Despite Recent Coaching Departures, Allen Believes in What He's Doing at Indiana
/Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)
It has been a hectic offseason for the Indiana Hoosiers football program after an extremely disappointing 2-10 season. Just hours after the season ended with a 44-7 loss to Purdue head coach Tom Allen fired offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan, but over the last few weeks the Hoosiers have seen more staff attrition as IU lost defensive coordinator Charlton Warren to UNC, defensive line coach Kevin Peoples to Missouri and most recently running backs coach Deland McCullough to Notre Dame. It’s enough movement to rattle anyone to the core, especially after a 2-10 season, but if Tom Allen is rattled, he is not showing it.
“Those things happen here just now,” Allen said on Wednesday. “There's no doubt that change can be hard. You don't always want it because you've got to obviously go through and find other people to come in here. But you know, to say concerned, no. But it's just part of the challenge of being able to continue to build and continue to -- once again I think it's no different than what we talked about with the players that chose to come here and all the challenges that we had with this season and they chose to stay the course.”
Allen hired Walt Bell as the new offensive coordinator, Chad Wilt as defensive coordinator and Paul Randolph as defensive line coach. Now he has to go out and find a running backs coach as the start of spring practice is about a month away (March 5th). Time will tell how the hires will work out.
Change happens and it has happened at IU, but Tom Allen is not concerned.
“Those things happen” Allen explained “and there's no doubt that change can be hard. You don't always want it because you've got to obviously go through and find other people to come in here. But you know, to say concerned, no. But it's just part of the challenge of being able to continue to build and continue to -- once again I think it's no different than what we talked about with the players that chose to come here and all the challenges that we had with this season and they chose to stay the course.”
Coaches and players may change, but Allen is going to lean on his ‘LEO’ foundation that he has built at IU during storms.
“I know that I have beliefs about things and I'm not going to be distracted and not going to blink when change occurs or things happen that I didn't expect to happen. But at the same time you believe in what you're building.” Allen said. “Accountability, toughness and love is our foundation. That hasn't changed and LEO is a big part of who we're about. It's about those accountabilities within our program, our players and coaches. For me just to find a way to continue to grow and develop our team. We've got to get better. There's no question. This last season was not acceptable and gotta create change. Sometimes these opportunities give us a chance to create that change in different ways that you might have expected and allows us to grow and continue to build this program. So that's our mindset.”
When the Hoosiers take the practice field on March 5th there will be a lot of change around the program, from staff to players, but after a 2-10 season, change may be exactly what they need.