Football
After a successful 2024–25 campaign, Penn State is losing defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Tom Allen after just one season. The 54-year-old left State College on Monday after the Nittany Lions’ loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff last week, and was officially named the Clemson Tigers’ defensive coordinator on Wednesday.
In a press conference alongside coach Dabo Swinney, Allen explained why he decided to make the move to Clemson and gave a simple reason: Family.
“Our two daughters actually both live in the Carolinas,” said the longtime defensive coach. “Brittany lives down the road here… and Hannah lives in North Carolina and she’s expecting our second grandchild here in about 30 days. So the chance to have our two girls close by and Thomas here with us and his son… Family means a lot to me—and my wife has made some amazing sacrifices over the years.”
“When I left high school [coaching] in 2006, I was hired as the defensive coordinator at Indiana in 2016,” Allen later continued. “So, it was a 10-year window when we left high school and when I fulfilled my dream of being a defensive coordinator in the Big Ten… that was 10 years. We lived in seven states in those 10 years—and a lot of moves. And who are those moves on? That’s on my wife. I mean she’s the superstar in this whole thing, and she’s been amazing and I just appreciate her so much because I was chasing after this dream.”
Allen went on to explain that throughout his coaching career, his children all had to go to multiple elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. Given that collegiate coaching moves often happen in January, that meant they were often pulled out of school mid-year and would have to transfer.
Clemson DC Tom Allen gets choked up talking about the sacrifices his wife and kids had to make as he pursued his coaching career. “We’re really close.” Says pulling his kids out of school was taxing on everyone. “One time my daughter just wouldn’t get out of the car” pic.twitter.com/J0wu3W7YED
— Chapel Fowler (@chapelfowler) January 15, 2025
“That’s right smack in the middle of the school year,” Allen went on to explain to the Clemson press. “So we’ve had to pull our kids out… Well, who had to do all that? It wasn’t me. I was off recruiting. I was off at my new job. It was my wife… There was even one where, I’ll never forget. She was taking our youngest daughter to drop her off at her new school in January and she wouldn’t get out of the car. I mean she was just crying, and my wife’s crying telling me, and then I’m starting to cry because I’m the reason for all these things…
“It’s hard. Those moves are hard… All those things, those are things that we’ve been through, and so the chance to be able to [come to Clemson]—our girls, they cried when they found out I was taking this job, because we’re close. Those kind of things, you just can’t replace them. And life’s short, and I don’t take anything for granted.”
A really cool, full circle story for the Allen family.
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