This week on Inside the Headset we speak with Tom Allen, Head Coach for Indiana University. We discuss his journey from high school assistant to head coach for the Hoosiers in the Big Ten.

Coach Allen's career began at Temple Heights HS (FL) in 1992 as an assistant, but after one season, he was named their head coach at the age of 23. He spent a total 15 years coaching high school football, which included stints as defensive coordinator for Armwood HS (FL) (1995-1996), Marion HS (IN) (1997), and Ben Davis HS (IN) (1998-2003), and he also served as head coach at Ben Davis HS (2004-2006). In 2007, Allen joined the staff at Wabash College working with the defensive backs and special teams. He went on to be the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Lambuth (2008-2009) and defensive coordinator at Drake (2010) before serving as the assistant head coach for Arkansas State (2011). Allen was the linebackers coach and special teams coordinator at Ole Miss (2012-2014) and later was the defensive coordinator at South Florida (2015) prior to his arrival at Indiana in 2016 as defensive coordinator. Coach Allen was promoted to head coach in December of 2016, and he is in his third full season leading the Hoosiers.

• [0:23] Start of interview
• [0:33] Coaching high school football
• [2:41] Transition to college football
• [6:43] The versatility of a small college coach
• [8:19] Becoming a head coach at the FBS level
• [11:02] Coaching his son at Indiana

You can follow Tom Allen on Twitter.

Have any questions, comments, or ideas for the show? Send us an email at [email protected].