Dabo Swinney has never been afraid to pay big money to fill out his coaching staff. Years ago he made defensive coordinator Brent Venables the first million-dollar coordinator in college football, then he upped his salary before Venables finally took a head coaching job at Oklahoma. Now, after two seasons with Wes Goodwin, Venables’s protege, running his defense, Swinney is back on a spending spree.
Clemson decided to move on from Goodwin after his unit allowed 292 rushing yards in a 38-24 loss to Texas in the first round of the College Football Playoff, and eventually landed on Penn State DC Tom Allen as Goodwin’s replacement. To pry him away from Happy Valley after just one year, Clemson gave the former Indiana head coach a three-year $6 million deal, a price that James Franklin and Penn State’s administration either couldn’t or wasn’t willing to match.
On Monday, reports began to surface that Clemson had zeroed in on Allen, but no deal was finalized. However, it only took until Tuesday for Allen to make his departure official and leave Franklin searching for a defensive coordinator for the third time in five years. After Brent Pry left to become the head coach at Virginia Tech, Franklin hired Manny Diaz who had recently been fired as the head coach of Miami, then once Diaz took the head job at Duke, Franklin settled on Allen, another recently fired head coach.
Through all the changes, Penn State has maintained one of the best defenses in the country. In fact, it can be argued that much of Allen’s success was based on the talent that was already in place when he arrived, specifically Abdul Carter, who to his credit Allen moved from linebacker to defensive end.
With Allen officially gone, Franklin may finally elevate safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator Anthony Poindexter, who served as his interim DC for last year’s Peach Bowl loss to Ole Miss.