New defensive coordinator Tom Allen wants a connected defense, and to achieve that, he must know the person as well as he knows the player.
Allen is entering his first season as Clemson’s defensive coordinator after being named to the position in mid-January. He joined the Tigers with 33 years of previous coaching experience, including impact at the high school, Division III, NAIA, FCS, and FBS levels.
Allen served as the defensive coordinator/linebackers coach at Penn State in 2024, helping lead the Nittany Lions to a school-record 13 wins and a College Football Playoff berth.
Because he didn’t recruit any of the current Clemson defenders, one of his first jobs was to get to know them away from the field and the film. That involved sitting down with each player for a little one-on-one time.
“They were awesome. It’s just a great time to sit down, close the door, have them tell me all about themselves,” Allen said on the 2 Right Turns podcast. “Obviously, I didn’t recruit these guys, didn’t know most of them, and I wanted to get a chance to know their family, who raised them, brothers and sisters, wrote everything down, talked to ’em about why they chose Clemson. That was an important question to me.
“That tells me a lot about what they value. And then went through, hey, what their major is, what do they want to do with that major? Writing everything down. And then it was just about, I ask ’em a really critical question and that is tell me the three most important things in your life. And they would tell me what those were, and I’d write them down, and that really prompted me to be able to dive deeper into who they are, because at the end of the day, I can’t motivate you, I can’t lead you if I don’t know you. And there has to be a level of trust that’s built. And to me, that was the beginnings of building that trust and to be able to create that connection.”
The conversations went even further, including Allen asking to pray for his players and giving them a book to read.
“And then I would ask ’em to, ‘Hey, give me something to pray for you about.’ And then also I would say, ‘Hey, I want to give you a book.’ I listed the book and what was kind of the book was about, and every guy said yes,” Allen said. “And so then I was able to give them those. And they’re in the process of reading those. And so that’s going to create further conversation to allow me to be able to once again create that connection. Because when I talk about the three components to a great defense, one of those is a connected defense.
