ALTOONA, Pa. -- I've spent the past week trying to convince myself that I like the Tom Allen hire. But I'm not fully there yet.
I really, really do want to like the hire. Because Allen is a very likable guy, and hey, he does bring a whole lot to the table as Penn State's new defensive coordinator.
In all honesty, I've been more wishy-washy over this move than pretty much any previous Penn State hire. And if you've read my coverage for the past 18 years, you know that I usually have a strong opinion and rarely fall into the wishy-washy category.
I was pretty sick earlier in the week, which prevented me from writing this column sooner. But waiting a handful of extra days allowed me to digest as much as I could about Allen, reading what's out there, watching some Indiana film and talking to other folks to gauge their insight.
The best I can come up with is two-fold:
Good news: I like the idea of the Allen hire, but ...
Bad news: I'm not at all convinced that he will be overly successful at Penn State.
“I’m a football coach," Allen said at his introductory press conference. "I just love what I do. And for this opportunity to present itself in this time frame, it was one that I immediately had interest in."
All of that is part of the good news. This is a good guy. Just a real good dude. He's passionate and energetic. A leader.
Heck, he just spent the past eight seasons as a head coach in the Big Ten. He was named national coach of the year by one outlet in 2020, the year his Hoosiers beat Penn State (controversially) and finished 6-2.
For James Franklin to be able to land a guy like that shows a keen eye for talent -- something Franklin has proven numerous times with hires -- and also the allure of what Penn State can offer.
"I'm not looking for just a head coach of the defense as a CEO role of the defense," Franklin said. "I'm looking for a leader of the defense, and that leadership is not only the staff and the players and the fundamentals and the schemes and all those things. It's all those things that are going to allow us to play really good defense again, which we have been doing here for a long time."
You'll find a lot of people saying a lot of nice things about Allen. And again, the fact that he's been a college head coach can be a great benefit to the players he'll be coaching at Penn State.
Here's the rub for me in all of this.
I was never all that impressed with Indiana's defense while Allen was there. And I just cannot get over that when wondering how he will fare at Penn State.
Consider these things:
• The Hoosiers had the worst defense in the Big Ten this season in league games, allowing 394.1 yards per game.
• They had the Big Ten's worst defense last season, too, giving up a staggering 449.3 yards per game.
• They were last in the league in scoring defense in 2021, allowing 33.3 points per game.
Lastly, I'm going to the eye test. The eight times I saw Penn State go up against Allen's Indiana team, the Lions averaged 36.8 points. They scored 45 points three times and at least 33 points four other times.
Even when Indiana beat Penn State in 2020, the Lions scored 35 points. Allen wasn't the defensive coordinator of any of those teams during the eight-year period, but still.
OK, OK. I am fully aware that we're talking about Indiana here. The Hoosiers have been lousy since, well, forever. They have never had the kind of talent on defense that Penn State has, and so to judge Allen based on the fact that the Lions always lit up their defense may not be fair.
No, it's not fair. I will fully admit that.
But sorry, I just cannot overlook that stuff, either.
Sure, Indiana was playing with a bunch of 2- and 3-star defenders. But in all the games I've watched the Hoosiers play over the years, I don't recall ever coming away and thinking to myself, boy, they really have something going on with their defense.
I cannot be alone in my thinking here. Have any of you Penn State fans ever watched Indiana play defense and come away overly impressed?
Again, yes, I KNOW, we weren't necessarily watching elite talent. Instead, the Hoosiers kind of had to do a lot of things with smoke and mirrors, finding some way -- any way -- to compete with the behemoths of the Big Ten East every year.
I have a lot of respect for what Allen was able to do as a head coach because the Hoosiers usually did always put up a good fight. Even this year, coming to Beaver Stadium, they had Penn State on the ropes after picking off Drew Allar with a few minutes to go.
That's when Allen made one of the worst coaching decisions I've seen as he went terribly conservative with the play calling when Indiana had a chance to take the lead. You're on the road, against a top 10 team, and despite having nothing to lose really, the coach decided not to try for a go-ahead touchdown, but rather settle for a tying field goal.
Indiana had a chance to win the game, and its coach let the players down with that kind of decision making.
OK, anyway, enough rehashing that.
There's still a lot to like and respect about Allen. And as mentioned before, he will be a popular and likable coach among the players and staff.
But we're not judging Penn State on the likability of coaches. We're judging Penn State on the ability to find hired guns who can be relentless and take the program to the next level.
Like Manny Diaz did.
Do we think Allen can do what Diaz did? No. Not at all. Probably not by a long shot.
Diaz came in with an incredibly aggressive scheme. He had worked with big-time defensive players before at Miami and Texas. He understood how to develop guys with extremely high skill sets and utilize them to form a great defense.
With all due respect to Allen, he's never worked with elite-level defensive players before -- not at Indiana, or in stops as defensive coordinator at South Florida or Drake. He's always sort of had to build a defense around lesser recruits, and to his credit, he's done well.
It's easy to just assume that, with better players to work with at Penn State, Allen will become an even better defensive coordinator. Everyone can hope that's the case, but we cannot say for sure. There's no need for smoke and mirrors with the Lions. The need is to put the great athletes in the best situations for them to wreak havoc, like Diaz did.
Here's one big concern I have for Penn State's defense next year.
The Lions are losing a ton of talent. Chop Robinson is heading to the draft, as are Curtis Jacobs and Daequan Hardy. Kalen King and Johnny Dixon are expected to turn pro, as well, and Adisa Isaac. If in fact all of those guys depart, then Allen is gonna have a very difficult task of molding a bunch of younger players into starters right away.
When Diaz came on board, he inherited an excellent secondary led by Joey Porter Jr. and King, plus a strong defensive line. So, Diaz could employ his aggressive schemes because he had all the pieces in place to do so.
Allen isn't going to have that luxury as much next year, at least on paper anyway.
Hey look, Tom Allen is a good football coach. And all things considered, I do believe this was a good hire by Franklin.
But there are questions and concerns. And Allen isn't walking into the same kind of fantastic situation that Diaz did two years ago.
Whomever Franklin hired would be facing key personnel losses and big changes next year. All we can do is wait and see if Allen can find a way to get the most out of everybody, but don't be surprised to see some speed bumps along the way in that process.
One big question is whether Allen will be looking to become a head coach again if he has success at Penn State. You'd think someone like him would like to give it one more go after getting fired at Indiana, just to see what he can prove somewhere that's perhaps less challenging.
Allen, though, made it seem like he's not looking to use Penn State as a springboard to another head coaching job.
“I’m not coming here for that purpose, I’ll tell you that,” he said. “I’m coming here to be defensive coordinator. I’m 53 years old. I’ve had some great opportunities. I am so fired up to be in this position at this place."
