Tom Allen Hired as Clemson DC by Dabo Swinney After Penn State Stint

Scott Polacek@@ScottPolacekFeatured Columnist IVJanuary 14, 2025

Scott Taetsch/Getty Images

The Clemson Tigers have their next defensive coordinator.

Clemson announced Tuesday it hired former Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Allen to the same position with head coach Dabo Swinney calling him “a great leader of men” and a “great football coach.”

Clemson Football @ClemsonFB”We’ve got a great football coach — and a great leader of men — coming to Clemson.” – Head Coach Dabo Swinney

Welcome, Coach Allen!

📰: https://t.co/pRUuzQD6Dp pic.twitter.com/nVmh9u40OR

Grace Raynor of The Athletic reported he will make $1.9 million in 2025-26, $2 million in 2026-27 and $2.1 million in 2027-28.

This move means Allen will be out of the Big Ten for the first time since the 2015 season when he was the defensive coordinator at South Florida.

He was the head coach of Indiana for seven seasons from 2017 through 2023. While he was 33-49 overall and finished with a losing record in five of his seven years, he also took home the Big Ten Coach of the Year during the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign by leading the Hoosiers to a 6-2 record.

However, the program quickly struggled after that and went 2-10 in 2021.

Penn State hired Allen as the defensive coordinator after he was fired by Indiana following the 2023 campaign. All he did in his one season with the Nittany Lions was direct a unit that finished seventh in the country in yards allowed per game and eighth in points allowed per game.

Penn State reached the Big Ten Championship Game and the semifinals of the College Football Playoff, where it lost to Oregon and Notre Dame, respectively. It also defeated SMU and Boise State during the run to the CFP semifinals and allowed a combined 24 points in those two victories.

Allen’s defense turned heads when it held star Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty to 3.5 yards per carry in the 17-point win.

That same defense notched two pick-sixes in the playoff win over SMU.

“He will hit the ground running this week to get started helping us achieve all of our goals in 2025,” Swinney said in the press release. “He brings a ton of experience and was highly recommended by some of the best people in this business. He is obviously coming off of a great year as the defensive coordinator at Penn State, and we’re excited to welcome him as our defensive coordinator here at Clemson.”

Allen will look to help the Tigers return to being one of the sport’s elite programs.

Clemson went to the CFP national championship game four times in a five-year span from the 2015 through 2019 seasons and won two of those titles. However, it has lost at least three games in each of the last four seasons.

It went 10-4 with an ACC title and one-game CFP appearance this past season.