After a hard-fought, gritty victory over the Hilltoppers on Saturday afternoon, Tom Allen and the Indiana football program turn their focus to Cincinnati on September 24th. The head man in charge was featured on The Jim Rome Show on CBS Sports Radio on September 22nd to recap what’s happened thus far in an eventful 2022 season and the principles which Allen focuses on as the leader of the Hoosiers.
Jim Rome starts the conversation asking about the emotional win against Western Kentucky last weekend, and Tom Allen gives an answer that should fire up Hoosier Nation:
"“Well the bottom line is, you gotta find a way to win. If there’s one quality, if I had to pick a person or key, it would be grit, and I think that’s what this team has. There’s a toughness to them, there’s a belief to them, and they just got tremendous perseverance and fight, so I love that about them, but we gotta keep getting better, without question. But, belief is a powerful thing, and when you find a way to win games like that, it creates tremendous belief.”"
“The goal is to build the best team.”
Obviously, by now most people that follow the Indiana football program know that Tom Allen builds his culture and foundation on focusing on key words, and he touches on that subject a bit with Rome and explains his concept and why he leads the way he does.
Rome brings up the notable key players that are now gone from last season’s Cincinnati squad, but notes how the team is still very dangerous with new players. Allen comments about the confidence and physicality that the team plays with as a whole, and the players that are stepping up on the offensive side of the ball, including at wide receiver and “probably the two best tight ends we will play all year”.
Allen finishes off the conversation by talking about the opportunity to coach his son prior to this season and the difficulties of that from both his point of view and his son’s, along with touching on the Big Ten conference expansion and his opinions on that.
It’s worth the 10 minutes to listen to Tom Allen’s take on the season for Indiana football thus far. Especially ahead of a tough matchup like Cincinnati on Saturday. Take a listen below.