Jack's Take: Tom Allen Fires Walt Bell, But Will It Be Enough To Save Season?

Indiana coach Tom Allen wasted no time when making changes during Indiana's bye week. On Sunday, he fired offensive coordinator Walt Bell and promoted Rod Carey. The move makes sense, but it may not help Indiana improve enough to have a successful season.

Jack Ankony | Oct 1, 2023

Jack's Take: Tom Allen Fires Walt Bell, But Will It Be Enough To Save Season? /

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Indiana Hoosiers

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Tom Allen’s latest coaching move is warranted, but whether it will produce dramatic results is uncertain.

Early Sunday afternoon, after a 44-17 loss at Maryland, the program announced in a news release that Allen has fired offensive coordinator Walt Bell. Quality control coach Rod Carey, who's been with the program since the start of the 2022 season, will replace Bell.

The move may not alter the outlook of the 2023 season, and it wouldn’t have been surprising to see Indiana make the change at the end of the year. But the timing reveals a sense of urgency from Allen, who recognized what we all saw: Bell's offense simply wasn't working.

“I felt we need a new direction on the offensive side of the ball,” Allen said. “Rod brings a wealth of experience and success along with a familiarity with our personnel. I wish Walt and his family the best moving forward and thank him for his contributions to our program.”

As a defensive-minded coach by nature, hiring offensive play callers is one of the most important aspects of Allen's job. He's missed on the last two. Bell is out in less than two full seasons into his tenure. Indiana hired Bell after his 2-23 stretch as the head coach at UMass, where he was fired before the end of the 2021 season.

In his short time at Indiana, Bell called plays for one of the Big Ten's least productive offenses. Across 12 games in 2022, Indiana finished 10th in the Big Ten in points per game (23.3), 12th in yards (328.3) and 13th in offensive efficiency (105.0). While Indiana has had a slight uptick in yards and efficiency, it has regressed to 20.8 points per game through five games in 2023, good for 13th in the conference.

Bell never established a consistent offensive identity for Indiana. Last year, he ran an up-tempo style with over 40 pass attempts per game. But he opted for a run-first approach in 2023, and it didn't work.

Perhaps most concerning was Indiana's offensive regression under Bell. Highlighted by quarterback Tayven Jackson, the group showed real signs of promise in the second half against Louisville. Jackson led two touchdown drives, and Indiana had a chance to tie or win the game in the final minutes of the fourth quarter before being shut down at the goal line. Despite the loss, it was a performance to build on.

But things went in the opposite direction the following two weeks, which in part cost Bell his job. Against Akron, a team with six wins since 2019, Indiana scored just one offensive touchdown through four quarters. Goal-line failures continued, and Akron's missed 32-yard field goal at the end of regulation helped the Hoosiers eke out a win in four overtimes.

It was even uglier Saturday against Maryland. After a field goal on the first drive, Indiana went three-and-out on three consecutive possessions. Its next four drives included three turnovers on downs and an interception, and the Hoosiers faced a 37-3 deficit through three quarters. Indiana replaced Jackson with fellow redshirt freshman quarterback Brendan Sorsby, who led two touchdown drives to make the 44-17 loss appear slightly less disastrous than it was.

And after Bell's 17th game, he was out.

Despite the struggles that make the move warranted, Bell's firing was still a touch surprising. Making a change at offensive coordinator doesn't immediately make Indiana a better team, and it doesn't fix the multitude of problems on both sides of the ball.

What the move does show is a sense of urgency from Allen. In past seasons, he was more hesitant to make coaching changes, perhaps because he felt secure himself. Now he does seem less secure, even with a $20.8 million buyout if he were fired in December. That’s because he has more pressure to win now than he did in 2021, when he was coming off two of the best seasons in program history.

Indiana waited until the conclusion of a 2-10 run in 2021 to fire offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan. The program was in a different place that year, coming off a 14-7 stretch from 2019 to 2020. It had more room to breathe and didn't have to make immediate, midseason changes in an effort to turn things around as fast as possible.

Indiana likely waited too long to move on from offensive line coach Darren Hiller, who was fired six games into the 2022 season. That group struggled for multiple seasons, but Allen was willing to give Hiller a chance to fix it, which had a negative impact on the 4-8 season in 2022.

Indiana – and Allen himself – can't afford to let problems linger in 2023. Allen knows that, and this is part of his effort to change directions after a 2-3 start. This was the best time to do it, as Indiana has a bye week before traveling to No. 2 Michigan on Oct. 14.

Carey will have an extra week to work with the offense, and it's not his first time this kind of position. Carey replaced Hiller as Indiana's offensive line coach midway through last season, and he was brutally honest when discussing the impact he can have in these circumstances.

“I don't know,” Carey said in 2022. “To be dead honest with you, I don't know. We're in the middle of a season. This isn't a wave your magic wand and all of a sudden everything's better. I certainly am not a miracle worker as far as trying to get production out...But I know this, I'm going to try because coach Allen asked me to try."

A three-year starter on Indiana’s offensive line from 1990-93 under coach Bill Mallory, Carey joined the Indiana coaching staff before the 2022 season as a quality control coach. He spent the previous three seasons as head coach at Temple, where he had a 12-20 record. He was the head coach at Northern Illinois from 2012-18, where he won two MAC championships, reached six bowl games and finished with a 52-30 overall record and a 38-10 mark in conference play.

Hopefully we'll hear from Carey before Indiana's road trip to Michigan to get an idea of his plan with the offense. He'll have the help of co-offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach Anthony Tucker and associate head coach/running backs coach Craig Johnson, both of whom have prior experience as offensive coordinator.

Regardless, it's unrealistic to expect major schematic changes at this point of the season. Indiana is still working with two young quarterbacks, and after Jackson was benched against Maryland, it's hard to say which is the best choice moving forward.

But there are a few glaring flaws in Indiana's offensive game plan that Carey can immediately address. Bell insisted on too many up-the-middle runs with 5-foot-9 Jaylin Lucas, who has proven to be far more effective when given the ball in space. Bell also consistently stuck with the triple-option element to Indiana's offense, when it was clear Jackson and Sorsby couldn't run it effectively and the offensive line couldn't block well enough to fulfill Bell's desired run-first offensive identity.

Eliminating those elements is a start, but Indiana may be too far gone for Carey to fix things on his own. Allen admitted he was unable to properly motivate players for the Akron game, but Indiana should have been able to beat a team of that caliber more easily, regardless of motivation. The blowout loss at Maryland was a step back in both of those areas.

Allen harped on making necessary evaluations at every level after Saturday's game. It took him only hours to make the first big move. Now we’ll see if it makes any real difference.

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