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Our Coach Is On The Sidelines

IUFANBB

Benchwarmer
Oct 31, 2012
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A week ago I never thought that I would be sending a post of support for keeping CTA & having him continue running the program. But there are reasons to let him keep going..

- IU has had 8 head coaches in the last 40 years. Do we really want to scrap everything & start over again?

- As crazy as it sounds, he has the second highest winning % 0.435 since Bo McMillion. 2nd only to Bill Mallory. Where are we putting the CTA statue? I realize many believe those wins were due to the assistant coaches. So, if CTA can hire & keep good assistants, he can win & be competitive?

- Maybe he finally figured out that running the football might be better than a silly fast break passing offense. He needs to commit to an offensive identity & stick with it.

- Maybe we need to hire a coaching whisper (like we did for Woody). Someone retired with a lot of football credentials' who might want to spend a couple years semi-retired in Bloomington. He needs help with important personnel/program decision making.

- CTA loves Indiana, IU & IU Football. That, in itself, is a tough sell to any good head coach.

- He brings energy to the program

- Overall, his recruiting classes have been some of the best in program history.

- Clearly things need to be fixed, but are they that unfixable?

- I like the increased involvement of Rod Carey
 
We’ll see how recruiting goes as that will make or break him. And by recruiting I mean getting new players but also keeping the good ones out of the portal.

The outrageous buyout will give him the time to make the decision obvious one way or the other. If he can build and maintain a competitive roster after the two years we have suffered through I think he will deserve to keep the job.

TBH the run in ‘19/‘20 didn’t give us the juice I thought it would, so maybe the ‘21/‘22 disaster won’t hurt us as bad as I expect it to.
 
CTA is dead man walking. The stupid thing is he’ll walk for at least 2-3 more years. But it’s nice to get a win every now and then along the way.
 
A week ago I never thought that I would be sending a post of support for keeping CTA & having him continue running the program. But there are reasons to let him keep going..

- IU has had 8 head coaches in the last 40 years. Do we really want to scrap everything & start over again?

- As crazy as it sounds, he has the second highest winning % 0.435 since Bo McMillion. 2nd only to Bill Mallory. Where are we putting the CTA statue? I realize many believe those wins were due to the assistant coaches. So, if CTA can hire & keep good assistants, he can win & be competitive?

- Maybe he finally figured out that running the football might be better than a silly fast break passing offense. He needs to commit to an offensive identity & stick with it.

- Maybe we need to hire a coaching whisper (like we did for Woody). Someone retired with a lot of football credentials' who might want to spend a couple years semi-retired in Bloomington. He needs help with important personnel/program decision making.

- CTA loves Indiana, IU & IU Football. That, in itself, is a tough sell to any good head coach.

- He brings energy to the program

- Overall, his recruiting classes have been some of the best in program history.

- Clearly things need to be fixed, but are they that unfixable?

- I like the increased involvement of Rod Carey

I jumped on the Fire Allen! bandwagon after PSU. Not so much the loss but the total ineptitude shown, especially with how the QB situation was handled. Throwing Sorsby to the wolves like he did was inexcusable, and indicated to me that Allen and/or Bell were just grasping at straws. The OSU game didn't change my mind, although the OL did seem to be incrementally better in spurts.

Yesterday was better, obviously. But truthfully we got lucky and had some breaks and were able to cash them in while MSU didn't. Play them 10 times and we might win 2 or 3 if we're so lucky again. Nevertheless, there was some gumption, some gut checks, some pride on the line stuff exhibited that was great to see, and that I think flows from Allen and the culture he's tried to build. I like that.

Beat Purdue and while I won't be all in on CTA, I'll be willing see him continue in the short term without grousing too much. Lose this weekend and I still think CTA needs to go (even though I know my opinion means absolutely nothing to anyone), the buyout notwithstanding.
 
I jumped on the Fire Allen! bandwagon after PSU. Not so much the loss but the total ineptitude shown, especially with how the QB situation was handled. Throwing Sorsby to the wolves like he did was inexcusable, and indicated to me that Allen and/or Bell were just grasping at straws. The OSU game didn't change my mind, although the OL did seem to be incrementally better in spurts.

Yesterday was better, obviously. But truthfully we got lucky and had some breaks and were able to cash them in while MSU didn't. Play them 10 times and we might win 2 or 3 if we're so lucky again. Nevertheless, there was some gumption, some gut checks, some pride on the line stuff exhibited that was great to see, and that I think flows from Allen and the culture he's tried to build. I like that.

Beat Purdue and while I won't be all in on CTA, I'll be willing see him continue in the short term without grousing too much. Lose this weekend and I still think CTA needs to go (even though I know my opinion means absolutely nothing to anyone), the buyout notwithstanding.
Rod Carey is key.
 
A week ago I never thought that I would be sending a post of support for keeping CTA & having him continue running the program. But there are reasons to let him keep going..

- IU has had 8 head coaches in the last 40 years. Do we really want to scrap everything & start over again?

- As crazy as it sounds, he has the second highest winning % 0.435 since Bo McMillion. 2nd only to Bill Mallory. Where are we putting the CTA statue? I realize many believe those wins were due to the assistant coaches. So, if CTA can hire & keep good assistants, he can win & be competitive?

