CLEMSON — Clemson football‘s defense understands its performance against the run last season was unacceptable.
How could Tiger players forget? Even their coaches remind them.
“Coach (Dabo) Swinney reminds us constantly every day, and it just really gives us a chip on our shoulder every practice, the drills and the team sessions,” Clemson linebacker Sammy Brown said.
Clemson ranked 84th in run defense (160.6 yards) last season, continuing its downward trend over the past three years. It allowed more than 200 yards rushing in five games, and in each of its four losses, it gave up at least six yards per carry, including in its first round College Football Playoff loss to Texas.
To alleviate its run defense problems woes for 2025, Clemson added Purdue transfer defensive lineman Will Heldt from the portal, signed five-star defensive tackle signee Amare Adams and retained key contributors, including Brown, defensive tackle Peter Woods, defensive end T.J. Parker and linebacker Wade Woodaz.
The biggest addition was the hiring of Tom Allen to replace Wes Goodwin as defensive coordinator. Swinney hopes Allen, who helped Penn State have a top-10 run defense last season, is the missing key to propel its defense in 2025. He will show how Clemson’s defense has developed Saturday during its annual Orange vs. White spring game at Memorial Stadium (1 p.m. ET).
Coming to Clemson, Allen identified poor tackling, gap vision and edge integrity among the many issues that plague the Tigers’ rush defense.
“The numbers don’t lie,” Allen said. “If you watch the film, the film doesn’t lie, and it became a recurring theme each week.”
Allen has instilled his on-field philosophy: takeaways, tackling and effort, into his defense this spring in hopes of fixing the unit. It has led to success this spring, according to Swinney, with the defense generating turnovers in its two scrimmages. Swinney added Clemson’s defense has made self-inflicted mistakes, like offside penalties, but it has shown encouraging signs this spring.
“You don’t want to forget the past, but you also don’t want to dwell on it too much,” Woods said. “That’s where we are with that, just remembering where we messed up and using that as fuel to fix it.”
Allen, 55, has demanded players to provide all-out effort and intensity in every drill, especially tackling. When players don’t, Clemson safety Ronan Hanafin said Allen has held defensive players accountable after practice with up-downs. The defense accumulated as many as 60 in early spring practices but dropped to six in its most recent practice.
Allen has tackled and headbutted players and jumped on piles because he gets excited for his players.
“I love coach Allen. I tell everybody who asks me, I’ll run through a wall for that man,” Woods said. “He’s a challenger. He’s a guy that’s going to make you uncomfortable in every situation. When you think you’re the best that you can be, he’s going to prove to you that you have so much better to get.”
Derrian Carter covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at dcarter@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DerrianCarter00
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