Allen talks Indiana and opportunity to play for his dad

After not signing any linebackers in the 2016 recruiting class the Hoosiers will be looking to land some in the 2017 class, and one prospect they are high on is Thomas Allen. The 6-foot-3, 230-pound standout from Tampa (FL) Plant H.S. is the son of Indiana defensive coordinator Tom Allen. The younger Allen spoke to Peegs.com about his thoughts on the IU program, and how much he has thought about playing for his father in college.

Allen currently has offers from Indiana, South Florida, Colorado State, Bowling Green and South Alabama to go along with strong interest from Boston College, Duke and Wake Forest. He said that IU started recruiting him before his dad got the job with the Hoosiers.

“I didn’t really know much about Indiana before my Dad took the job there,” he said about the Hoosiers. “They contacted me and I talked to a couple of their coaches a little bit so they were already recruiting me but I didn’t know much about them. They have said that they see me as a Mike linebacker in their defense. They haven’t taken many linebackers in the last few classes so that is very intriguing to me. They said that they like how I’m a big, physical guy that loves to play football and who is very instinctive.”

The talented prospect was at IU for the first time a little over a week when he and the rest of his family made the trip up to Bloomington to see his dad and visit the school.

“It was great because that was the first time I really got the chance to meet everybody, and not just as a recruit but also as a coach’s kid as well,” Allen said about the Indiana visit. “It was really a lot of fun. I never realized how beautiful that campus is and how nice their facilities are. I really liked all the coaches and my family really liked the coaches. It was a great visit for all of us.”

Allen said that playing for his dad is something he has thought about for a long time, but he also knows that he has to make the best decision for himself.

“It has always been a dream because not many guys can say they played for their dad in college, but we also know that most college coaches rarely stay for more than four years so you can’t make that the whole reason as to why you are going somewhere,” he said when asked about playing for his father. “Most people just assume that I will go where he is but that is not necessarily the case. I will go where I want to be and where God wants me to be and that is how we have kind of taken this on. I want to have fun with this process because you only get recruited once. He is going to be my dad through this and not my coach and whatever happens, happens. You have to love the school and love everything else about it. If he is there that’s great, and if not then so be it.”

The Tampa native said that as he goes through the recruiting process there are three main factors that he will use to make his college decision.

“I have three factors and the first is the family aspect and the religion aspect because I am a big Christian and that is important in our family,” Allen said. “I want to be surrounded by men that will impact me in that way. The second thing that will be big for me is the education. I want to go to a school that has big time academics. I want to be a place where you will get your degree and where that is a focal point. I plan on majoring in health science. And three is a place that just feels like home and where I like it the best. If you would take the football aspect out of it what is the best place for me, and if I didn’t have football would I still love to go to school there.”

This past fall Allen made a big impact in his first year at Plant H.S. as he recorded 96 tackles 43 tackles for loss and six sacks for a Panthers team that went 9-3 and made it to the second round of the state playoffs.

“I think we did well as a team even though we had some setbacks with our quarterback (Syracuse signee Rex Culpepper) getting hurt and missing the season, but stuff happens and that’s football and you just have to go on,” he said about his junior year. “But we had a good season even though it didn’t end the way we wanted it too. A season is not always determined by whether or not you win a state championship. Of course you want to win it, but the more important thing is the impact you make and how you do that with your teammates and this past season was awesome. When I was in Mississippi I was a part of two state championships but this was just as good even though we didn’t go as far. Individually I think I did really well this season. I think I showed what I can do. I did some different stuff that I had never done before like playing outside linebacker and rushing the passer and also dropping in coverage. I think I was able to show my versatility.”

Allen said that he considers himself to be very fortunate to have a father that is a major college football coach and he uses him as a sounding board as much as he can when he needs advice on playing the game.

“I ask him a bunch of questions all the time,” Allen said. “He is my father but he is also a coach and he was a coach in the SEC and I am very blessed to have him around to ask him questions. He is my number one supporter but my number one critic as well and I love that. So yeah, I ask him stuff all the time about how can I do this better and what should I do here. At the end of the day he is the reason why I want to play football, and he is the reason why I do what I do so he is a big impact in my life.”

The athletic linebacker said it is still up in the air as to where he will be spending his senior year of high school this fall.

“We have not decided that yet,” he said when asked what the plan is for his senior year. “I plan on graduating early and as of right now we have not made a decision on whether I will stay down here or go up there for my senior season. We should know by later this spring and we will definitely know by the summer what I will be doing.”

Allen said that his plan at this time is to have his college decision made before the start of his senior season.

“I will probably wait until after my spring ball because if I have more options I want my Dad to be able to go on visits with me,” he said about his timetable for picking a school. “There isn’t a lot of time where he can go on visits, especially in the fall when you can take official visits, so after spring ball is when we’ll take some visits. We will take some visits and right before the start of my senior season is probably when I will make my decision.”

The three-star recruit said that even though moving from place to place is not the easy thing in the world, he and the rest of his family couldn’t be happier that his dad is the new defensive coordinator for the Hoosiers.

“It was big time,” he said about his father getting the job at IU. “It is hard to turn down a defensive coordinator job in the Big Ten. I was so happy and proud of him and so was the rest of our family. It’s not easy to move but at the end of the day this is the profession he chose and we support him, so wherever he thinks is best and wherever the good Lord this is best for us that is where we’ll go and we’ll have happy hearts about it and go all out for it.”