Clemson came out firing on all cylinders against UNC, and their defense has been the story of the afternoon. After scoring a 75-yard touchdown on a trick play just 11 seconds into the game, the Tigers have completely dominated Bill Belichick’s makeshift roster. Through the first half, Clemson’s defense has held UNC to just a field goal, a remarkable performance considering Dabo Swinney’s squad entered the game at 1-3 and were desperately searching for answers. The Tigers’ defense, which had been the source of so much frustration this season, suddenly looks like a completely different unit.

The credit? It goes to the defensive coordinator, Tom Allen. Allen came to Clemson after leading Penn State to the 7th-ranked total defense nationally in 2024. His schemes are aggressive and rely on fundamentals. At Penn State, his defense was 8th in scoring defense (16.5 PPG), 2nd in tackles-for-loss (119), and 5th in sacks (44). That was the resume that got him to lead Clemson after Swinney chose to replace Wes Goodwin.

But after performing subpar the entire 2025 season, now the defense has suddenly gotten its rhythm. And what’s really making the difference today is where Allen is calling the shots from. As John Blau noted on X: “Tom Allen communicating directly with his defense from the sideline seems to be working. Haven’t seen him knock over any players on a chest-bump or tackle yet. Stay tuned.” On paper, it’s a subtle change. But it actually showed results on the field.

The interesting thing is, historically, Clemson’s defensive coordinators have always called plays from the sidelines. It was actually Allen who broke that 30-year-old streak by calling plays from the booth. Brent Venables was the DC who built the defensive part of that dynasty from the sidelines, ensuring the Tigers’ eventual road to two national championships. Moreover, the second line of Blau’s tweet is significant. Allen is known for tackling his own players out of happiness after successful executions. That’s one more positive from the change for Allen, as he couldn’t do that if he was way up in that booth.

And right now, Allen’s decision is working amazingly well. Clemson’s defense is doing stuff that the fans wanted it to do since the beginning of the season. They’re filling gaps and making impressive tackles. Holding a Bill Belichick-coached team to 10 points, even if it’s a patchwork of UNC’s 2025 roster, requires precise execution and discipline.

A Clemson player has hit the portal

Clemson’s rough 1-3 start had fans fuming, but that disappointing start just got a little more disappointing. A third-year junior defensive back, Shelton Lewis, officially hit the transfer portal. Lewis, originally from Stockbridge, Georgia, had an interesting recruitment story. He committed to Pittsburgh on June 4, 2022, then decommitted just 22 days later before pledging to Clemson on his 17th birthday that August. Three years later, he’s packing his bags. Pete Nakos broke the news on October 2, tweeting that Lewis is repped by The Familie sports agency and will have two years of eligibility remaining after recording 30 career tackles and 2 interceptions.

The writing was kind of on the wall for Lewis this season. He lost his starting spot to Misun Kelley during fall camp and had been relegated to backup duty. His biggest role came two weeks ago against Syracuse when he logged 33 snaps while Kelley sat out with what looked like a concussion. But that wasn’t enough to keep him around. Lewis already notified Swinney and the staff that he’d redshirt this season after playing four games. Now, he has just played enough to preserve eligibility while he’ll hit the portal. This year for him was also statistically insignificant. He totaled only seven tackles and a pass breakup across 49 snaps.

Swinney probably can’t even focus on keeping guys like Lewis happy right now because he’s too busy trying to save the season. Joel Klatt summed it up perfectly on his podcast after Clemson’s 34-21 loss to Syracuse: “What is going on at Clemson? Something’s broken at Clemson”. Klatt’s observation that the Tigers are “being down two, three scores every single time you turn on the TV, and it’s the first quarter” is spot-on. When your program is drowning in a 1-3 start, you can’t exactly devote energy to convincing backup defensive backs to stick around. Lewis becomes Clemson’s first transfer portal casualty of the 2026 cycle.