Indiana Football: Tom Allen explains decision to make a change at offensive coordinator

The Indiana football program made a change to its offensive coordinator position on Sunday, a difficult but correct decision to make based on the body of work.

Walt Bell spent 17 games at the position for Indiana and while the offense had issues with injury and some personnel problems, there was a lack of progress — and at times more regression than anything.

Following Indiana’s 44-17 loss to Maryland on Saturday, head coach Tom Allen made the decision to let Bell go and elevate quality control coach Rod Carey to the offensive coordinator role.

On Wednesday, Allen explained his decision in more detail.

“I just wanted to start by saying that I went through and evaluated our offense after the (Maryland) game was over early on Sunday morning. And you go back and look at the data, in four FBS games we’ve only scored three touchdowns in meaningful minutes. Just not good enough,” Allen said.  “I believe we need to be much better, have to be much better. I just felt like this was the timing with the bye week to make a change and have decided to name Rod Carey as our new offensive coordinator.”

The Indiana offense has struggled in Bell’s two years in Bloomington. Last season, Indiana averaged 328.3 yards and 23.3 points per game.

Through five games this year, Indiana is averaging 20.8 points per game, 13th in the Big Ten. Against FBS opponents, Indiana is averaging just 12.8 points per game in regulation. Indiana scored 12 of its 29 points against Akron in week four, in four overtime periods.

Indiana’s best offensive game this season was against FCS opponent Indiana State. The offense put up 558 yards of total offense, the most since its win over Western Kentucky in 2021.

In the other four games this season, the offense has totaled just 1,113 yards.

Rod Carey takes over the reigns and will look to improve the details of the system.

“I think we can make a difference and those differences are coming together. … There’s nothing you can do midseason as far as setup. The setup is the setup, the offense is the offense. What you’re trying to do is get us to run those plays better and maybe do it with a little different flare here and there. That’s about all you can do,” Carey said on Wednesday. “I’m excited about it and I think the guys are, too, being with the offense the last two days and the offensive staff. We’ve had flashes, so we need to make those flashes more permanent light on type deal.”

Carey spent time at Northern Illinois and Temple. During his time as an offensive coordinator and head coach at Northern Illinois, his offense was ranked in the top three of the MAC for four of his seven years. His rushing offense also topped the league for four seasons.

“There is no time to make drastic changes,” Carey added. “It is going to be the small details that we have to do that are going to add up to a difference. If I didn’t believe that I wouldn’t be standing in front of you. I told Coach Allen that, too, that if I didn’t believe that, not just me, but us, as we go forward can we make a difference. I do believe that.”

The Indiana football program (2-3; 0-2) has a bye this week before heading to Michigan next week.

SEE ALSO: What questions Indiana football needs to answer during bye week

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