{"id":71655,"date":"2025-01-14T16:35:15","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T21:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=71655"},"modified":"2025-09-20T14:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T18:47:11","slug":"tom-allen-moves-from-lions-to-tigers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/01\/14\/tom-allen-moves-from-lions-to-tigers\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Allen Moves From Lions to Tigers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Penn State\u2019s season ended with a heartbreaking loss to Notre Dame<\/a> in the College Football Playoff (CFP) semifinals.\u00a0 Before the dust could settle, Happy Valley had a lot of player movement.\u00a0 Interestingly, now there is coaching news too.\u00a0 After one season with Penn State, defensive coordinator Tom Allen has decided to move from the Nittany Lions to the Clemson Tigers.<\/p>\n

In his new role, Allen moves from one playoff team to another.\u00a0 Clemson won the ACC championship.\u00a0 Penn State lost in the Big Ten title game<\/a> to Oregon but then advanced to the semifinals after winning over SMU<\/a> and Boise State<\/a>.<\/p>\n

James Franklin and Penn State will look for a defensive coordinator for the third time in the last four years.\u00a0 The defense is in flux with some lingering questions.\u00a0 Following Manny Diaz and Tom Allen as Penn State\u2019s defensive coordinator is no easy task.\u00a0 However, whoever is ultimately hired for the position will have a good roster of players to work with.<\/p>\n

Allen Held Up the Tradition<\/h3>\n

Despite the momentum of the tight end position<\/a>, Penn State has traditionally been known as Linebacker U.\u00a0 That is not by accident.\u00a0 From Michah Parsons to Paul Posluszny to LaVar Arrington, there is no shortage of defensive superstars who have worn Penn State uniforms.<\/p>\n

As Tom Allen moves from the Nittany Lions to the Tigers, he could be proud of Penn State’s Top 10 defense from this season.\u00a0 After serving as Indiana\u2019s head coach, Allen quickly established himself in Happy Valley and got the most out of his players.\u00a0 The best example is Abdul Carter<\/a>.\u00a0 Carter was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.\u00a0 However, he did this in a season where he moved from linebacker to defensive end.\u00a0 Carter\u2019s success is a testament to Allen\u2019s teaching and game planning.<\/p>\n

Additionally, a good coach can overcome inevitable hardships.\u00a0 For Allen, the biggest loss was arguably KJ Winston\u2019s long-term injury<\/a>.\u00a0 He did not return after the second game of the season.\u00a0 Allen began the year singing the praises of the leadership KJ Winston<\/a> and Jaylen Reed<\/a>.\u00a0 With Winston out of the lineup, Reed was forced to play more of a traditional safety role instead of the hybrid safety\/linebacker that he was expected to.\u00a0 However, he was still a very successful contributor to the defense.\u00a0 That is another feather in Allen\u2019s cap.<\/p>\n

What’s Left for the New Defensive Coordinator<\/h3>\n

Whoever comes in as the next Penn State defensive coordinator will have a roster that is very talented, though it remains in flux.\u00a0 On the line, there will be leadership and consistency returning.\u00a0 The linebackers are currently dealing with some uncertainty, while the defensive backfield is a work in progress.<\/p>\n

Upfront on the defensive line, the announced returns of Zane Durant<\/a> at tackle and Dani Dennis-Sutton<\/a> at end certainly help.\u00a0 However, losing Carter is impactful.\u00a0 Producing to offset Carter\u2019s loss first falls to Dennis-Sutton.\u00a0 He provided a glimpse of what can be in the Notre Dame game, playing the weak side as Carter battled an injury.\u00a0 The early returns were good.<\/p>\n

The linebackers came into their own as the year progressed.\u00a0 Headlined by Kobe King<\/a>, the unit was solid and Allen was able to get good production from them.\u00a0 The highlight was in the first playoff game against SMU.\u00a0 Dom DeLuca<\/a> (former walk-on) had two interceptions, and Tony Rojas<\/a> had one, with both returning one for a touchdown.\u00a0 King led the team with eight tackles.\u00a0 A critical success factor for the next coordinator will be getting similar or better output.\u00a0 King\u2019s return would help with that, but he is currently undecided.<\/p>\n

The defensive backfield, a strength coming into this season, is now a question mark.\u00a0 Both Winston and Reed have declared for the NFL draft.\u00a0 The safety position should be led by returnees Zakee Wheatley<\/a> and Zion Tracy<\/a>. They will be joined by King Mack<\/a>, who started his collegiate career with Penn State before transferring to Alabama and is now returning to Happy Valley.\u00a0 At cornerback, Jalen Kimber<\/a> has declared for the draft as well.\u00a0 That leaves AJ Harris<\/a> leading the cornerback room, along with Elliot Washington II<\/a> and Audavion Collins<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Penn State\u2019s season ended with a heartbreaking loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff (CFP) semifinals.\u00a0 Before the dust could settle, Happy Valley had a lot of player movement.\u00a0 Interestingly, now there is coaching news too.\u00a0 After one season with Penn State, defensive coordinator Tom Allen has decided to move from the Nittany […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5172,"featured_media":71688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,35645,10906,35610],"tags":[7983,36,837,395,309,1073],"class_list":["post-71655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-bigten","category-clemson-tigers","category-cfb","category-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-big-ten-football","tag-clemson-tigers","tag-james-franklin","tag-manny-diaz","tag-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-tom-allen"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71655"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71689,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71655\/revisions\/71689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}