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Urban Meyer on Tom Allen leading IU to bowl eligibility: ‘I’ve always been impressed by him’
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Urban Meyer is jumping aboard the Indiana bandwagon. OK, so maybe he’s not actually all in on the Hoosiers, but he had nothing but positive things to say about the IU program and head coach Tom Allen.
During his weekly visit on Big Ten Network, Meyer was asked about the impressiveness of Indiana’s season thus far. The Hoosiers registered their sixth win of the 2019 season with a 38-31 victory over Nebraska in Lincoln on Saturday, improving to 6-2.
It’s the first time the Hoosiers have reached the six-win mark this early since the 1993 season, when then-head coach Bill Mallory was leading the program. Meyer indicated he has an incredible amount of respect for the job Allen has done in Bloomington.
“I’ve always been impressed by him,” Meyer said. “We played against him, and really when Kevin Wilson was there, so, you’re talking to one person who’s always had great respect for Indiana. I think that place is hard to play. Look at the running backs in the NFL that they’ve had there. There’s always been good players.
“You know, they’re in the wrong side of the division, too. Every day they’re waking up in the Eastern side of that darn conference and you got teams — if they were on the other side, I think they’d be right in the middle of the conference championship. And I know they are, but I think Indiana, Coach Allen has done a great job, they have really good players.”
Allen has narrowly missed bowl eligibility in his first two seasons at the helm, with the Hoosiers finishing 5-7 each of the last two seasons. Now, IU doesn’t have to worry about trying to gain bowl eligibility in the final game of the season against Purdue.
With four games left on the schedule, Indiana has the potential to continue to pack on the wins and end the year with one of the highest victory totals in program history. It’ll be interesting to see just how far this team goes with the pressure of bowl eligibility now off its back.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB