For Emotional Tom Allen, Having Players Back on Campus is a Big Deal
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — First and foremost, Tom Allen is a people person. It's hard for him to be away from his players in normal times, and these past three months have been about as far from normal as you can get.
That's all about to change next week when a bit more than half of his football team will be allowed back on campus for voluntary workouts, the first phase of a re-introduction of sorts for the athletes to be back in Bloomington. It's the first time they'll see each other live since mid-March, when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the campus — and spring football practice — and sent everyone home.
Social distancing will preclude big bear hugs — "we'll have to settle for fist bumps or elbows or whatever they will allow," Allen said, but it's going to be great just to be able to look into their eyes and have face-to-face conversations, even from 6-feet apart.
"There are a lot of things going on in our country right now, which obviously equates to a lot of things going on in the lives of our players,'' Allen said. "And with everything they're going through right now in our country, it's important that we continue to listen and support them.
"That's my biggest focus at this stage of what's going on. As an entire staff, we want to continue to have open dialogue with our guys and just be able to be there for them and to help them through this process of learning how to properly stand up for what you believe in to be able to do it in the right way. I think our guys are responding well and having some good communications with all of us as coaches. That's very, very important at this time."
There has been a lot going on since Allen was last able to put his arm around a player's shoulder. There is the pandemic, of course, but there's been much more on top of that, as well.
The mother of Indiana wide receiver Cam Wilson, Cassandra Wilson, was murdered in Columbus, Ind., on May 5. Popular former Hoosier Chris Beaty was killed last week during a night of rioting in Indianapolis. And the national outrage over the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis has led to protests — and much worse — all across the country.
That's a lot for anyone to digest, especially 18-to-22 year-old kids.
"The dialogue is continuous with our guys and they're in constant communication with their guys in their position room,'' Allen said of his assistant coaches. "I just want them to know that we're here for them, that we'll listen. I want to know what they're feeling, I want to know what's going on the inside of their mind.
"Sometimes you can tell when a guy's not right, but it's harder when you're apart. You have to be able to rely on that previously built relationship to just to know your guys well enough to know when something's not the way it needs to be. Listening and supporting them right now is very important, to be able to sit down and talk man-to-man and voice concerns about the things that they feel and things that are going on in their heads. We have to be able to have an open forum, to be able to have that safe space.''
Allen freely admits that all this has been hard on him too, and that he's relied on his faith a lot to get through it.
"You think about what's happened these last few months, it's been hard. I don't think you realize how hard it really is until you take a step back and let some of these things pass,'' he said. "When you're in it, you're just fighting those battles as they come and you're just mustering the energy.
"You have to be there for your guys when things go wrong, when adversity hits. We talk about this all the time. It's not if, it's when. Nobody could predict these kinds of things are going to happen, and happen in succession. Those serious, heavy things happening one after the next. That's why you have to live your life with core values and core principles, and have anchors in your life. Something we talk about all the time is that when these storms come, not if they come. You have to have a rock-solid foundation that cannot be shaken.
That's not always easy for young men who don't have much experience dealing with these kind of tragedies.
"The thing about young people, they're forming that foundation and we're helping them establish that foundation,'' Allen said. "Some kids have a stronger one than others. Some are more fragile than others. We as coaches — and myself as a leader — we have to get to those young men where their foundation isn't as strong, and we've got to be a part of that stabilizing structure and have the wisdom to know what that looks like. You have to know what you need to say and not say, and what they need and what you can provide.''
And it's in these most difficult of times that Allen relies on the core foundation of his program, that Love Each Other (LEO) mantra.
"That's why LEO to me is such a big deal. It's what I've believed in my whole coaching career,'' he said. "I brought it here and I believe in it and stand by it because it's about life, and it's transferrable to the field .
"That's what we're trying to do here. We want to do both, and I think you can do both, have a high level of success on game day and have a team that can build these young men for life. To me, that's what my ultimate responsibility is. That's what I believe I'll be judged for as a coach one day. It's not for the wins and losses, but it's for the character of the men we developed.''
Related stories on Indiana football
- PLAN IN PLACE FOR RETURN: Indiana officials have laid out the plan for players to slowly return to campus. CLICK HERE
- BEATY'S FINAL MINUTES: Popular former Indiana football player Chris Beaty died during violence late Saturday night in Indianapolis trying stop a mugging. CLICK HERE
- BIG TEN CREATES ANTI-RACISM COALITION: Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren announced the formation of an Anti-Hate and Anti-Racism Coalition for the league on Monday. CLICK HERE
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