Any time a coach makes a football miracle at a school like IU-Bloomington his name is going to come up at other, supposedly more tradition rich schools when the coaching carousel starts to spin. 

Tom Allen has been the miracle man, guiding the Hoosiers to a 6-1 record and a number 12 ranking in the latest College Football Playoff poll, released last night. The last time the Hoosiers won the Big Ten was in 1967, a three-way split with Minnesota and Purdue, and the last time they beat the teams they’ve beat this year—Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State—in the same season is never. Their lone loss was a tight game on the road to likely playoff-bound Ohio State. 

For the Indiana faithful it may be that their loyalty is returned by Allen, who says he believes in his vision and wants to see it through in Bloomington. There is unfinished business for Allen that appears to be important to him on a personal, interior level, which is a rare enough thing in these big-money, cash-in when the gettin’s good days of major college football.  

Talking with Sports Illustrated’s Hoosier Now’s Tom Brew, Allen said he doesn’t even look at anyone else, let alone talk to them. Asked if he had spoken to outside entities about a new job, Allen replied:

Those are just mentions, but I’ve never talked to anybody about any jobs here. That’s the truth. I have not. To me, it’s just kind of probably a natural outgrowth of the success that we’re having at a place that hasn’t had it in a long time, and everybody wants to know why.

To me, it’s kind of like what you said at the beginning. When your staff does well and your team does well, you’re going to lose those staff members to some other program. And when your team does well, they’re going to maybe look to the head coach to mention.

Indiana’s Old Oaken Bucket game with Purdue was just cancelled a second time and won’t be played in 2020, marking the end of a consecutive games streak that stretches back 100 years to 1920. The Hoosiers won’t get another chance to prove themselves in the regular season, but now they’re awaiting their opportunity in the bowl season, and they ought to get a good one.