Penn State’s Tom Allen relishing the opportunity to be an assistant coach again
It’s hard not to notice Tom Allen’s energy when he enters a room. The new Penn State defensive coordinator speaks quickly and concisely, upright in posture and precise in what he says.
So when Allen answered a question at his introductory press conference Wednesday about moving back to a DC position after being a head coach, and added in his comments about being happy he doesn’t have to deal with some of the other things coaches deal with, it was noteworthy.
Allen was asked later if he wants to be a head coach again after spending seven years in the role at Indiana.
“I’m not coming here for that purpose, I’ll tell you that,” Allen said. “I’m coming here to be the coordinator. I’m 53 years old. I’ve had some great opportunities. I’m so fired up to be in this position at this place.”
That may not be his intent, but those opportunities will surely come if things go right at Penn State. But that transition back to being a defensive coordinator may not be easy.
Allen has gone from being the CEO of his own program to an assistant in James Franklin’s and is now tasked with maintaining a group that was one of the best in the country.
Still, the defensive coordinator said he’s going to relish the many positives in being able to worry more about football and less about the day to day operations of a program.
“I look forward to just focusing on being the best defensive coordinator I possibly can be,” Allen said. “... I’m pretty excited about it. There a lot of things that you have to do as a head coach that aren’t as enjoyable. I love coaching football and I love impacting the lives of the players.”
He’ll have those things to look forward to, things he hasn’t had since 2016 when he was Indiana’s defensive coordinator. But that length of time without being a full-time coordinator can also complicate the process.
Franklin doesn’t have a recent sample of data to base the hire off of. There’s something to be said for how the program performed on defense when Allen was the head coach, but it would be hard to call that a representative sample.
Allen, while he did lead the defense at times as a head coach, had other responsibilities to worry about that didn’t allow him to dedicate all of his time to one unit. Franklin had to bridge that seven-year gap by having discussions with his new defensive coordinator.
“When you get with Tom and you start talking ball, is he one of these guys that’s been removed from those things and is rusty and has to get back into being able to talk ball in a way specifically to defense that gives you the confidence that it’s not going to take some time for him to get back into the rhythm of calling the defense,” Franklin said. “And that was really apparent very early on to me as well as our staff that this is a football guy that is still heavily involved in what’s going on from a scheme, and from a fundamental perspective, and that was obvious.”
Franklin was clearly satisfied enough to make the hire and hand the defense over to Allen in what will be an important year for Penn State. In 2024, the expectation will be that the team makes the playoff, after years of getting close, because it’s expanding to 12 teams. The defense will be losing plenty of talent this offseason, though, and Allen will be tasked with making sure they stay elite even with those losses.
That can present a challenge for any incoming coach, but Allen said he welcomes the pressure.
“You want to be at a place where expectations are high,” Allen said. “... I want to be able to build off what they had here. I love that there’s a standard and expectation that you’re gonna play great defense at Penn State. ... That’s that positive pressure that you want to be in to be able to allow yourself to be driven toward greatness.”
It’s good that Allen welcomes the challenge, but he still has to succeed and do it quickly. The transition should be relatively seamless for him.
He’s familiar with most of Penn State’s opponents after spending his last eight seasons in the Big Ten at Indiana — and yes, he said the Michael Penix Jr. touchdown that beat Penn State in 2020 was the correct call — and should have enough talent to put together a group worthy of making the College Football Playoff.
Allen will even bring some of the same intensity that Manny Diaz did as the defensive coordinator, even if it manifests in different ways.
And the good news is, Allen is back doing what got him a head coaching job in the begin with, ready to dive into the reasons Franklin made him the hire in the first place.
“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.”
