Zach Osterman

zach.osterman@indystar.com

BLOOMINGTON — Kevin Wilson flexed a little muscle in his latest attempt to fix Indiana University football's beleaguered defense, hiring defensive coordinator Tom Allen away from South Florida.

The move marked a bolder maneuver for Wilson, luring a credentialed coordinator away from another program with regular bowl aspirations. And it could be that aggressiveness that comes to define the second phase of his tenure as IU’s coach.

“Just from our first conversation, his energy and excitement, obviously, that’s what he wanted me to bring. That’s how I coach,” Allen said of his new boss. “We want to change the culture, we want to change the mentality. Be able to play with an edge, with confidence.”

Allen, an Indiana native who spent time as Ben Davis High School's head coach from 2004-06 before moving to college, will be tasked with repairing a defense that has consistently finished at or near the bottom of the Big Ten during Wilson’s tenure.

The Hoosiers were expected to make moderate improvements last fall, but instead finished last in the conference in pass defense, total defense and scoring defense, and second-to-last in rushing defense. Former coordinator Brian Knorr was let go with Allen’s hiring.

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While Knorr’s time at Wake Forest suggested he could construct competitive defenses from moderate recruiting returns (and at a program outside its conference’s traditional power base), he was available in part because of staff turnover.

In Allen, Indiana has hired away a coordinator from a South Florida program on the rise under coach Willie Taggart. The Bulls won eight games in the American Athletic Conference this past season, and posted a league-best 19.6 points per game allowed in conference games. Allen’s unit finished fourth in the conference in total yards per game allowed.

Some things will change under Indiana’s new defensive coordinator.

Allen brings a 4-2-5 alignment to Bloomington, replacing Knorr’s 3-4, although Allen said his scheme won’t be “dramatically different.”

“The game’s become such a spread game,” he said. “You just want to be able to get athletes in space.”

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And while it’s not clear whether Allen will control a specific position group — he did not at South Florida — the former Ole Miss linebackers coach was emphatic about coaching from the sideline, not the press box.

“I’m very active on the sideline,” he said. “I want to stay connected to my guys. I want to be able to speak with them face-to-face.”

Wilson will be fine with these things, so long as Allen can bring his defense up to the same competitive level as an offense that has finished at or near the top of the Big Ten consistently in his tenure.

Allen becomes the fifth coach in Wilson’s six seasons at Indiana whose title contained either defensive coordinator or co-defensive coordinator. Three of the other four — Knorr, Doug Mallory and Mike Ekeler — have either been fired or moved on without achieving the improvement necessary to balance with the Hoosiers’ high-powered offense.

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That offense will need retooling this offseason, having lost several key players. Defensive improvement will be critical to achieving a second-consecutive bowl berth.

In his IU tenure, Wilson has seen his team become more competitive on the field. To fix that defense — arguably the most important step forward the Hoosiers can make this offseason — Wilson himself has gotten more competitive off of it.

Indiana hasn’t always been in a position to hire away successful coaches from schools arguably on the same footing nationally. Wilson will hope it represents another critical step forward.

“The way that we’re going to prepare is going to create confidence,” Allen said last weekend. “Once that confidence is created, it’s going to create expectation, and once that expectation is created, it’s going to create a different performance.”

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.