Clemson football has its new defensive coordinator.
On Wednesday, the Tigers officially named Tom Allen as the team’s new defensive coordinator following the departure of Wes Goodwin. Allen comes to the Upstate from Penn State, where his defense helped guide the Nittany Lions to an 11-1 regular season and a berth in the semifinal round of the College Football Playoffs.
Before joining Penn State, Allen spent seven full seasons as head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers in the Big Ten.
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney joined Allen at his introductory press conference. Here’s everything Swinney said in his opening remarks about the Tigers’ new sheriff on defense.
Dabo Swinney opening remarks on Tom Allen hire
“Super excited about our new defensive coordinator First thing I would say, as I said in my statement, just how much I love Wes Goodwin and his family and thankful for the job that he did. Unbelievable work ethic. Nobody worked harder than Wes — and it just didn’t work and that’s my fault. Simple as that. It’s not his fault, it’s my fault. But my job is to make sure that we are doing everything we can to be the best version of ourselves year in and year out.
“As I always do, I think it’s important to step back always from emotional things and keep a good perspective on the good, the bad, but evaluate. You always set your eyes forward on what you’ve got to do to get better. We’ve been to seven CFPs in the past 10 years, six Final Fours, four final twos and two national championships. We’ve won this league eight out of the last 10 years, so we’ve done a lot of great things and we’ve created a high standard and high expectations.
“There’s not a program out there that’s been more consistent than us and I’m really proud of that. But we’re always striving to get better, and each and every year I try to do what I need to do to help us do just that: keep growing, keep getting better. I felt like I needed to have a change in leadership on the defensive side, so I decided to make that change. Once I did, I did a lot of research on obviously who’s good on defense and this and that, and pretty easy to figure that out. But a lot of due diligence and I called a lot of people that I know and trust: defensive people, head coaches, GMs, NFL people. Without sharing any information with anyone, just getting their feedback because I had kind of established a little bit of a list myself. So it was really interesting to hear a lot of the feedback from a lot of different people on their perspective of the best out there. I kind of got a list down.
“Actually, it was a very kind of humbling reminder of how special Clemson is and how football people view our program. Especially when this is your livelihood and what you do and how people view Clemson, our program, and the type of consistency and success that we’ve had. That was really humbling for me because when I put my list together, I had so many people that reached out, but I got it to about 10 or 12 people.
“The only coach that I had to reach out and gauge interest was this guy (Allen). He was the only one. Everybody else I wanted to reach out, I didn’t have to do that because they either contacted me directly or through their representation. So literally the only guy I had to gauge interest in was Coach Allen. I did that through our agent, but he wasn’t going to talk to me until it was done. I really respected that. And the great thing is, the best of the best really wanted to come and be here at Clemson, so that was a really cool thing for me. I got it down from 12 to 10 to five and then really did a real deep dive there. Got it down to three and then I got it down to two.
“In the end, I just felt like a lot of prayer to the good lord just kind of put this thing together. That’s the best answer I can give you, and I felt like (Allen) was a great coach and all those people were great coaches. All sitting defensive coordinators at really, really good schools, but just felt like he was the right leader that I needed at this time. He’s a great coach but like I said, he’s a great leader of men. Has been for a long time. I love his background. I love his track record, but highly, highly recommended from some of the best people in this business from all. Not just coaches, but all different layers of college football.
“So I’m glad it worked out. Obviously, they played a game not even a week ago. I really wasn’t able to get on the phone with him until I guess it was Friday night .And then Saturday, I followed that up so just really exactly what I thought he would be. We knew each other a little bit. He was an interim at Indiana and when he got that job, he reached out to me and we kind of communicated a little text there while he was the head coach at Indiana. (We) know a lot of the same people, but just a great fit for us. Everybody’s excited. Going to introduce him to the team today.
“We’ll have a team meeting this afternoon, but I wanted y’all to have an opportunity to meet him and get to know him a little bit. With that, I’ll pass it over to coach so he can have a little bit of an opening statement. But just really thankful that his whole family is joining us. He’s got a beautiful family… they’ll be getting here as soon as they can. We’re going to welcome him to the Clemson Family. Nothing like opening up with LSU in an opener to see what he’s got. Should be a fun offseason. So with that, coach, I’ll pass it off to you.”
Dabo Swinney on whether he talked to Matt Luke before hiring Tom Allen
Later in the press conference, Swinney was asked whether he had talked to offensive line coach Matt Luke before the hire. Luke and Allen coached together on Hugh Freeze’s staff at Ole Miss before Allen joined Indiana as defensive coordinator in 2016.
“I did talk to Matt and (am) sworn to secrecy. Pinky swear,” Swinney quipped. “He just couldn’t say enough great things about him. I talked to everybody (Allen) has pretty much worked with, but Matt certainly gave me a lot of good insight, as well.”
Dabo Swinney on what drew him to Tom Allen schematically
“I’ve always been a four-down guy. That’s just kind of what I’ve grown up with. I think big people beat little people. Now, a lot of that is our ability to recruit the best of the best on the defensive line. If I was somewhere else, you have to adapt and do what you have to do to win games. Not everybody is fortunate enough to recruit the type of defensive linemen that we can at Clemson. Nobody’s had more D-linemen go to the NFL in the last, I don’t know, 15 years or so than Clemson. We’ve got guys all over the NFL with unbelievable success, so that’s who we’ve always been.
“Again, that’s what I grew up around. Won a national championship as a player. To me, I think you’ve got to be multiple within that. And then the way the game has changed, he’s a 4-2-5 guy and that’s — you know, we always say we’re a 4-3 base and in reality you are because sometimes you’re going to play some teams that are going to be heavy personnel and you’re not going to put a little DB out there on Davis Allen or a big ol’ tight end.
“You have to adapt in the way the game has changed and evolved. You see so much 10 personnel and 11 personnel, a little bit of everything. That 4-2-5 is really what the 4-3 has grown into. Y’all seen us and then occasionally you have some guys that are unique. Occasionally you come across an Isaiah Simmons, right? Some unique people like that that gives you a little more flexibility, but we’ve got secondary play. I think you have to have a great nickel corner type of guy line up. Because where does Antonio Williams line up? Where’s Tyler Brown line up? We put T.J. Moore in the slot vs. Texas. So you create matchups and you have to have the ability to cover.
“Then also, you have to have the ability to stop the run. Those guys gotta fit the gap, they gotta pressure the quarterback. There’s a lot of things that go into the scheme, but it starts with me, with being able to control that line of scrimmage. And again, we’re at a place here that has a very rich tradition and history, and we lost one D-tackle that we expected to lose. These guys, we’ve got a great group back. That’s where it all starts.
“I want to set the tone there and it’s not that you’re not in and out of odd and even fronts. I think y’all (Penn State) picked off a pass with a D-end in a playoff game. You create simulated pressures and things like that so that they think it’s pressure but it’s not. Next thing you know, here comes a pick so you don’t make a living doing that, but you use your personnel in a lot of different ways to fit the scheme.
“So that was something that was very important to me. He was a great fit right out of the gate. That was part of my process and really looking at everybody because I know who’s here. And it’s important to me to bring the right person in here to fit our staff and fit our personnel.”
Here’s the full press conference with Swinney and Allen.
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