When Penn State lost defensive coordinator Manny Diaz to a head coaching opportunity with Duke, James Franklin didn’t really have to look very far to find his replacement. And as he did with the addition of Diaz, Franklin found a new defensive coordinator with head coaching experience with former Indiana head coach [autotag]Tom Allen[/autotag].
Allen comes to Penn State after a couple of tough seasons in Bloomington as the Hoosiers were hit hard by transfers and the stats trended in the wrong direction. But Allen’s flair for strong defense was easy to keep on the radar for Franklin. Dating back to his one season as a defensive coordinator for South Florida and his time at Indiana as a defensive coordinator and head coach, it was clear that Allen had a way with the defense despite not exactly having the deep talent pool a program like Penn State typically has to work with.
So how exactly have Allen’s defenses stacked up over the years? Here is a look at where Allen’s defenses have ranked in a few notable categories including total defense, scoring defense, rushing defense, and passing defense since 2015. We also included Penn State’s total defense ranking in each of those seasons for the sake of comparison.