- Maybe he finally figured out that running the football might be better than a silly fast break passing offense. He needs to commit to an offensive identity & stick with it.

- Maybe we need to hire a coaching whisper (like we did for Woody). Someone retired with a lot of football credentials' who might want to spend a couple years semi-retired in Bloomington. He needs help with important personnel/program decision making.

- CTA loves Indiana, IU & IU Football. That, in itself, is a tough sell to any good head coach.

- He brings energy to the program

- Overall, his recruiting classes have been some of the best in program history.

- Clearly things need to be fixed, but are they that unfixable?

- I like the increased involvement of Rod Carey
The “8 head coaches in 40 years” stat is misleading because it includes Wyche (RIP) and Hoeppner (RIP). The remaining coaches averaged just over 6 years per tenure and if you include Pont (RIP) and Corso (and exclude Wyche and Hep) the average tenure is 7 seasons. It is a myth, if not a full-blown urban legend, that IU is “impatient” with its football coaches, or that it “changes coaches too quickly.” If anything, it is in the hiring process, not the firing process, where IU has systematically and historically failed.

I have yet to see any real evidence that Allen was ever in trouble this season, even had he finished the season 3-9 with a blowout loss at home to Purdue. And next season appears to fall into the same category, even if it too results in another losing record.

But we shouldn’t kid ourselves about yesterday. The main reason for the outcome was MSU’s special teams and over-priced coaching, not Tom Allen.
 
The “8 head coaches in 40 years” stat is misleading because it includes Wyche (RIP) and Hoeppner (RIP). The remaining coaches averaged just over 6 years per tenure and if you include Pont (RIP) and Corso (and exclude Wyche and Hep) the average tenure is 7 seasons. It is a myth, if not a full-blown urban legend, that IU is “impatient” with its football coaches, or that it “changes coaches too quickly.” If anything, it is in the hiring process, not the firing process, where IU has systematically and historically failed.

I have yet to see any real evidence that Allen was ever in trouble this season, even had he finished the season 3-9 with a blowout loss at home to Purdue. And next season appears to fall into the same category, even if it too results in another losing record.

But we shouldn’t kid ourselves about yesterday. The main reason for the outcome was MSU’s special teams and over-priced coaching, not Tom Allen.
I agree we haven’t truly been a coaching revolving door and Allen has had six years, not exactly just getting started.

There are so many seemingly basic things to point to that really hurt Allen’s credibility. Hiller? OMG!! Sorsby put in ahead of Williams (and then playing them both?) looked like “throw it against the wall and see if anything sticks?”

I appreciate Allen’s passion but I do t think he does himself any favors running around, jumping in players, losing his glasses and getting his face cut…in the middle of a game! (Afterwards maybe) but the old “act like you’ve been there” comes to mi d for me and look like you are in control.

If he has no or a $1M buyout, think many good arguments for making a change. If he beats PU and it does NOT look like a mass portal exodus soon after the season, I can be talked into understanding the economics and hoping there is momentum to build off for 2023.

But harsh reality is Allen may be best suited as a DC and we could use a more seasoned pro as the HC, but money is keeping us tied to his wagon. So I hope if that is the case, he can continue to grow and get AD support he needs to try to get better.
 
I guess this is who CTA is. Love it or hate it, the dude isn’t fake. Some of the stuff he does I find cringey, like celebrating a TD after a muffed punt to cut a deficit to 35 in the 4th quarter. He’s like a poor man’s Dabo without the wins.

What are Dolson’s and the fan’s expectations though? Before he’s put on the hot seat, shouldn’t that be defined? If it to compete and win the B1G, fire him now because that’s never going to happen with him. If it’s get to bowl games and be competitive well then the hot seat is fair.
 
The only thing Coach Allen did with this win was claw his way into a tie with Mel Tucker as the worst coach in the Big Ten.
 
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He’s been here six years. That is enough time to build a program. He failed.
But if we kept KD and KW on the staff all 6 years up to this point; we would not have the same record. No way.. CTA made bad hires trying to fill roles. That's why I think that he needs someone established/retired to help him with personnel & program decisions.
 
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A week ago I never thought that I would be sending a post of support for keeping CTA & having him continue running the program. But there are reasons to let him keep going..

- IU has had 8 head coaches in the last 40 years. Do we really want to scrap everything & start over again?

- As crazy as it sounds, he has the second highest winning % 0.435 since Bo McMillion. 2nd only to Bill Mallory. Where are we putting the CTA statue? I realize many believe those wins were due to the assistant coaches. So, if CTA can hire & keep good assistants, he can win & be competitive?

- Maybe he finally figured out that running the football might be better than a silly fast break passing offense. He needs to commit to an offensive identity & stick with it.

- Maybe we need to hire a coaching whisper (like we did for Woody). Someone retired with a lot of football credentials' who might want to spend a couple years semi-retired in Bloomington. He needs help with important personnel/program decision making.

- CTA loves Indiana, IU & IU Football. That, in itself, is a tough sell to any good head coach.

- He brings energy to the program

- Overall, his recruiting classes have been some of the best in program history.

- Clearly things need to be fixed, but are they that unfixable?

- I like the increased involvement of Rod Carey
I like CTA as a man, but what would be getting scrapped other than LEO?
 
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