Tom Allen Selects 'Toughness' as IU Football's One Word for 2023

Image: Indiana University Athletics

Written by: Nate Comp (@NathanComp1)

Each new year, Tom Allen selects one word to guide his team not only through the regular season, but also through offseason workouts and into the postseason. The idea comes from Jon Gordon’s book One Word That Will Change Your Life. Gordon describes the idea quite simply; selecting something to focus on as simple as one word provides clarity, power, passion, and life-change. New Year’s Resolutions come and go, but one word sticks.

In his time with the Hoosiers as head coach, Allen has now had seven words: Breakthrough, Finish, Grit, Relentless, Chase, Build, and this year: Toughness. After two straight seasons without a bowl game, Allen went back to the basics when selecting this year’s word.

“We have three pillars in our program: Accountability, toughness, and love,” said Allen. “This was a chance to emphasize the thing that I thought we needed to emphasize. You get what you emphasize every year.”

After reviewing the tape on last season, Allen felt a number of Indiana’s losses came down to a lack of toughness down the stretch.

“You go back and evaluate our games, and we had four games where it could have gone either way, and it came down to fourth quarter maybe the final drive even in those games. So how do you close that gap and create a different outcome? To me it's mental and physical toughness.”

The emphasis on toughness starts immediately, but it will be reemphasized throughout the entire season.

“When you start the off-season, everybody is willing to do a little extra. Well, who's doing that in February, who's doing that in March, who's doing that in April, who's doing that in May, who does that in July. It's just that continual mental toughness piece.”

His goal is every player, coach, and staff member is going the extra mile to turn the ship around and secure another postseason bowl invite in 2023. In another book he read this offseason, he found an additional word to personify toughness: a “gimper.”

“What's a gimper? A gimper is someone who always does a little more than what's required or expected. I've challenged this team to be a team full of gimpers, coaches and players, just willing to do a little bit more.”

Workouts have begun and Indiana starts official spring practice on March 4th. Follow along all year for continued Indiana football coverage with Hoosier Huddle.