No Ouija board in Monroe County could have prophesied the way Indiana’s 2020 football season has so far turned out.
Even with the pandemic twice ridding us of the annual Old Oaken Bucket game, Hoosiers coach Tom Allen has three- and four-star recruits playing five-star football and is making believers out of cynics.
Allen, who no doubt burns a couple thousand calories each game running to congratulate players, conferring with officials or just nervously patrolling the sideline, should be a finalist — if not the front-runner — for every national coach of the year award.
Persons who don’t consider the 50-year-old native of New Castle deserving of such plaudits simply aren’t old enough to remember previous eras of Hoosiers football. I’m in my late 50s and possess a pretty good memory. Trust me on this one.
Now the potentially bad news.
College athletic directors, namely those at the so-called football bluebloods, are cognizant of what Allen is building at Indiana. Some are in search of a new head football coach, or soon will be, and understand that hiring the ideal individual is paramount to their own career longevity.
Alphabetically speaking among Power Five conference programs, the letter A already has two representatives: Arizona and Auburn.
Arizona recently fired coach Kevin Sumlin and might want Allen’s perpetually upbeat persona and obvious love for his players and assistant coaches to be the next face of the Wildcats. Arizona hasn’t been a force in the Pac-12 since the 1998 team finished 12-1.
In the case of Auburn, maybe Allen is the guy to go toe to toe with Alabama icon Nick Saban. An amazing opportunity for Allen should the Tigers go that direction, but does he really want to sign up for a job where he’s reminded 365 days a year what he hasn’t accomplished against the Crimson Tide?
There’s a reason Gus Malzahn looked his 47 years when he took the Auburn job eight years ago and appeared 83 when he was fired last weekend (after a road victory, no less). Allen is familiar with the Southeastern Conference, having served as an assistant coach at Mississippi from 2012-14.
Kansas, too, is a possibility if the Jayhawks stop the bleeding known as the Les Miles experiment. But Allen could miraculously morph into a combination of Vince Lombardi, Bill Walsh and Bill Belichick in the next month and not be able to pull that program out of the quicksand.
Besides, Kansas — and most Big 12 jobs — would have to be considered a major step down from Indiana in light of what Allen has built.
The Illinois gig is now there for the taking, and Michigan may or may not part ways with Jim Harbaugh. Should Allen ever leave Indiana, however, I seriously doubt he would take another job within the Big Ten Conference.
A little more than a year ago, Indiana signed Allen to a seven-year contract extension, yet his annual salary of $3,770,000 is 12th-highest in a 14-team league. Indiana needs to bump that pay to thank its coach for weeks of mostly positive memories during a time when they were truly needed.
My prediction is that Allen sticks around to finish what he started. Five years. Seven years. Maybe more. As genuine as he seems — and is, according to acquaintances of mine who know him — remaining loyal to IU would be the most Tom Allen thing to do.
Mike Beas is a sportswriter for the Daily Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].
