Big Ten Media Days: IU football head coach Tom Allen is ready to win the Big Ten

In the first Big Ten Media Days in 2017, IU football head coach Tom Allen gave three numbers: 50, 26, 10. These numbers represented how long it had been since the Hoosiers won the Big Ten tournament in the bowl game and won the season accordingly.

Four years later, these figures are 54, 30 and zero. While the Hoosiers had two of their best ever seasons in 2019 and 2020, Allen said the team not only wants to continue to succeed until 2021, but to build it and remove the other two numbers.

When Allen joined former head coach Kevin Wilson in December 2016, players stopped training by saying Big Ten championship talks, where he quickly quit.

Nearly five years later, players have earned this right from their coach.

I didn’t feel that those words were believed, and I just felt like it was more negative than positive, Allen said it was just something we said, broke it and everyone jogged. This is the first offseason I’ve given players permission to break it into the Big Ten Championships.

Players will also buy Allens ’view of the team after seeing the consecutive 5-7 seasons of the teams turn into 8-5 and 6-2 records in 2019 and 2020.

It’s really exciting to be just part of it, senior linebacker Micah McFadden said. In our first year, we really weren’t the team we wanted to be on, and we didn’t have the formula we wanted, but it’s great to be a part of this change and see all of his goals come true.

For dreams of winning the first IU Big Ten title since 1967 to come true, the Hoosiers must overtake the state of Ohio, Team Allen, known as the gold standard, which has won the conference for four consecutive seasons.

After losing Columbus Ohio’s No. 3 Buckeyes 45-38 last season, the Hoosiers are confident in their ability to change the result in 2021.

It just lets this football team know they were there so we can compete with anyone, said senior broad receiver Ty Fryfogle. I think this football team understands that now.

While ending the 54-year conference championship dryness is Hoosiers ’entry into Allens’ fifth season as head coach, the team still has work to do to achieve that goal.

The vision is very clear, that is the goal, Allen said. Return to this state and play the Big Ten Championship on December 4th. That’s the goal, and then you start back on how to get to that goal. For me, this is a vision, and you have to have a mindset that you are going to influence that opportunity by doing it every single day.