What To Expect From New Clemson Tigers DC Tom Allen's Defense

One of the biggest changes across college football will be the Clemson Tigers’ defense, which let go of defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin and hired Tom Allen, the former coordinator at Penn State.

Now, with a new-look defense that has handfuls of youth, Allen is looking for that spark that former defenses had at Memorial Stadium, most recently with former defensive coordinator Brent Venables.

Allen went into detail at Clemson’s local media day about how his first six months with the program had been, noting the strengths, weaknesses, and what the team will look like.

The 55-year-old spoke about the team’s excitement, which is always high with the start of a new season.

“There’s a lot of excitement as there always is to start a season and it’s a new year and everybody has a lot of high expectations for themselves and for their teams,” Allen said, “and we are no different.”

Primarily, the Tiger defense has been going over stopping the run as the main practice point, something that haunted the team last season. Clemson ranked 85th nationally, giving up an average of 160.6 rushing yards per contest.

Allen added different run fits and emphasized tackling as attributes to improve on as an entire unit.

“We definitely added some things to that over the summer, told the guys to work on that during the summer, which I thought was very important to do,” he said. “So, that’s going to be at the forefront, is being a great tackling defense, an area we must improve.”

His efforts are even recognized by head coach Dabo Swinney, who calls Allen “a rolling ball of butcher blades” when coaching the defense about tackling.

“If you don’t have the right technique, you’re going to hear it,” Swinney said in March. “So, you see the improvement coming.

The defensive coordinator is an “intense” and “passionate” coach, celebrating with his players and even losing teeth in stints with other schools. From this philosophy, Allen wants to echo the idea of effort, which is something that everybody can control.

“That, to me, is the one thing that I probably put the most emphasis on. Why? Because it’s the one thing that every kid completely controls,” Allen said. “Every player completely controls his effort, so those were the things that we wanted to keep emphasizing as we are going into camp.”

As for a weakness of the squad, Allen points out the team’s depth as something he has been working on since being hired in January. Although a core of players, including Peter Woods, T.J. Parker, Avieon Terrell, and Wade Woodaz are valuable, the defensive coordinator is looking to continue to instill confidence in his depth, using a lot of players.

“We’ve got to develop depth,” he said. “I like the core guys that we have, but that’s been a big challenge for us this summer and a challenge to the players. [I] want to be able to play a lot of guys. I want guys to feel like every time they step on the field, they have a starter mentality, that it’s not that ‘I’m a [second, third, or fourth string player]. When I’m on the field, I’m the best player at this position [and] I’m representing that room when I take the field,’ and I want them to feel the pressure of that. I think that’s a powerful thing.”

Allen’s defense will be showcased on the highest stage in the first week, facing the LSU Tigers, who return quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, who threw for over 4,000 yards last season and will look to guide LSU to a College Football Playoff and national championship.

With defense being the biggest factor for how that Week 1 matchup ends up, Allen narrows down what needs to happen ahead of that contest.

“The bottom line is it’s about performance at this point. We have a great opportunity ahead of us this season, but we have got a lot of work to do between now and Aug. 30.”