Indiana football head coach Kevin Wilson resigns, DC Tom Allen named as replacement

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana University Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Fred Glass announced today that he has accepted the resignation, effective immediately, of head football coach Kevin Wilson based upon philosophical differences as to the leadership of the football program.

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"I appreciate Coach Wilson's many positive contributions to our football program," Glass said. "This has nothing to do with the performance of the football team, which I view as quite positive and very much heading in the right direction."

Glass noted no NCAA compliance issues are involved in the matters giving rise to Wilson's resignation.

Glass also announced that Tom Allen will be the next Indiana University head football coach, also effective immediately.

Allen, a New Castle, Ind., native and former head coach (2004-2006) and defensive coordinator (1998-2003) at football power Indianapolis Ben Davis High School, joined the Indiana football staff as associate head coach on January 15, 2016. A 25-year coaching veteran, this year Allen helped lead a dramatic turnaround of IU's defense, just as he had done before at Ole Miss and the University of South Florida.

"Once Coach Wilson and I concluded to part ways, I turned to determining who the best person in the country would be to keep up our momentum and take us to another level with our football team," Glass said. "I quickly concluded that person was in our midst in Tom Allen. He is a leader of men. He is demanding without being demeaning. He is a proven, successful coach on a national scale with deep Indiana ties. He cares about his players, and they care back."

Allen engineered one of the top defensive turnarounds in the country in 2016. IU's defense improved in every major statistical category against a schedule featuring four top 10 opponents, a program first. IU is holding its opponents to 372.6 total yards, an improvement of 136.9 yards over 2015, the largest improvement in the country. The Hoosiers have limited their foes to 93.6 fewer passing yards, also first nationally, and 10.3 fewer points, which ranks sixth nationally. Indiana's defense has given up 27 fewer touchdowns than one season ago.

Allen, who was a nominee for the 2016 Broyles Award — honoring college football's top assistant coach, mentored one of the better defenses to play at IU. For the first time in program history, six defensive players were recognized with All-Big Ten honors. Tegray Scales and Rashard Fant earned second team accolades, and Ralph Green III, Marcus Oliver, Jonathan Crawford and Marcelino Ball received honorable mention recognition.

Scales leads the nation with 87 solo tackles, and he is first in the Big Ten with 116 tackles and 20.5 tackles for loss — third best in IU history. Fant's 17 pass breakups lead the conference and rank second nationally, while his 19 passes defended also lead the conference and are tied for third in the country. Oliver is first in the conference in forced fumbles and third in solo tackles. Against Purdue, Crawford became the first Big Ten player and just the eighth FBS player with three takeaways. He is tied for the conference lead in fumble recoveries and is sixth nationally. Ball leads all Big Ten true freshmen with 73 stops. Green led the Hoosiers line with 7.5 tackles for loss, to go along with 29 stops, 19 solo, one sack and two pass breakups.

The contract for Tom Allen is still being finalized and will be released once it is complete.