With spring practice over, Tom Allen really likes where his team is heading into what promises to be a crucial time for a team looking to pick up its third consecutive winning season.
Allen told the media that his players have done a great job of embracing the "boredom of consistency."
"I continue to be impressed with their ability to stay focused and persevere. I challenged our guys to embrace the boredom of consistency. We talked about what that looks like, and the guys have responded well. The leadership part of our team is a strength and the confidence the guys have to confront each other and hold each other accountable is a strength. The amount of depth at different positions continues to be an emphasis and strength. Just trying to get these guys to understand how critical it is that you prepared at a high level April 6, April 7, April 8 and all those different dates when the season seemed so far away. That is the part we need to grow and develop, and I want this team to be great, I believe they want to be great and we are chasing greatness here," Allen said.
Allen said embracing the boredom of success concept came to him from a book and that it is important for him and his staff to learn from reading.
"For me, as a professional coach, I want to do a great job of studying and reading different leadership books. We did staff reading as a staff 30 minutes a day. They are required to read and I want them to fill their minds. It gives me ideas and I rely on a lot of people. It is important to read to grow and learn. I write a lot of notes and write things down and go back and pull things for different times," Allen said.
He continued saying embracing the boredom of success is a principal of how a person develops and persevere through life.
"If you want to separate yourself from everyone else, over time, I have learned greatness is reserved for the few. It is long, it is hard and it is tough and that is why grit is so important to me. It is about learning how to do that and it is a key ingredient to life. Tough things happen, life is hard, life throws curveballs at us, how are you going to respond? I want the guys to learn how to stay the course and persevere. I talk about the power of the outside voice. I want to bring in speakers, books, movies that say the same thing in their own way. I try to use windows of time after practice to keep them engaged. The guys have bought into that," Allen said.
The fifth year head coach also acknowledged how important the next few months will be for his players and how vital it is they pick up on the lessons learned during spring practice as coaches will have very limited contact with players over the summer.
"We have talked specifically, as a staff, what does April, May, June and July look like and it will define what kind of football team we become. You think about all the time you spend together during spring practice and all the things you do and now they have to take those things and apply them. As a team develops and grows and leadership goes into hyperdrive, we will have senior-led workouts and guys taking ownership. We will have player-led practices and coaches cannot be there. It allows the players to own and personalize all the stuff we have been doing. We have strong leadership on this team and we need to see that leadership continue to grow and develop. The next several months will be huge. It is a critical time for us and we have to maximize it," Allen said.
After suffering a 26-20 loss to Ole Miss in the Outback Bowl in January, Allen and his staff have been reminding the players of how it felt after that loss and how the Hoosiers are spending every day chasing greatness.
Since going to an East and West division in the Big Ten, Indiana has never won the Big Ten East, and the last title for the Hoosiers came in 1967 when they won the conference outright. The last bowl win came in 1991.
Several times leading up to and during spring practice, Allen has talked about the work his team has to do and the challenges he and the coaching staff have presented to players in order to make history.
“I want this football team to be great. Obviously, when you play in the Big Ten, greatness is defined by one thing, and that’s to win a Big Ten championship," Allen said previously.
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