For Fred Glass, Seeing Tom Allen's Success is Validation for His Risky (at the Time) Hire

JACKSONVILLE, Ind. — Indiana had its last football practice of the year on Tuesday morning at Fernandina Beach High School. Now all that's left is Thursday night's TaxSlayer Gator Bowl with Tennessee.

Several former players were there, and hundreds of fans, too. Outgoing athletic director Fred Glass stopped by, and he was listening in while the assembled media talked to Indiana coach Tom Allen because he was up next. It was Glass' last practice — ever.

It was Glass who took a chance on an unproven — make that very unproven — Allen three years ago after he fired Kevin Wilson. That's always meant a lot to Allen, and he's choked up often in the past month when talking about that loyalty that Glass showed. He's a very emotional guy.

It happened again Tuesday, so if you had Charlie Clifford from WISH-TV in Indianapolis in your "Tom Allen Tears'' pool, you win.

Clifford asked Allen what he would say to Glass. After the "thank you,'' Allen got choked up and had a hard time fighting through his emotions when he continued.

"It just means a lot when people believe in you,'' Allen said. "I'm an emotional guy. i just appreciate it. It means a lot. It's home, it's personal. He believed in me when maybe some others would not have. I want to do a great job for him, for IU, for my home.''

That was hard to follow up, but Glass did the best he could. His controversial hire has panned out.

"I'm not going to lie, it's very moving to me,'' said Glass, who is retiring from IU in June. "I always thought he was the right guy. I never really felt pressure or anything like that. I just really believed in him. It was nice to have the season we've had this year so other people could see what I've seen in him.''

What Glass loves most about Allen is that he's such a good man, and a good leader. He can always trust him to do it right, which is half the battle when you're running a big-time athletics department.

"He's a leader of men,'' Glass said when asked why he hired him. "Our defensive statistics shot up, and I saw him impact that entire team as the defensive coordinator because of the way those kids bought in. I could see how they all bought in.

"They believed in him, and when they believe in him, they do things that are extraordinary for Indiana football.''

That's what's gone on this year, with the Hoosiers going 8-4 in the regular season, winning eight games for the first time since 1993 and being nationally ranked for the first time in more than 25 years.

The reward has been this trip to Jacksonville for the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl. It's the first Florida bowl game in school history, and it provides a matchup against a blue blood program from the SEC in Tennessee. It's also a huge showcase for the Hoosiers, because the 7 p.m. ET game on Thursday night is the only football game of the night, college or pro. Millions of eyeballs will be on Tom Allen's team.

And for Glass, who's leaving Bloomington after 10-plus years, it's a nice way to go out.

"I'd rather be lucky than good. I was planning on leaving on this timetable no matter what, but to have this with 8-4 and be able to play for the most wins in the history of the program, it's awesome,'' Glass said. "It makes it more fun, and being here in Jacksonville has been tremendous. They do a great job with the bowl game, and we're thrilled to be a part of it.''

Win or lose Thursday night, Glass knows that his football program is in good hands. Indiana football needed a culture change, and we've gotten that with Allen and his "Love Each Other'' mantra. Everyone buys in to the team thing, and that starts at the top.

"I love that, no pun intended,'' Glass said. "There's been people from the cheap seats that have mocked that over time, but it means so many different important things to these kids. He's teaching life lessons. It means so much to these kids, talking about love that way and the power of it.

"He goes into living rooms, and he tells those parents, I'm going to form him into a young man.' That's saying a lot, but he's done it and we've seen the result of it in the kids who are graduating from this program. That's a powerful thing to show that when you're in a kid's living room.''

Glass and Allen came to terms on a 7-year $27.3 million contract extension in December, something that Glass was thrilled to get done on his watch. He took a chance on Allen, and it paid off. Indiana football, forever a college football laughingstock, is finally heading in the right direction.

The extension says the most about stability, something that's been lacking at Indiana for years, certainly since the Bill Mallory era. As happy as Glass is, Allen knows there is still so much more to do.

Even being here in Jacksonville isn't enough for Allen. He's been saying all year long that GETTING TO a bowl game was never a team goal, that WINNING a bowl game was the goal.

Steps. Right Direction. Indiana Football.

Those things have rarely gone together, and for Glass, wearing sunglasses with the sun splashing on his face on a late-December day, seeing the condition the program is in right now is very gratifying.

Glass is a businessman, and he knows how important football can be to Indiana University. The Indiana football program is dead last in the Big Ten in revenue production, so the potential for growth is astronomical. He's thrilled that Indiana fans have scooped up thousands of tickets for the Gator Bowl, and he's hoping that carries over to season ticket sales next year, too.

That's a great unknown, of course. But one thing Glass knows for sure.

He's got the right man in charge.