Dabo Swinney talks about defense under new DC: "It’s an incomplete defense right now"

This offseason, the Clemson Tigers brought an experienced hand to head the defense in the form of former Indiana coach Tom Allen. Speaking this week at a press conference, Dabo Swinney took some time to praise Allen for the work he has done with the defense over spring practice.

The improvement was available for everyone to see during Saturday's spring game held by the Tigers. However, Swinney is the first to admit there's still much to be done:

“Tom Allen’s done a great job,” Dabo Swinney said. “He’s high energy every day. He’s smart, detailed, and the players are responding.”

“You can tell he’s coached a team before, he’s leading the players, but he’s also leading the coaches. That’s what we needed ... There were some explosive hits out there, we’ve worked hard on that.”

He added:

“It’s an incomplete defense right now, but for what we had available, it was a job well done.”

While the 2024 season was certainly an improvement over 2023 for the Clemson Tigers, their performances are still some way off from the height of Dabo Swinney's peak in 2016-2018.

Dabo Swinney on Cade Clubnik's performance during the spring game

Dabo Swinney also took the opportunity to address what he thought was a poor performance by quarterback Cade Clubnik, although he did it with a twist of fun:

“I didn’t think Cade had a good day,” Swinney said. “He looked checked out.”

“I think he was already in Cabo or something, maybe he thought he wasn’t going to get many reps, but he wasn’t locked in.”

Clubnik was a bright spot for the Tigers in 2024, recording 3,639 passing yards, with 36 touchdown passes and only six interceptions.

His QBR was 78.7, which ranked 12th among quarterbacks in the nation. He also had 463 rushing yards, with seven touchdowns in 119 carries. All those numbers are career-best for the signal-caller.