Tom Allen Transcript From Foster Farms Bowl Teleconference

Tom Allen and Kyle Wittingham answer questions during the Foster Farms Bowl teleconference. Image: @HoosierFootball

Opening Statement:

As far as the season goes it has been a little bit of an interesting development. Obviously with my situation, being defensive coordinator during the season, and then this past week here my new role as the head coach. 

It was a season where our kids competed hard each and every week by playing a tough schedule. We played four top 10 teams, especially in the latter half. We found ourselves in a situation where we had opportunities to finish and we weren’t able to do that in those games. We fought to get bowl eligible for the second time here in two years, back-to-back, which has not happened a lot in Indiana’s history. So really trying to get our program to the level of where bowl games are the norm, and competing for conference championships is where we want to be. 

Our defense improved dramatically this year. Our offense has been the strength of the program the last several years with what Coach (Kevin) Wilson has built. He did a tremendous job changing the culture there, on the offensive side of the ball. I got the charge to come and change the defensive side of the ball this past season. We have struggled in the red zone offensively to finish drives, to protect the football, and it’s cost us in close games. There were a lot of one possession games that we found ourselves in, and it allowed us to fall short and couldn’t capitalize and even just finish defensively a couple games where we had a chance and had the lead in the fourth quarter. You’ve got to be able to finish those off. 

Excited to be out here in this bowl game. It’s a great…you see the video of our players and how they responded when we told them we were coming out here. They were extremely excited and fired up, and we’re blessed to be given this opportunity and we’re going to make the most of it.
Have you been pretty involved in recruiting at this point? Or have you had some chances to do some film study and scouting for the opponent, or does that really come this week?

We’ve obviously been recruiting to this point. We had home visits last night and getting on the plane this morning. I’ve had a chance throughout those trips to be able to watch some film on Utah and get a feel for them a little bit, but I haven’t done extensive study yet. Our guys back in the office have been doing more of that leg work. But at this point just allow us to wrap-up recruiting and get into the dead period here and focus on Utah. 

Coach, obviously a whirlwind for you in the last two weeks. In your own words, what’s it been like?

It has been a whirlwind. It’s been crazy. You get thrust into a lot of things you have to decide like scheduling. Being in charge of recruiting now and going from being a recruiter to the guy trying to finish some of those situations with home visits and guys on campus. And then getting practice plans and bowl week plans. And scholarship numbers and a lot of stuff you don’t really deal with when you’re just calling the defense. 

We’ve had a great team effort. There are a lot of great coaches on our staff, and a lot of great people in our organization that have stepped up and allowed us to effectively transition. As I told our players, we’re all in this together. Coach (Wilson) believed in me and brought me here, and he believed in them and brought them to Indiana. So we’re locking arm-in-arm and we’re just coming together to finish what he started. 

Coach Allen, you mentioned that you played a number of top 25 opponents, and three teams in the final top 10. Is there an opponent that you played on your schedule that is similar to Utah in either the way they play or the physicality they bring?

Well I think their brand of offense is what I focus on the most when I watch teams throughout the season, obviously as the D.C. They’re very similar from the standpoint of having, in the Big Ten, very good offensive line play like they have, and a big running back like they have, big receivers, an athletic quarterback, I think Nebraska comes to mind in terms of the talent we see. When you have a strong-armed quarterback that can run, and big running backs, and long receivers. So I would say similar to them, but a very, very talented team that we see. 

And being able to watch them, their special teams is what impresses me. I was special teams coordinator at Ole Miss for several years, and that is an area that I really bring my eyes to. I am real impressed with what they do in that area, which is a huge part of our game that often times doesn’t get talked about enough. Their defense is extremely sound, and their D-line is impressive. We’re used to seeing some good defenses so it’s going to be a tremendous challenge for us.

They’re extremely talented and very well-coached.

What is the biggest challenge in having the regular season ending a couple weeks ago and then having to play this at the end of the month? 

I would say for me is to keep your guys sharp not to do too much or too little. The balance between the two. How hard you go and the number of reps you get. You want to keep them fresh and you don’t want it to get stale for that length of time. You’re managing…we both have exams coming up here this week, so just balancing that with the players scheduled. So I just think to know how much to do because you want to benefit with your developmental guys and they can really get a lot of quality reps, but you want to make sure your guys are fresh and sharp and ready to be at their best when kick-off occurs on the 28th.

