CLEMSON, S.C. (FOX Carolina) – Clemson Football Head Coach Dabo Swinney introduced Tom Allen as the team’s new defensive coordinator Wednesday afternoon, and Allen’s focus is not only on football but also on faith and family.
Allen and his wife have lived in seven different states the past 10 years while chasing his dream, which he said became the family’s dream, of him coaching college football.
Taking the Clemson job allows Allen and his wife to reunite with their two daughters who both live in the Carolinas.
“Our girls, they cried when they found out I was taking this job because we’re close,” Allen said while fighting back tears. “Those type of things, you just can’t replace them.
As one of his daughters expects Allen’s second grandchild, Allen has taken his son and grandson along with him from Penn State to join the Clemson coaching staff. He’s now brought the entire family back together.
“To know that they went through all that. All the moves. They went to multiple elementary schools, all of them went to multiple middle schools, none of them went to one high school, they all went to at least two high schools, and that’s tough,” Allen said. “So to have the chance to be together right now, man, I couldn’t pass that up. And you mix that with a chance to be with this guy right here (Swinney). People that know me well weren’t surprised.”
Allen brings more than 30 years of high school and college coaching experience including seven seasons as Indiana Head Coach and a year as defensive coordinator on a Penn State team that just made the College Football Playoff semifinals. He also brings with him a phrase he learned from another family member, his father, who was Allen’s high school football coach.
“I’ve learned to be demanding but not demeaning,” Allen said. “I want to hold these guys to a high level of accountability, how they’re going to practice, how hard they’re going to play, how they’re going to do little things the right way, but I think it’s how you do it.”
Allen said how he’ll coach the defense starts with building relationships. He’ll meet one-on-one with every single defensive player while taking meticulous notes to create a file of information on each guy. Allen will end each meeting by addressing an important topic.
“Tell me the three most important things in your life. And to me that really tells me what they value because I really can’t motivate somebody, I really can’t connect with them, I can’t capture their heart or their mind if I don’t know what’s important to them,” Allen said. “I’ve got to begin that process. So once you do that, now I can hold these young men to a high level of accountability. When they know you care about them way more as a person than as a player, that process gets sped up. So, to me, the secret sauce is caring about them at an elite level.”
Allen is putting his master’s degree in educational leadership to good use. He’s bringing together his family while getting to know his new family at Clemson.
Allen said he feels he was born to do this job and will continue to do it leading up to spring football, which starts Feb. 28th for the Tigers.
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