Tom Allen knows what kind of talent he has on the field. Now, the Clemson Tigers’ first-year defensive coordinator wants to see it pay dividends.
Allen spoke to the media this week and detailed what he sees, and what he wants to seem, from the Clemson defense going forward following another sluggish effort in last Saturday’s 35-24 loss to SMU at Memorial Stadium.
It has been an up-and-down season for a unit which features multiple high round NFL prospects. Disappointing would be a better adjective, and Allen knows that the talent is not matching up to the expectations.
“So far (the defense) has just not been as consistent as I want it to be,” Allen said. “And to me, just to be consistent, is the get off and striking and knock back and to playing with that kind of confidence is what I really want to see. It’s been not consistent, and that’s where I feel like that it’s been at times. Not what you want all the time.”
Tom Allen, Clemson Defensive Coordinator
The numbers have not been great for the defense in 2025. The defensive line, which features Peter Woods and T.J. Parker, two preseason first round NFL draft prospects, has failed to generate consistent pressure on opponents through the first seven games. On the back end, the secondary has been susceptible to teams’ passing games, especially in the flats and on the edge. George Tech took full advantage of it, and this past week, so did SMU.
SMU vs Clemson Game Highlights | 2025 ACC Football
The Mustangs and quarterback Kevin Jennings picked apart the Tigers’ defense piece by piece. Jennings, who entered the game averaging just over one yard per carry on the season, upped that average to 3.3 and passed for 290 yards and two scores. It was death by a thousand cuts as one person described it, and not only is that an accurate assertion, but also a microcosm of the Tigers’ defensive unit this season.
Tom Allen does not believe the struggles are for lack of effort, though.
“I don’t think it’s a lack of effort,” he said. “They’re playing hard, and so if they aren’t playing hard, I’d call’em out and call what it was. But I do feel like that, really, to me it’s more about just confidence in your technique, competency in what we’re doing schematically, and just continue to work on that.”
Tom Allen
Allen added that making adjustments is critical to improvement and that he is working with the defensive players to uphold the expected standard of Clemson football daily. To Allen, it is a process, albeit one that has appeared slow so far.
“You can’t feel weary of just doing things the right way,” continued Allen. “You keep going after ‘this is the standard’ and we keep chasing after that standard every single day. We don’t let up. You may make modifications to how you do it, but you don’t alter the ultimate goal, which is to be a physical football team that creates takeaways and plays elite defense.”
Tom Allen
Ultimately, Tom Allen carries the mindset that both sides of the ball play a part in making the other better. It is something he wants to continue seeing and admits that the defensive players must do a better job of maximizing the benefit of competing against the offense in practice.
“So, to me, we have to do a better job of during our drill time and during our individual time and during our technique emphasis and once again to continue to go against our offense more, which helps them, helps us, sharpen each other because that to me is a part of what creates the TFL’s (tackles for loss) and the takeaways is the knock-back you get by your (defensive line) on the offensive line,” he explained. “And then disrupting the offensive play and force and fumbles by the quarterback or the running backs.”
Tom Allen
With the ACC championship and College Football Play-offs lone out of the picture for Clemson in 2025, Tom Allen hopes that he can lay the foundation for better things ahead, not only for the remaining games this year, but for the future as well.
