CLEMSON -- Tom Allen was formally introduced as Clemson's defensive coordinator today at a press conference with Dabo Swinney.
A few observations:
-- His voice is hoarse.
That's no great revelation, of course; surely plenty of you have done your own research over the last couple of days to get a better feel for the personality that will be running the defense from this point forward.
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But pardon us if the first comparison we think of is the guy who last coached a game here in late November of 2021 when Clemson suffocated South Carolina in Columbia.
The contrasts with his immediate predecessor are unavoidable. Wes Goodwin didn't fail because he couldn't work a room or win a press conference.
But presence is still a big deal, and that's one of the major attributes Swinney was after when he made the change.
Allen most certainly has a presence. And his hoarse, scratchy voice kind of reminds you of the guy whose legacy everyone is trying to get back to.
"You'll have to excuse my voice," Allen said. "I've been yelling here recently. I talk fast and yell a lot."
Music to the ears of everyone around here.
-- Allen's wife runs the show.
When the news broke Monday, we were speaking with some folks in State College to get a feel for Allen and his motivations for leaving.
We were told being closer to their daughters (one lives in Greenville, the other in Charlotte) was the driver of this -- with wife Tracy doing the driving. They're also expecting a granddaughter in a month.
Allen confirmed this today when asked: Why now, after just one year at Penn State?
He said he wasn't looking to leave until hearing of Swinney's interest.
"It was totally unexpected, to be honest with you," he said. "Not everybody is going to understand it, and I respect that."
Allen said his family lived in seven different states over his first 10 years of coaching. All three of his kids went to at least two different high schools.
He said there was a time when he was strongly considering getting back to high-school coaching because of the toll it was taking on his family.
"You care about having your family as close as you can, and sometimes that's not even possible," he said. "For my wife to see her grandchildren on a consistent basis, you can't replace that.
"The chance to all be together right now? I couldn't pass it up. People that know me well weren't surprised. I'll just say that. They weren't surprised that my family is something I put a really high priority on."
He said his wife "is the superstar in this whole thing."
He said his girls cried when they found out he was taking this job. And he got choked up when saying it.
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-- Definitely one of the biggest news items of this press conference is Swinney's desire to take his offensive and defensive coordinators off the road and let them focus on their respective units full-time.
A key point: That was the arrangement at Penn State, where Allen was off the road and seemed to love the day-to-day focus on his group. He said it allowed him to be a better coach of both his players and assistants.
"It was definitely something I was looking forward to continuing," Allen said.
So it sounds like big upward moves are in order for Ben Boulware and Tajh Boyd as they take a bigger role with the linebackers and quarterbacks, respectively (and with recruiting).
Swinney indicated that all this is still being finalized. But this will surely be an intriguing subplot through the offseason.
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Boulware, what a story. He has a successful fitness center but then last summer chooses to volunteer on Swinney's staff and basically works this past season for free.
Boyd has been here for quite a while, and at one point earlier during his time on the staff we got the feeling he wasn't sure if coaching was something he wanted to do.
But something clicked a few years ago and he decided he was going to pour himself into becoming a coach.
Pretty cool on both counts.
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