Allen was fired as the head coach at Indiana. Now, he is one win away from reaching the national title game as Penn State's DC.

Former Indiana head coach and current PSU defensive coordinator Tom Allen said he's been in communication with his former players since their opening-round College Football Playoff loss to the Fighting Irish.

I don’t rest very well,” Allen said. And so it should be no surprise that he was out of the game for only a month after getting fired by the Hoosiers in November 2023. His decision to join Penn State was going to be a change for someone who led a program for nearly a decade.