Tom Allen Quickly Immerses Himself as Penn State's Defensive Coordinator

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. | Tom Allen closed his introductory press conference as Penn State's new defensive coordinator with a giant smile. He scanned the room, said “We Are” into the microphone and banged the podium twice while standing up. “Love it,” he said, walking away.

It was also a little odd to see Allen wearing a black quarter-zip with Penn State branding on it, though he otherwise seemed completely comfortable with his new role. For what it’s worth, the longtime Indiana head coach proudly proclaimed that Michael Penix Jr., his former quarterback, indeed scored on the controversial 2-point conversion play that ended Indiana's 2000 upset of Penn State.

Perhaps Allen's insistence about Penix’s touchdown was just a display of fierce loyalty to his former players and school, something that Penn State coach James Franklin has spoken at length about regarding assistant coaches. Yet Allen quickly immersed himself at Penn State, joining the program's Signing Day ceremony less than a month after Indiana fired him after seven seasons as head coach.

“You don't control the clock of the timing of things, you respond, as you do with most things in life. I'm a football coach, and I just love what I do. This opportunity presented itself, and this time frame was one that I immediately had interest in,” Allen said Wednesday at Beaver Stadium. “For me, I really expected to get back into it once things happened as they did. [This is] probably a little quicker than expected, but once again, that's hard to control.”

That script should sound familiar, as Penn State hired previous defensive coordinator Manny Diaz with an even shorter buffer after Diaz was fired from Miami. Although Diaz is now the head coach at Duke, and Diaz's predecessor Brent Pry is the head coach at Virginia Tech, Allen isn’t necessarily thinking of this gig as a similar stepping stone.

“I'm not coming here for that purpose, I'll tell you that. I'm coming here as the 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,” Allen said. “I can't wait to be able to have [defensive coordinator] as my focus and not the 10,000 other things that you have to do when you're a head coach.”

Franklin said in early December that he sought a similar scheme and fit to what Diaz and Pry employed as defensive coordinator. Franklin also gave additional consideration to someone with previous head-coaching experience. He got both with Allen, who had other opportunities and got a big buyout from Indiana.

Moving to another Big Ten program is a unique dynamic for Allen, too. Franklin extended the olive branch this offseason to gauge Allen’s interest. The two even watched film of the 2023 Penn State-Indiana game during the interview process.

“Tom was in a position that he didn't need to take this job. I wanted Tom very comfortable with what he was signing up for. I wanted to be very comfortable with what I was signing up for,” Franklin said, adding that he was finally able to get some sleep after finishing his recruiting class and hiring two coordinators. "I got coach [Andy Kotelnicki] and I got Tom Allen and everybody signed. No drama. So I slept more than five hours last night, which was awesome."

Allen’s defined his defensive "DNA" as “takeaways, tackling and effort,” which includes an aggressive that emphasizes making the quarterback process a lot of pre-snap information. Among the many factors that attracted Franklin to Allen, the Penn State coach highlighted Indiana boasting the most-improved defense in the country once Allen took over as defensive coordinator in 2016.

Results declined during Allen's head-coaching career, though Franklin compared the situation to Diaz’s, who was unsuccessful as the head coach at Miami but guided elite defenses at Penn State.

Franklin was also impressed early in the process with how much of a “football guy” Allen is. As a head coach, Allen said, it’s easy to get rusty on the inner workings of defense or a specific position group. But Franklin was adamant that Allen still “knows ball.” Franklin has long held a public respect for Allen, and now with the two working together, the feeling is mutual.

“Class oozes from this place and coach Franklin,” Allen said.