CLEMSON — Dabo Swinney was taking Tom Allen, the new defensive coordinator, and his family around Clemson on the evening of January 14. They toured the well-known hill at Memorial Stadium and Howard’s Rock, which is situated atop it, until 11 p.m., when there was a full moon in the sky.
Allen, a former coordinator and head coach in the Big Ten, has never seen anything like this. However, his charming tour to Clemson was brief.
Swinney and Allen returned to work the very next morning. In addition to allowing Allen to shake hands with his new teammates, they called a coaches’ meeting to go over Clemson’s goals for the 2026 class and beyond.
Swinney and the majority of the Tigers’ coaches are traveling this week to recruit. Allen won’t.
Swinney declared, “He’s going to be with the team forever.” “I really, really like that.”
On January 15, Swinney not only presented Allen to the media but also revealed his future plans. In keeping with emerging patterns in the sport, his new hiring will largely serve as the defense’s head coach.
College football schools are permitted by the NCAA to appoint ten coaches as off-campus recruiters. Allen won’t be among them, and Swinney expects offensive coordinator Garrett Riley to follow suit.
Allen’s aggressive defense will be pitched by Ben Boulware, the furious former Clemson linebacker who returned as a coaching intern in 2024 and will barge into prospects’ houses. Swinney expects Tajh Boyd, the assistant quarterbacks coach, to sell their “Dirt Raid” approach and replace Riley.
Since linebackers are a direct conduit of Allen’s strategy, he will teach them when the Tigers start spring ball. While the elder Allen concentrates more widely on the defense as a whole, his son Thomas, a former IU linebacker and Penn State analyst, will assist Boulware in actually coaching the position.
“He’ll run the defense from the linebacker room, but he’s going to be involved in everything, coach everything,” added Swinney. “Make sure we’re connected like we need to be, detailed like we need to be, and go from there.”
Clemson plans to speed up Allen’s defense by taking advantage of the NCAA regulation change from the previous year that removed the restriction on the number of coaches who may work directly with athletes on the field.
Last season was among the worst in recent memory in terms of gap integrity and tackling, so the Tigers need all the assistance they can get. The opponents of Clemson ran for 4.7 yards per carry.
Allen frequently uses the word “tackling” as a vital component of his three-pronged concept.
“We’re going to make a big deal of takeaways, tackling and effort,” Allen stated. “Guys that can get to the football at a high level of speed, and when they get there, they have a violent way to finish.”
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