Allen has three pillars for his defense, but don't say the word turnover or pushups await

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Tackling, takeaways, and relentless effort.

New defensive coordinator Tom Allen knows what he wants his Clemson defense to look like, and it’s built on those three pillars. Allen, hired away from Penn State last month, has been tasked by head coach Dabo Swinney in turning the Clemson defense into one that tackles and stops the run – issues last season – and Allen told the crowd at the Fort Hill Recruiting Wrap last week that he was ready to get started.

“Obviously didn't recruit most of these guys, recruited a few of 'em from another school, but really want to get a chance to connect, write down everything about their family's names or who they live with or goals or dreams, what they want to do, what they're majoring in, and then just finding out what they care about,” Allen said. “So, to me, that's a part of the process of building what I think is a great foundation within the hearts of these guys. And that is based off accountability, tough and slow. That's how we'll build this defense.”

Allen then delved into his three pillars, one of which is tackling, something the Tigers struggled with last season as teams consistently found the edge or ran up the middle with abandon. Allen promised that the Tigers would be the best tackling team in the country, then said that he wants his group to take the ball away.

Penn St. forced 26 turnovers last season (Clemson also forced 26), but Allen doesn’t like the word “turnover” when it pertains to football.

“We're going to take the ball away. Now I'm going to say this, though, so the defensive guys actually need to pay attention,” Allen said. “The defensive coaches also need to pay attention to this because I haven't told them this yet, but we don't use the word turnover on defense because that implies that the offense is just going to give us the ball. They are not just going to give us the ball, so we have to take the ball from them. So, everything we do is about taking the ball from the offense, and we have a whole series of things set up for that in practice.”

Allen then went on to say that there will be penalties for using the word “turnover” in practice. Penalties for everyone except the head coach.

“If the coach says the word turnover – Coach Swinney you can say whatever you want because you’re in charge – but with all the defensive coaches, if you say the word turnover, you got 25 pushups right here on the spot,” Allen said. "Okay? Because it's a mindset, right? And we're going to build a mental picture that we're going to take the ball from the offense every single day. The point of emphasis. And the last thing is just relentless effort. So, takeaways, tackling, effort, that's our DNA on defense. It's simple things to me, but it makes the difference. If you play really, really hard and you take the football away from the opponent and you tackle anybody in this country, you're going to play good defense.”

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