Coach Allen, as you have gone through these last couple of weeks, what have you found to be the biggest challenges and the biggest benefits to taking over in the gap between Purdue and the Foster Farms Bowl?

I think the challenges are just trying to manage three things at once, which is the current team that you have and keep those guys all on track through the transition period, and then to keep recruiting rolling because this time of the year it is pretty intense with all the home visits and the contact period that hit, and then getting ready for a bowl game. So you’re trying to multi-task with those three components all at the same time. But I think the biggest thing…the time has helped. The fact that we are playing later was a positive. It has allowed us to kind of break it down into segments. You work on some of the things behind the scenes but you really focus on recruiting right now, and then try and get the guys ready with the workouts that we have. But the biggest plus has been the staff that we’ve got. We’ve been able to keep everybody intact here, and we brought Shawn (Watson) on board to coach the quarterbacks but everything else is the same and the players are able to have a lot of consistency with that. Even administratively guys back at home are allowing us to stay on top of everything, and just working together to accomplish our goal to be at our best on game day.

Who were some of the players that were the first ones to approach you after you were named head coach?

I think some of the leaders, you know Dan Feeney and Mitchell Paige on offense, Richard Lagow, our quarterback. Those would be the ones that jump out to me. And just to be able to get their support because obviously it was tough. I always think back to that first meeting on the day it all happened, and we told our team and just tried to speak from the heart to them about what was going on, and what we were going to do together. Obviously the defensive guys, Marcus Oliver stepped up, and Rashard Fant and Tegray Scales and guys like that really kind of helped bring everybody together on both sides. 

The neat thing is we’re a close group already. You don’t work as much with the offense when you’re the D.C. as you do your defensive team, but we spent a lot of time together, and Coach (Wilson) had me address the team at times for some other things so they kind of saw what we were all about. I think with as much as they were hurting with the situation going on, they were excited to be able to be in that role of being able to bring us together, and keep that continuity, and be able to see what we’re able to do on the defensive side of the ball, and we said we’re going to move forward together and create that same mindset throughout the whole team. It has turned out to be very positive, and I attribute that to the players’ response and the way the coaches have just banded together to be united. It’s been pretty special.

What has the local reaction been to going to a bowl in California? I would imagine it’s going to be a tough trip for a lot of your fans, but is there excitement to going to an exotic location? Is there an excitement about the back-to-back bowls?

There is a tremendous amount of excitement about going to back-to-back bowls. I think the idea of going to a location that is going to be warmer than where we are located is very positive. I know there were some other options out there that weren’t going to be quite as warm so I think that was a huge appeal. I know our players were extremely excited. I think we’ll have a good group come out and follow us. It is a long distance to travel for sure, but the receptions is very, very positive because of the location here in California and I know there is a lot of excitement. We presented the opportunity to our fans at the basketball game and our players got a standing ovation for what they accomplished and for where we’re headed. There is a ton of support and excitement back home.

Coach Allen, with Dan Feeney earning All-American honors today I wanted to see if you could take me back to when you first got to Indiana and your initial impression of Dan. I was wondering from your defensive perspective when did you realize that this program had a special player like that? Any particular moment stand out?

Once you start practicing…obviously when you watch film he sticks out, but when you start practicing I will never forget the effort that he gave every day. It did not matter. He blocks downfield and just gives tremendous, tremendous effort on every drill. We did a special teams drill one day where you involve the O-linemen, and as a matter of fact I think that is one where we as a staff noted to the whole team that it was probably the one time the (NFL) scouts probably commented the most of anything he did the entire day. It was the effort he gave and what he was able to do in that special teams drill just to show that side of his play. So to me he is just a tremendous leader, a tremendously hard worker. He kind of embodies the toughness and the mentality of our program. We’re so proud of him and he’s worked so hard. It was unfortunate he missed several games this year which kind of hurt him with some other opportunities, but at the same time he’s a two-time All-American for a reason, and he will go down as one of the greatest players in the history of our program.