IU Football’s Tom Allen wins 2020 Big Ten Coach of the Year

Indiana head coach Tom Allen has been named the Big Ten Conference’s football Coach of the Year.  Allen earned the honor from both the league’s coaches and the media.

In his fourth season in Bloomington, Allen led the Hoosiers to heights not seen in more than 50 years, including a top-ten national ranking and a 6-1 record with wins over Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Wisconsin.

Allen is the first IU head coach to earn the honor since Bill Mallory won it in both 1986 and 1987.

“It means a lot,” Allen said in an interview on BTN with Dave Revsine after the announcement.  “It’s a tremendous honor.  I feel so blessed.  It’s just a tribute to our entire staff.  We’ve got an amazing group of men here, just bought in just like the players have, and they believed in what we’re building and the way we are going to build it.  Just a testament to everything we are doing here at Indiana.”

Allen was asked who was the first person he thought of upon learning of the news.

“My dad,” Allen said.  “He was my high school coach.  I saw the impact that he made in this profession, and he’s my hero.  The LEO concept wasn’t a phrase he used, but it is how he lived his life and how he coached and he was a mentor to so many young men through all these years.  So that’s exactly who I thought of.”

See also:  Allen’s complete interview with Revsine on BTN

Here are some of Indiana’s more notable accomplishments in 2020:

• IU is ranked for the eighth-consecutive week, its longest streak since 1945 (9), coming in at No. 7 in the Associated Press Top 25 and at No. 7 in the Amway Coaches Poll presented by USA Today Sports.

• The Hoosiers have been ranked in the Top 10 five times in 2020, the most for the program since 1967 (5 weeks) and tied for the second-most in school history (9 weeks in 1945).

• Indiana collected its first Top-10 ranking in the Nov. 8 AP Poll (No. 10) since Sept. 22, 1969 (No. 10), and its No.7 rating is its best in the AP Poll since Nov. 27, 1967 (No. 4).

• IU entered the CFP rankings for the first time in program history on Nov. 24, and currently sits at No. 12.

• The Hoosiers are one of three teams in the country (Alabama, North Carolina) with three Top-25 victories.

•,Their three Top-25 wins also match the 1945 team’s program record.

• Indiana’s 6-1 record is its best overall start since 1993 (7-1) and its best conference start since 1967 (6-1).

• IU is 14-6 overall and 11-5 in league play since the beginning of the 2019 campaign. Its 14 victories share third and its 11 Big Ten wins rank third among all B1G teams during that span.

• With their victory over Maryland, the Hoosiers clinched a winning league record in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1987-88 and for the sixth time overall (1967-68, 1944-46 and 1936-37).

• Indiana’s six conference wins are tied for the most in school history (1967, 1987)

• IU’s 11 Big Ten victories are tied for the most in program history over a two-year span (1987-88).

• The Hoosiers collected their first win over No. 16 Wisconsin (14-6) since defeating the Badgers in back-to-back seasons on Oct. 6, 2001 (63-32) and on Oct. 12, 2002 (32-29), the former coming at Camp Randall Stadium.

• Indiana recorded its first road victory over a ranked opponent since No. 18 Missouri on Sept. 20, 2014 (31-27), and its first B1G road win over a ranked opponent since No. 22 Michigan State on Nov. 10, 2001 (37-28).

• Wisconsin’s six points marked its lowest total against IU since Oct. 24,1992 (3), and it was U-W’s first game without a touchdown since Oct. 3, 2015, against Iowa.

• The Hoosiers matched a school record with five-straight league victories (1967) before losing at No. 3 Ohio State and have won 11 of their last 14, their most successful stretch in conference games in program history.

• Indiana defeated Michigan State, 24-0, to reclaim the Old Brass Spittoon for the first time since 2016 and earn its first win in East Lansing since 2001.

• IU’s 38-21 victory over No. 23 Michigan was its first over the Wolverines since Oct. 24, 1987 (14-10).

• The Hoosiers 36-35, overtime win against No. 8 Penn State in the season opener was the sixth against a Top-10 opponent in school history, with the last coming at No. 9 Ohio State (31-10) on Oct. 10, 1987.

• It marked Indiana’s first Top-10 victory at Memorial Stadium since Nov. 25, 1967 (No. 3 Purdue, 19-14).

• IU has defeated PSU, U-M, MSU and UW in the same season for the first time in program history and beaten the Wolverines and Spartans in the same year for the first time since 1967.

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