As Indiana prepared to face Michigan State, Tom Allen and Mark Dantonio stood on the field and talked about the good ole’ days.
You know, three years ago.
As we outlined last week, much has changed across the college football landscape since IU’s highly successful two year run in 2019 and 2020. It’s Allen’s new reality that is seemingly always top of mind, so much so that he brings it up almost involuntarily.
It happened again earlier this week. Allen was asked about remaining positive about the direction of the program, and after saying the things you’d expect — he needed to stay the course and keep building — Allen shared a conversation with the former Michigan State head coach.
“I was there pregame Coach Dantonio was out there with their staff with their situation there at Michigan State, and first words out of his mouth, ‘man, has this thing changed in the last three years since the last time he coached,'” Allen said.
“We both agreed it’s a dramatic difference.”
Of course the dramatic difference is name, image and likeness, coupled with the transfer portal.
Allen was later asked whether there are systemic reasons at Indiana that make it difficult to win in this new era.
He seemed to suggest Indiana has not been aggressive and nimble enough, including at the University level.
“I think there’s a real reality that you have to adapt to the changes as a program, as a university, and sometimes those adaptations are slower than they need to be,” Allen said.
“The bottom line is you can just see the trajectory of where we were going prior to the changes, and as things are right now — so the bottom line is that the way the rosters are built now is different than it used to be, and the NIL piece is the biggest component that has made the biggest difference.
“We have to embrace that in a full fledged way and a more aggressive way, and that is just bottom line being truthful. … We have to make some obvious changes to that, and when you don’t, you get run over.”
It’s all about fundraising now, not only to attract high school and transfer portal talent, but to retain current players.
Allen was asked what needs to be done by Indiana to adapt to the new reality.
It sounded a lot like a pledge drive.
“I want to be as aggressive as I can be with our alumni and boosters, and just being able to get in front of them and help them see the direction that these things are going and what we need to do to be able to help us make these changes,” Allen said.
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