James Franklin breaks down how he decided on Tom Allen as defensive coordinator

After making a splash at offensive coordinator, James Franklin took another big swing to replace Manny Diaz as Penn State defensive coordinator. Once again, he went with a recently fired head coach, hiring Tom Allen just weeks after Indiana let him go.

Allen’s defensive prowess was a key reason IU hired him as head coach in the first place. He was the Hoosiers’ coordinator in 2016 and took the Hoosiers from a unit that allowed 506 yards per game in 2015 to giving up 380.1 yards on average. He then took over as head coach after the departure of Kevin Wilson and amassed a 33-49 record prior to his firing.

As Franklin went through the process to replace Diaz, he looked at a few factors when hiring Allen. Of course, that immediate success at IU played a factor in the evaluation.

“When he was the defensive coordinator at Indiana, they were the most improved defense in the country,” Franklin said as part of a detailed answer. “And I think that’s the other thing that you have to be careful of. Say you’re trying to hire two coordinators, and you’re trying to decide between the two. We all have to recognize they’re different programs. Like, there shouldn’t be the same expectation for different programs.

“So as much as you possibly can, you’re trying to compare apples to apples and oranges and oranges, which is difficult to do in college football in general, right? When some teams play nine conference games and other other conferences play eight, that’s hard to do. So what we try to do is say, ‘Okay, the things that you can control, did you control them?’ And when he was the defensive coordinator, it was the most improved defense in the country. That was telling.”

James Franklin: ‘I’m looking for a leader of the defense’

Indiana was up-and-down during Tom Allen’s tenure as head coach. The Hoosiers had back-to-back 5-7 seasons before an 8-win campaign in 2019. They then won six games during the eight-game COVID-impacted season, but went 2-10 the following year.

All the while, the Indiana defense followed a similar up-and-down path, including back-to-back last place finishes in the Big Ten in average yards allowed. Considering Allen had so many other responsibilities, James Franklin said, part of the conversation was about how he’d approach a focus on the defense again rather than wearing multiple hats.

“There are some guys that have been able to be the head coach and offensive coordinator or head coach and defensive coordinator, but not many,” Franklin said. “That’s challenging to do. So when you get with Tom, and you start talking ball, is he one of these guys that’s been removed from those things and is rusty and has to get back into being able to talk ball in a way specifically to defense? That gives you the confidence that it’s not going to take some time for him to get back into the rhythm of calling the difference.

“And that was really apparent very early on to me, as well as our staff, that this is a football guy that is still heavily involved in what’s going on from a scheme and from a fundamental perspective. And that was obvious. If it wasn’t, then we wouldn’t be sitting here talking about Tom Allen because I’m not looking for just a head coach of the defense, as a CEO role of the defense. I’m looking for a leader of the defense.”

Franklin also pointed out the parallels of his decision to hire Diaz, who was let go as the head coach at Miami following the 2021 season. People wondered how a recently dismissed head coach would handle being a coordinator again. Penn State then proceeded to rank No. 1 in the Big Ten in yards allowed per game this past season, which helped Diaz become a head coach again when Duke hired him.

“The other thing that’s interesting is I think sometimes people want to say, ‘Well, let’s look at the numbers of when he was a head coach because he’s got a defensive background,'” Franklin said. “Well, did you guys do that for the last guy? Because the numbers would tell a very similar story. So again, my interest is, what did he do when he was controlling the defense from A to Z?’