Tom Allen Talks Illinois Win, Previews Idaho on 'Inside Indiana Football' With Don Fischer
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana football coach Tom Allen appeared on his weekly coach's show 'Inside Indiana Football' alongside Don Fischer on Wednesday night at Southern Stone restaurant.
Allen and Fischer reviewed Indiana's 23-20 win over Illinois and previewed Indiana's Week 2 opponent, the Idaho Vandals.
If you missed the show, here's five of the most notable things Allen discussed.
Fischer: Tremendous win on Saturday. I know it wasn't the most artistic performance by Indiana, but the only thing that matters to Indiana anymore is W's.
Allen: Yep, the bottom line is you gotta find a way to win like you said. It is interesting how the game has changed over time with the different things you look at, but the bottom line is there's one stat that matters. We gotta find a way to have more points at the end of the game than they do, and that's what our guys did. There's just so many things you talk about that got us to that point, but tremendous toughness and grit that our guys showed and never flinched, they really didn't. The sideline was very calm and the guys believed as long as we had time on the clock that we had a chance and we could do it. There's nothing like experiencing that. That's why I knew, in lieu of what we've been through a year ago, there's a core group of guys that are back from 2019 and 2020 but got that crushed a year ago. Then you've got all these new guys that you're trying to build that belief with, so to be able to reestablish it with the ones that have been here and build it with the guys that just got here and all the new coaches, I don't know if you could have scripted a better way to finish it out because the defense had to come up with a big stop, the special teams was solid all night long, and then the offense when it counted the most was at their best."
Fischer: If there was one person to single out in this football game, in my opinion, it would be Cam Jones.
Allen: Oh yeah, I was going to say that. He had 12 tackles, so not only was he physically dominant, but it was his leadership. As a matter of fact, I texted him at about 3:00 a.m., I still couldn't sleep, but I just told him, 'I couldn't have been more proud of you. You willed this team to victory.' That's what I felt like he did. He willed this team to victory. He got hurt, then he came back and he pretty much told our medical staff, 'Tape it up as tight as you can. I'm not missing any more plays.' It's not anything long term, but it definitely was very, very painful, but he wasn't going to sit out and you saw when I brought the team together to start the fourth quarter and he wanted to finish it off so he talked to them on the sideline and that leadership is just invaluable. That's not just in that moment. It's been that way ever since that first Sunday after the Purdue game a year ago, it's been that way the whole offseason. He's taken this personal and I'm really proud of him."
Fischer: Tom, talk a little bit about this football game on Friday night. Without question, the positives: the passing game, I don't think there's any doubt. But still, the struggles: the offensive line and the run game you couldn't get anything going in that vein.
Allen: Yeah, there's two things that stuck out to me that I didn't like about the game. The run defense, we didn't stop the run very well when we needed to on the base down situations, especially. Then we didn't run the ball good enough. Now they did load the box, as a matter of fact. I'm going through and watching all the clips and it's just like there's certain schematic things where you go through and count the numbers and it's just kind of how they set it up. At the same time, we gotta find a way to do that creatively, so that's a big focus without question. Both sides of the football, we didn't stop the run near like it needs to be. As a matter of fact, I was really upset about that. I was watching the film the next day and the more mad I'm getting, I'm excited we won, but I'm just ticked because I know that's not how we're going to be moving forward. We've got to fix it and we will.
Fischer: How did you like play-calling as a defensive coordinator again on game day?
Allen: I'll tell you what, I had a blast. I know I was not perfect. I had two or three calls that I thought that I blew and did not get the right calls and wish I had them back, but I love doing that, and I've got a great [defensive coordinator]. Chad's awesome and he's great and the thing that's different than in the past is, if you noticed, I didn't spend a lot of time with them on the sideline. That's how we structure it because I want to be able to be the head coach of the team and still be on the head set. We had system in place of how we were going to take the data we collect from the drive, and with Chad as the leader, figure out what just happened and how we fix it. So I got a lot of great coaches and it's about trust, it's about delegation of those guys and we've got some great guys in different roles. This is the thing that I shared that's really true that I shared on Monday, but it's really pretty amazing, but there's 15 positions on your staff where you consider them on-the-field coaches. You have 10 assistants that coach the positions, including coordinators, in those 10 positions then you have the head coach and four [graduate assistants]. Those 15 guys are allowed to coach the players and instruct them on every team in America. There's different levels of off-the-field people, but everybody has 15 [on-the-field]. We had nine new ones of those 15 from last year and that's the first time we've ever worked together in a game. We did some mock games, but that's not the same. Scrimmages during fall camp aren't the same because you're on the field at the same time, offense and defense. So to never have that we've got GA's in the press box that have never been here before, and one of them is my son. He's the guy I'm talking to on the headsets and he graduated last year and he's up there giving me all the information that we have about the drives and everything. He's very talented, but he's young. But we've got a great staff, so what that allows me to do was make those decisions of what we're going to run defensively, but also in between the drives and in between the series, make good adjustments, make good halftime adjustments and go fix them with our players. That, to me, is a great feeling because I really feel like I can trust those guys and I don't have to be in every little thing we do because Chad does a phenomenal job."
Fischer: Coach, let's talk a little bit about this upcoming matchup with a Idaho, a ball club that you dominated last year 56-14. I think you were up 35-0 before they got their first score of the ball game, and it was not a contest. However, they changed coaches in the offseason. Jason Eck is their new man, he's from South Dakota State and apparently, he got them going a little bit because they gave Washington State, a Pac-12 team, all they could handle before they won.
Allen: No question, so that's the challenge. I told our guys in the very first meeting we had this week about them, was OK, whatever thoughts you have about this team from last year, erase them. Doesn't mean anything. Number one, it doesn't mean anything. Number two, they've got a whole new team. They've got new coaches, they got a new offense, new defense, new special teams, new everything, a lot of new players and I said they just played a Pac-12 team to the wire. They had the football driving to go win the game and they game them everything they wanted. They created a few takeaways. Their defense caused two or three turnovers, which is huge in a game like that and they took advantage. They scored on one of those, they scooped up a fumble and ran it back for a touchdown, so highly, highly competitive with a really good football team out West so, yeah, that's got to get our guys' attention. We've got a big challenge ahead of us, they're very dangerous, they've got nothing to lose in the game, so we've got to be ready.
Related stories on Indiana football:
- HOOSIER ROUNDTABLE PODCAST: During the first episode of the ''Hoosier Roundtable'' podcast on HoosiersNow.com, we sat down and talked at length with Indiana linebacker Cam Jones and tight end AJ Barner to break down the Hoosiers' 23-20 win over Illinois. Here's the entire 33-minute podcast. CLICK HERE
- FOURTH QUARTER WARRIORS: Indiana's season-opening win will be remembered by Connor Bazelak’s game-winning two-minute drill, but the Hoosiers wouldn’t have been in position to win the game without three second-half takeaways by the Indiana defense. CLICK HERE
- MEET THE IDAHO VANDALS: Following a 23-20 win over Illinois in the season opener, the Indiana football team will host the Idaho Vandals at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday at Memorial Stadium. It's time to meet the Vandals. CLICK HERE
