Clemson Tigers Want 'Pro-Style' Coaching From New Defensive Coordinator

The Clemson Tigers have been very busy this offseason trying to make the improvements necessary to help this team win a national championship next year.

It was a strong campaign for the Tigers in 2024. They won double-digit games, an ACC title, and made the College Football Playoff.

While the year had some ups and downs, it felt like they might have left some wins on the table last season, which is surely frustrating.

As the team prepares for the upcoming campaign, one area they had to improve was their defense.

Despite having a good amount of talent on that side of the ball, the unit struggled, especially against the run.

However, Dabo Swinney and Clemson were able to make a big splash by hiring former Penn State Nittany Lions defensive coordinator Tom Allen to fill the void.

The Nittany Lions were just eliminated from the CFP in a very close matchup with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. However, all season, their defense was really strong, and a lot of that credit goes to Allen.

Recently, Swinney talked about a little bit of a restructure on how coaches will operate, and he highlighted his defensive coordinator's plan for next season.

“He will run our defense, he is going to coach everything,” he said per The Clemson Insider during Allen’s introductory press conference “A lot like the NFL. He will start with the linebacker room as far as coordinating the defense from the linebacker room.”

Swinney going to more of a pro-style approach on the defensive side of the ball is an encouraging thing to see.

As the team gets ready for next season, they are going to have one of the best passing offenses in the country led by Cade Klubnik. A way teams will look to combat their prolific passing offense will be to run the ball against their defense.

Proving they can stop the run will be an important thing early on for the Tigers' defense.

It became apparent the unit struggled to do so this past year, making it easier for teams to gameplan against them.

The addition of Allen and the restructuring of how Swinney wants things to be done should provide a big boost on the defensive side of the ball.

Due to the ACC looking like a strong conference early on with some big-name quarterbacks transferring in and Bill Belichick also joining the conference, the Tigers must be prepared for what could be a challenging regular season.

Luckily, they seemingly got their guy to be their defensive coordinator.