Tom Allen Hired as Permanent Head Coach After Kevin Wilson Resigns

Fred Glass introduces Tom Allen as the new head coach of Indiana Football Thursday evening Image: Indiana Athletics

Written By Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

The coaching carousel has been spinning for weeks, maybe even months and the Indiana Football may have had the shortest and most surprising ride of 2016 as the Hoosiers lost Kevin Wilson and hired Tom Allen in half a day.

In a statement released by Indiana Athletics, IU said that "Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Fred Glass announced (Thursday) that he has accepted to resignation, effective immediately, of head football coach Kevin Wilson based upon philosophical differences as to the leadership of the football program."

Kevin Wilson had just clinched IU's second straight bowl game with a 26-24 victory over Purdue and leaves Indiana with a 26-47 (12-38) record in six seasons with the Hoosiers.

The search for a new head coach did not take long as Glass named defensive coordinator Tom Allen as the permanent head coach at a press conference on Tuesday night. "Once Coach Wilson and I concluded to part ways, I turned to determining who the best person in the country would be to keep up our momentum and take us to another level with our football team," Glass said. "I quickly concluded that person was in our midst in Tom Allen. He is a leader of men. He is demanding without being demeaning. He is a proven, successful coach on a national scale with deep Indiana ties. He cares about his players, and they care back.

Allen was instrumental in the turn around of the Hoosiers defense and earned a nomination for the 2016 Broyles Award for the nation's top assistant coach.

When he took to the microphone Thursday evening here is what he said, " I never expected for this to happen. However, he believed in me and he gave me a charge when I came here to be the head coach of the defense, to change the culture in that side of the ball, and that's what we did. These players believed. They play with amazing passion and toughness, and they're relentless. I was so proud of the way they competed every single week in a very difficult schedule."

Allen wants to get straight down to business with IU's upcoming bowl game (Bowl To Be Determined), stating "our immediate goal is to prepare for our bowl game. We're going to keep our staff intact, adjust guys around to make sure we have everything covered for this bowl game, and attack it with the energy and passion, the only way I know how.

We have a great staff of coaches that have worked extremely hard. I've spoken to each one of them already today. I have a lot of respect for what they do, and I just challenge each one of them. We're going to roll our sleeves up, we're going to pull together, and we're going to go to work."

The biggest issue for the Hoosiers right now comes on the recruiting trail as other schools could start pouching IU recruits and commits. Allen reassured the 2017 commits and future recruits that he his committed to them and IU saying,  "I was in a home at this time yesterday, thought I was going to be in another home at this time tonight. Our whole staff, except for me, is out recruiting right now. Selling the vision of this program that I so strongly believe in. I can't wait to get back on the road this time as the head coach, to get with parents, the decision-makers, recruit them harder than we recruit the recruits sometimes. It's an easy sell, because we're part of a great university. Get them on campus and see how beautiful this place is. Our facilities are second to none and only going to get better."