Penn State is targeting former Indiana head coach Tom Allen for its vacant defensive coordinator position, according to a report by ESPN’s Pete Thamel. Other reports indicate that Allen is expected to be named the new defensive coordinator in the coming days and that the move is effectively a done deal.
Allen was relieved of his head coaching duties at Indiana a few weeks ago and would replace Manny Diaz, who left Penn State following the conclusion of the regular season for the head coaching position at Duke. Allen was last titled as defensive coordinator in 2016 when he held that role at Indiana for one season before being named head coach. During his tenure as head coach, he had a hand in defensive play-calling but relinquished that role ahead of the 2023 season.
While Allen has not led a defense as nationally respected or statistically comparable to what Penn State has become accustomed to, the better part of his coaching career since 1992 has been spent on the defensive side of the ball, with noteworthy stops at Ole Miss and South Florida as well as his most recent eight-year stint at Indiana. However, a big fit for Allen and Penn State is both’s familiarity and reliance on 4-3 and 4-2-5.
“I’ve had three defensive coordinators that have all been able to play at a high level, and we’ve taken a similar approach with all three,” Penn State coach James Franklin said recently of the ongoing search. “We’ve also recruited towards a certain scheme as well. I’m not saying that what we have played is the only way you can play defense. There are guys that run the 3-4 that are highly successful guys. There are guys running a 3-3-stack that are highly successful. I just think there’s a lot of gymnastics that go into making that change, and can create a lot of questions that guys are asking, ‘Am I going to fit into the new scheme?’ So prefer not to do that.”
Allen would be the fourth defensive coordinator under James Franklin, and the fourth to have head coaching experience either prior to or after the role. Bob Shoop was head coach at Columbia years before joining Franklin at Vanderbilt then Penn State; Brent Pry is now the head coach at Virginia Tech; and Diaz came to Penn State following time as Miami’s head coach.
The move is a departure from the popular opinion that current co-defensive coordinator Anthony Poindexter would take over the role.
