Hoosiers Now

Charlton Warren Bringing Experience and Energy as Indiana's Defensive Coordinator

Warren met with the media Wednesday to talk about why he chose to come to Indiana to be the Hoosiers' new DC.

Dylan Wallace

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Charlton Warren had seen the videos, he heard the message and he wasn't going to lie, he used some of what he saw.

What Warren is referring to is the foundation Tom Allen has built at Indiana. For those familiar with the program, it comes from one thing, LEO, which stands for Love Each Other.

As Indiana made its historic run the last two seasons, the LEO mantra took social media by storm and started to be talked about nationally.

Warren saw it and thought it was inspiring.

"I think it's contagious," Warren said Wednesday. "You see a group of guys working their tails off for a common goal in the face of adversity, in the face of a bigger opponent, the national scene, it doesn't really matter because the genuine love they have for each other. For me, at our previous stop, we used some of that to motivate our players."

Warren's previous stop was two years at Georgia as the defensive backs coach. Now, Warren will be joining Allen and the Hoosiers for the 2021 season.

Allen officially announced Tuesday that he has hired Warren to be the new defensive coordinator, replacing Kane Wommack, who took a head coaching job at South Alabama.

"We are really excited about Charlton Warren joining our staff as defensive coordinator. As we all know, it is a critical position for our program," Allen said Wednesday. "The job that Kane Wommack was able to do here this past season, the growth that our defense showed was the improvement I expected, and now to bring in Charlton from the University of Georgia, a lot of respect for where he has been and the man that he is is important to me."

Warren is from Atlanta, and he attended the United States Air Force Academy, where he played defensive back, helping Air Force to consecutive 10-win seasons in 1997 and 1998, including a 12-1 record and a conference title in 1998.

He graduated in 1999 with a bachelor's degree in human factors engineering. Warren was stationed at Warner Robins AFB from 2000-03, where he was a C-130 avionics program manager. He also earned an MBA from Georgia College & State University.

Before returning to Air Force in 2005 to be a defensive backs coach, Warren was stationed at Eglin AFB, Fla., as an air-to-ground weapons program manager for the Air Armament Center.

"I always liked that and thought that was a great correlation to football," Allen said on Warren's military background. "To be able to develop mental and physical toughness in our guys. So, yeah, I think that's a very important thing that he brought that most guys don't have."

Warren coached at Air Force through 2013, and then he joined the Big Ten for one year, becoming the defensive backs coach at Nebraska in 2014. 

The Cornhuskers went 9-4 that season, and their defense finished fifth nationally in pass efficiency defense and 32nd in passing yards allowed. Nebraska was second in the country in completion percentage defense (48.5), 13th in yards per passing attempt allowed (6.1) and 19th in TD passes allowed (15).

After that, Warren spent two years in the ACC with North Carolina and four in the SEC with Tennessee (2017), Florida (2018) and Georgia the last two years. In all those years of experience, Warren's final season with Air Force was the only time he served as the sole defensive coordinator.

The opportunity at Indiana was too good to pass up for Warren.

"At some point, I always wanted to have the chance to come back as a coordinator," he said. "For me, it was always about fit, the right place. I did not want to take a job just to take a job. I thought this was the right place, the right fit based on the culture and Coach Allen's vision."

Indiana runs a 4-2-5 defensive scheme, and Allen has made it clear he wanted whoever he hired to come in and keep the Hoosiers' concepts. Allen said the program believes in what they're doing on defense, and that's why they wanted to keep it.

Last season, Indiana led the country in interceptions with 17 and led the Big Ten in sacks with 25. Warren has no issue sticking with the same concepts Indiana used a season ago.

"They have done a tremendous job here of playing to their strengths. In any defensive scheme, a good call is not a good call unless the players can execute it," Warren said. "To me, they have done an amazing job using the talents they have to get the most out of the players based on the scheme. They have adapted the scheme over the years. Three years ago to last season, it has evolved based on their personnel. I am really happy with what they have done in that realm and I am happy to come here and add to it."

Warren will also serve as Indiana's linebackers coach.

As much on-field coaching Warren will bring to the table, he will also prove to be valuable in recruiting. 247Sports ranked Warren as the No. 11 recruiter in the nation.

He's already started to recruit for Indiana as well. On Tuesday, Emory Floyd, a 2022 safety prospect (top 500 nationally), was being recruited heavily by Georgia and then immediately got an Indiana offer the day Warren was announced as DC.

"When it comes to recruiting, you have to swing, you have to get in the ring, and you have to be ready to battle. To do that, I think that parents and kids care about real relationships," Warren said. "They do not care about you trying to sell them on anything. My job is not to sell a parent or a kid on anything. It is to present a tremendous opportunity for you to get a great education, be developed as a man, be developed as a football player and prepare you for what is next in life.

"We are not going to get them all, but if you do not try, you will not get any of them. We will try, we will get in the ring, we will throw our punches and we are going to try to get the best young men for Indiana University to help us develop our team culture and help us win games in the future."

Much like Allen, Warren wears his heart on his sleeve.

In Warren's senior year at Air Force, he was named the "Mr. Intensity" Award winner. He won the award for establishing himself as the most outstanding performer in the weight room.

He's always been a guy that played with emotion and coached with emotion. That's the type of energy he looks to bring to Indiana as the Hoosiers look to build on their success from 2020 and elevate it going forward.

"The one thing that I have always done is coach with energy and passion because of my love of the game and my love for seeing young men grow. I will probably not be too quiet. You will probably be able to hear me from a couple fields over, not in a bad way," Warren said. "I am just very passionate about the game. I am very passionate about helping kids make plays and grow. As a coach, when it clicks for a player, the light comes on, you see them playing full tilt, not thinking, and just playing the game that they love, it is very exciting.

"For me, I get pretty wrapped up in that. From an intensity standpoint, it is passion, it is seeing these guys grow, and I think that kids and coaches feed off energy. The more energy you can bring, the better it is for everybody. I am super competitive, do not play me in checkers, because I want to win. To play the game like that, to coach the game like that, as long as you are still learning and building fundamentals, there is nothing wrong with showing a little emotion."

Related Stories:

  • ALLEN REFLECTS ON 2020 SEASON: Tom Allen reflected on last season and talked about how the team looks to build on that moving forward. CLICK HERE
  • ALLEN NAMED AFCA COACH OF THE YEAR: Tom Allen received a big award Tuesday afternoon. CLICK HERE
  • COMPLETE LIST OF INDIANA SENIORS: For a complete update on what the Indiana football seniors are doing, CLICK HERE
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Dylan Wallace
DYLAN WALLACE

Dylan Wallace is a reporter for Sports Illustrated Indiana. He is a 2020 graduate of Indiana University in Bloomington, and is from Crown Point, Ind.

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