal, if you take Hoepp out of it, I’m as pleased with a realistic coach for us as can be.  And I was down on Cam, Lynch, Dinardo.  

I think Wilson set us on a good course. He thought aggressively and didn’t just accept the historical reputation of IU football.  I’m ignoring anything off the field for this point.  

But Allen is next level.  To me he has potential to be the best coach of my lifetime.  Strong words but he’s here to shoot for the moon.  I love how he recruits.    He goes for it with upper level athletes.  Beyond that, I see football the way he does so I just nod in agreement with what he does.  I don’t want to insult any individual previous coach but if you go before Wilson, again ignoring Hoepp because we all loved him, we had coaches where I wanted to put my fist through a wall.  That feeling is gone with Allen.

Is he perfect? No.  We are IU football. Nick Saban isn’t walking through the door.  Allen is trying but we’ve got to get a few things cleaned up and we can go up another notch.  He’s not oblivious.  If I listed what I’d like to see go up a notch, he’d say yes.  How do I know?  He’s obviously working on them.  I might be stating what seems obvious but we had prior coaches that were way off track.  

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On 8/5/2020 at 7:04 PM, Seeking6 said:

I'll add this. I was a Hep guy so much more than a Mallory guy. Mallory took us to a level we never experienced consistently. Hep loved Indiana. Hep had me when he confronted Michigan pregame (those of us fans know the game). Was good with Wilson because offense sells and recruits. I was dead wrong with Allen. Thought it was a safe hire. Few years later so glad I was dead wrong. This guy has the juice and energy to get us what we all want. A solid 8 win program with a chance to have a special year every 3-4. 

His message and leadership resonates. You can sense and tell with kids on team and recruits on social media. Facilities are perfect for us, leadership is outstanding....now it's our turn to take over Sparty in their role. Step by step and glad Allen is the guy leading the charge because personally.....I don't think he's ever leaving. 

I always felt that because the program had been down for so long, laughed at and mocked, that it would take a coach who grew up in the state and knew how much the program had suffered to lead it successfully.  That meant he had to love it.  Tom Allen, I believe, loves IU.  I agree with you, Seeking6.  He's never leaving.  😊

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Players relate to him.  He’s not going to step aside on some big time recruits with a defeatist attitude.  He’s going for it with upper level talents.  He’s focused on places like Georgia and Florida very smartly.  His defensive mind is outstanding but even on offense he has a vision of what he wants his football team to be.  He knows from being a thoughtful schematic defensive coach, what aspects of offense scare him.   I like Mal and Hoeppner—great men—but Allen has set his sights high both in recruiting and on field results.  Because he’s reaching for the stars, so to speak, I think the potential upside is the highest we have ever seen.  Now, on the field, we have taken the next step to get 8 wins but now it’s time to take it up another level.   That remains to be seen but it doesn’t change my opinion of Coach Allen.  

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