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Tom Allen

Tom Allen celebrates with his team and the fans after the Indiana versus Illinois football game at Memorial Stadium on Friday, Sept. 2, 2022. Indiana won the game 23-20.

Tom Allen grew up in Indiana as the son of a prominent high school coach in the state, and during a long career in football coaching has established a profile as a players’ coach who demands accountability.

Allen makes his philosophy clear every day. A driving force of the program is L.E.O. — Love Each Other.

Allen prioritizes personal relationships, and it’s paid off as his coaching profile has grown thanks to a high standard of excellence and achievements on and off the field.

A 30-year coaching veteran, Allen was named Indiana’s 29th head coach on Dec. 1, 2016.

Allen, like his father, coached high school football in Indiana and took his first college coaching job at Division III Wabash College.

In 2016, Allen took IU’s defensive coordinator job, and by the end of his first season, athletics director Fred Glass made a coaching change, promoting Allen in part because of the bond he had with the players.

During the 2020 season, Indiana reached the top 10 for the first time in 51 years and spent 6 weeks there, going as high as No. 7. In 2019, the Hoosiers posted their first winning season in conference play in 26 seasons and ended nation’s longest Top 25 drought by a power-conference school. It came during a season in which the Hoosiers beat Michigan and Penn State in the same season for the first time, including an end to a 24-game skid against the Wolverines. They’ve tied one single-season school record with 3 wins over ranked teams and another with 7 consecutive weeks in the Top 25.

The Hoosiers were ranked in the top 10 6 times, the second-most in program history behind the 1945 team (9 weeks). IU also enjoyed its first top-10 ranking in the Nov. 8 AP Poll (No. 10) since Sept. 22, 1969 (No. 10).

It was that season that Allen received the 2020 American Football Coaches Association National Coach of the Year honor, and his 26 wins are tied for the most for an Indiana head coach over his first 5 seasons with the program’s all-time winningest coach Bill Mallory. He also received the 2020 Hayes-Schembechler Coach of the Year (Big Ten coaches vote) and the Dave McClain Coach of the Year (Big Ten media vote).

In 2020, IU clinched a winning league record in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1987-88 and for the 6th time overall (1967-68, 1944-46, 1936-37). IU’s 6 conference wins tied for the most in program history (1967, 1987), and the Hoosiers 11 B1G victories over the 2019-20 seasons tied for the most in school history over a two-year span (1987-88).

By 2019, Allen’s 18 wins in his first 3 seasons were a school record. The Hoosiers in 2019 beat rival Purdue to record their first 8-win season since 1993 and brought the Old Oaken Bucket back to Bloomington for the first time in 3 years.

Tom Allen’s Coaching Experience

Head Coaching Record

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