Candy bars & confidence: Indiana's Tom Allen is changing the defense

Indiana linebacker Marcus Oliver remembers the frustration last season.

He’d arrive at Memorial Stadium every Monday without knowing what the schedule might look like -- or what fundamentals the Hoosiers re-focused on for the hundredth time.

Players didn’t trust one another. Defenders would abandon their assignments in an attempt to make plays. Morale reached an all-time low. “Part of it was probably because players, they didn’t care or they didn’t have the confidence,” Oliver said.

Oliver can admit all of that now – because of how far these Hoosiers have come. Indiana finished last season with one of the nation’s worst defenses. Now they’re one of the country’s most improved units with a No.…