Tom Allen's 'whirlwind' weekend now includes a bowl date
- Indiana vs. Utah, 8:30 p.m. Dec. 28, Fox
BLOOMINGTON — After trekking east for its bowl game last season, Indiana will head west this time.
The Hoosiers (6-6, 4-5 Big Ten) were selected Sunday for the Foster Farms Bowl in Santa Clara, Calif. They will face No. 23 Utah (8-4) on Dec. 28 in Levi's Stadium, the home of the San Francisco 49ers, with an 8:30 p.m. kickoff on Fox.
The bowl game will be the Hoosiers' first game under recently named head coach Tom Allen, who was promoted from defensive coordinator on Thursday following Kevin Wilson's resignation.
“These past few days have been a whirlwind,” Allen said Sunday.
Allen was named IU’s head coach Thursday morning and he met with the media Thursday evening. On Friday, he watched his son, 2017 IU football commit Thomas Allen – for the first time all season – advance to the Florida 7A state championship.
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On Sunday, Allen ran his first practice as a Division I head coach, then announced to his team that IU was selected to a bowl game in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1991.
“So my schedule’s changed a lot in terms of just being able to deal with things that head coaches deal with,” Allen said, “but also just because of the way things transpired, it’s created a pretty crazy past few days. It’ll calm down a little bit.
“I’m anxious to get back on the road and get a deep breath and get on that plane tonight, but at the same time, it’s been exciting.”
When Allen met with the media Sunday afternoon in Assembly Hall, he spoke highly of the Foster Farms bowl, its location and Utah – currently No. 19 in the College Football Playoff rankings.
But he was refreshingly honest about his knowledge of the Utes: “Absolutely nothing. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen them play this year.”
Having watched Utah in the past, he complimented the program for its athleticism and discipline. The benefit of playing in a bowl game, Allen said, is the amount of preparation time. IU will have three-plus weeks to scout and implement a game plan.
IU is 1-2 all time against Utah, defeating the Utes in 1975 before suffering losses in 2001 and 2002.
The Foster Farms Bowl's selection of IU marks the third time the Hoosiers will play a postseason game in California. IU defeated BYU in the 1979 Holiday Bowl and lost to Southern Cal in the 1968 Rose Bowl.
Allen downloaded video of the Utes to his laptop Sunday and he’ll have it available to watch when he hits the road to recruit.
“The balance is you can’t start your work on them too soon because you don’t want to get stale working on one opponent for week after week after week,” Allen said.
IU had a 10-week stretch without a bye week, so the Hoosiers are focused on getting rested and continuing to focus on fundamentals, Allen said. They’re lifting weights, they’re running and they’re going through light football drills.
Utah knows close games, just like IU
After finals week, which ends Dec. 16, IU will ramp up its preparation for Utah.
Until then, Allen hopes to keep things business as usual for the program. Other than the promotion of Shawn Watson from a quality control position to quarterbacks coach, IU’s coaching staff hasn’t undergone any changes.
“At this point you’re trying to get everybody kind of comfortable with what the direction is,” Allen said. “When something like this happens, there’s just a lot of questions. Questions about the coaches, questions about the future and everything, so I think for me, it was a matter of just kind of calming everybody down, say, 'Hey, this is what we’re doing, this is the vision between now and the bowl game.’”
After being named IU’s head coach, Allen reached out to his coaching friends in college football, including one who “has been in a situation similar to this,” to learn about decisions they would make again and ones they wouldn’t. Allen’s biggest takeaway from those conversations was to not lose sight of who he is as a football coach and a person.
As the head coach, he now has to set the tone for his program and make decisions about practice times, meal schedules and player tutoring, but that doesn’t mean he plans to change his identity.
“I’m a guy who coaches with a ton of energy and passion, and I’m a defensive guy, focus on that side of the football,” Allen said. “It’s more about just making sure that you are who you are, don’t feel like you have to change anything.”
Indiana vs. Utah, 8:30 p.m. Dec. 28, Fox