It appears Penn State has lost its defensive coordinator, Tom Allen, after just one season.
Per a report by Matt Zenitz of 247Sports, Allen has agreed to become the defensive coordinator at Clemson.
Penn State’s Tom Allen has agreed to become the new defensive coordinator at Clemson, a source tells @CBSSports/@247Sports.
Clemson and Allen, who ESPN previously said Clemson was working toward getting a deal done with, are expected to get a deal done in the next day or so.… pic.twitter.com/rTeayuYmZk
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) January 13, 2025
A deal isn’t 100% confirmed yet but is expected to be “within the next day or so,” per Zenitz.
This is uncharted territory for head coach James Franklin and company. Sure, Penn State’s coordinators leaving is nothing new: Brent Pry and Manny Diaz each moved on the on the defensive side, as did Joe Moorhead and Ricky Rhane on the offensive side. But Allen’s apparent departure is different because A. He’s only leaving after one year, whereas the others mentioned stayed for at least two and B. Allen is leaving for another coordinator job.
A LATERAL MOVE
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now
Franklin has stressed the importance of not letting his assistants leave for any job that isn’t a head-coaching gig.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Here’s what he said about the matter last November, when people were talking about Diaz’s future plans (he ended up becoming the head coach at Duke).
“I think what we talked about in the past is what can we do and what do we need to do here at Penn State to make sure that guys don’t leave for lateral moves,” Franklin said. “To me, that’s really the main focus. We’ve got to make sure that assistants don’t leave for assistant positions and coordinators don’t leave to be coordinators. If guys have a chance for a clear, obvious promotion, we want that for him. We’d like to create a situation here for Manny and his family that he wants to be here until he has an opportunity to get a really good head coaching job that’s going to allow him to flourish. I think Brent [Pry] handled it probably as well as any. He had a great job, turned down a bunch of jobs waiting for the right one.”
Not only is Allen leaving for a coordinator job, he’s also going to a program that, over the past three seasons, has been less successful than Penn State. Penn State is 34-8 since the start of 2022 whereas Clemson is 30-11.
ALLEN’S LEGACY
In Allen’s lone season at Penn State, his defense was seventh in the country in yards allowed and eighth in points allowed. Defensive excellence is expected at Penn State, and whoever the next coordinator is, it will be no different.
Penn State’s next game is Aug. 30, 2025 against Nevada at Beaver Stadium.
