Column: Tom Allen Should Stop Blaming Indiana's Players For Poor Execution

Indiana lost to Maryland 44-17 on Saturday in the most discouraging performance of the 2023 season. Coach Tom Allen blamed execution yet again after the game, an excuse that rings hollow this deep into the season.

Daniel Olinger | Sep 30, 2023

Column: Tom Allen Should Stop Blaming Indiana's Players For Poor Execution /

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Indiana Hoosiers

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — A bad coach blames his players before he blames himself.

That's not specifically what coach Tom Allen did on Saturday after Indiana (2-3, 0-2 Big Ten) got shellacked 44-17 by the Maryland Terrapins (5-0, 2-0). But for the third straight week when asked what changes are needed with his team spiraling, Allen turned not to the coaches but to the players.

"We need to execute the calls better from what I saw," Allen said. "There were a lot of receivers open, a lot of opportunities to make proper reads and [we] didn't do that. That's really what I saw today. There's no question, everything is going to be evaluated, without a doubt. But at the same time, tonight's game was execution to me."

Yes, Indiana's football players need to play better on the field. No one is arguing against that. The fans know it, the coaches know it, and the players know it.

But blaming poor team performances on "execution" is the trademark of poor coaching. It's reflective of a lack of accountability. A good coach sees his players performing poorly and takes responsibility for the poor play. A good coach's instinct is that he and his staff need to be better and work to make the players better versions of themselves.

There needs to be more introspection, more reflection internally from Allen about the failings of his staff and the program he's built. If the players aren't executing well enough each Saturday, whose fault is that?! You are the head coach. It's your football program.

If offensive coordinator Walt Bell's play calls are in fact not the biggest problem with Indiana and it really is the execution that is failing the team, then that means one of three teams:

Allen and Indiana did not recruit well enough over the past few years, and the team is not talented enough to be competitive in the Big Ten.
The players Allen has brought to Bloomington have not been developed well enough to be quality, above-average Big Ten football players.
The team does have enough talented players to compete, but those players do not bring the requisite focus to execute good, sound football on the field each Saturday.

All three of those options fall at the feet of Allen. If your players are not executing, that means you are not doing your job as the head coach of a Big Ten football team.

Taking a step back, it is wild that Indiana finds itself in this position with Allen after what happened in the not too distant past.

Indiana entered the Outback Bowl in January 2021 ranked as the No. 7 team in the country by the College Football Playoff committee.

Since that game, the Hoosiers are 8-22, they've lost 13 games by 20 points or more and just got routed 44-17 by a team it beat five times in six seasons from 2015-20.

The 2021-23 Indiana Hoosiers under coach Allen have been an unmitigated disaster.

Bell is bad and so is his play calling. The defense had its moments against Ohio State and Louisville, but clearly it is not talented enough to carry this team to true success. The offense is more likely to lose 10 yards on short yardage plays than it is to gain 18 inches. Every passing attack with a pulse burns the secondary deep.

Add it all up, and the Hoosiers are staring down their second 2-10 finish in three years.

Many will call for Bell to be fired during the bye week. Others might want Allen himself gone before the season's end. Some might call for Tayven Jackson to get benched after his second rough performance in a row, completing only 17 of 29 passes for 113 yards. Everyone wants to burn it all to the ground after a game like this.

And it's the correct reaction.

No one should feel bad for screaming at Allen and his team because they were good three years ago. There should be vitriol. There should be anger. Indiana football fans deserve better than this, and Indiana's football players deserve better than to be told every week that their execution is the primary reason behind every loss.

At some point, it's the program that's the problem, not the men on the field.

I will never know as much about football and the dynamics of being a coach as Allen, Bell or anyone on Indiana's coaching staff does. They get paid way more than me for that very reason.

But accountability means something. It means starting a press conference by addressing how the coaches need to be better, how the team should have been better prepared and how the play calls need to improve.

The coaches who called the offenses and defenses of Indiana's very best teams — Kalen DeBoer and Kane Wommack — are tearing it up at Washington and South Alabama, respectively. Funny how the team executed way better when they were coaching in Bloomington, right?

I'm not going to scream this minute that Allen needs to step down or that Bell needs to be fired before we reach Sunday. But I will scream this:

Stop blaming the players and their "execution." You have to have something better to say than that.

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