After Watching Other Conferences Play, Tom Allen is Ready to Return to the Field

Tom Allen eyes the return to the sidelines Image: Sammy Jacobs, Hoosier Huddle

Written by Juliet Gahan

Schools across the country have already started their football season. The Hoosiers and the rest of the Big Ten are still getting geared up. In a Zoom conference on Wednesday, Coach Allen spoke of the difficulties of seeing other teams play. 

“It was probably more frustrating than I was expecting. It was kind of depressing, to be honest with you, watching and just knowing that we're not playing and at that point, I didn't know when we would be playing, so I was optimistic that we might be able to figure it out but I wasn't for sure.” Allen said. These last two weeks could be considered painful.  Allen was watching Notre Dame take down Duke 27-13. Obviously, it would be difficult to watch another Indiana school get in on a season.

The Big XII, although they lost three games to Sun Belt opponents, and the ACC have been back for two weeks now and it was getting to Allen that his Hoosiers were sitting on the couch.

However,  Allen’s frustration didn’t last too long as the Big Ten announced football’s return this week.

“To feel pressured to play, just because others are playing, to me, I hope that wasn't the case. “ Said Allen. The Big Ten hadn’t started a football season to protect the health and safety of it’s players. However, it has since made a new play to protect students, coaches and staff while having a season.

“We were having challenges here with testing and contact tracing and different issues with some of our guys, so that to me, those have been answered with the daily testing, the protocols are in place and are so much more detailed than they were before” Said Allen. This COVID-19 plan put in place has made the Hoosies a safe and responsible team that is ready to play. 

“I think that it's a very professional sport model, it's kind of how I looked at it and that's kind of how I viewed it by testing every single day and creating a clean bubble of people that you're going to be exposed to as a player and a staff member around our team.”  Said Allen. Throughout the Coronavirus pandemic Allen has been adamant in  keeping his players safe and healthy. Testing his players and staff every day will keep “the bubble” healthy and comfortable. 

With this new pandemic plan in place the Hoosiers will be ready to take on anything that comes their way this season.