A change of environment can impact your output level in sports. That change of environment, or rather change of altitude, got Clemson’s defense to deliver its best performance of the season, bashing UNC 38-10. The unit had been getting gashed for 362 yards per game before Week 6. Suddenly, it looked like the dominant force everyone expected with DC Tom Allen. UNC could convert just two of 11 third-down attempts. After allowing a field goal on the opening drive, Clemson’s defense forced four consecutive three-and-outs to seize control. The turnaround, though, wasn’t just about the opponent being undermatched. It was about where Allen was standing while calling the shots.

After calling four games from the comfort of the press box, Allen decided to switch to the sidelines. “I need to come down on the field and see if I can get this bunch rolling like they need to,” Allen told Dabo Swinney, according to the head coach’s postgame comments. It’s a significant shift for a coordinator who had grown comfortable coaching from above during his stint at Penn State, but the results speak for themselves.

And now, that experiment has turned into a precedent. Jon Blau posted on X with an update on this, which read, “Dabo Swinney says DC Tom Allen will probably be down on the field from here on out. He’s giving up what he wants to do, sitting up in the box, and doing what he needs to do,” Swinney said.

“Tom being on the field was not a negative. He enjoyed it.” Against UNC, Clemson’s defense held the Tar Heels to just 2.8 yards per play in the first half while the Tigers’ offense exploded for 10.8 yards per snap. The difference was night and day from the first four games, when Allen’s unit ranked 73rd nationally in total defense and was surrendering 22.8 points per game.

The interesting thing is, Allen’s sideline move was just a brief experiment that represented the return to a Clemson tradition. For three decades, every defensive coordinator in Clemson had called plays from the sidelines. That was until Allen came into the picture. He started calling plays from the booth, but when he did not get the success he had in Happy Valley (7th best defense in the nation), he had to try and embrace the tradition, and it worked. Moreover, Swinney also made it clear that it was Allen’s decision to make, saying, “I want these guys to do what they do. I don’t want them to do what I do.”

If the defensive performance that we witnessed against UNC sticks around for the remainder of the season, Clemson will be able to salvage the most out of their remaining games. At 2-3 with seven games remaining, which have a lot of winnable matchups, the bowl eligibility is no longer a crisis; it’s a fair expectation. ESPN’s bowl projections have given Clemson a 66.4% chance of reaching the required six wins, which is a significant jump from last week’s below 50%. 

Bill Belichick’s bizarre timeout 

We all knew this game was going to be interesting with Bill Belichick facing off against Dabo Swinney, but nobody expected it to unfold quite like this. UNC’s 38-10 shellacking at home was bad enough on its own, but Belichick’s decision to call a timeout with literally one second left in a game that was already decided had everyone scratching their heads. To his credit, Swinney didn’t take the bait when asked about it postgame.

“He’s coaching til the last second, and that’s what great coaches do,” Swinney said, keeping it classy while acknowledging that both teams were still evaluating players even in garbage time. The Tar Heels managed just 57 rushing yards the entire game. But maybe Belichick grinding until the final snap was probably the only thing that showed his team still had a pulse.

But that last-second timeout wasn’t even the most embarrassing timeout Belichick had to burn that afternoon. With 7:07 left in the second quarter, Clemson was about to punt when UNC got caught with 12 guys on the field. Twelve guys. On special teams. The irony? Belichick is supposed to be a special-teams guru.

The timeout saved them from giving Clemson an automatic first down, but it also burned a crucial timeout and added to a growing list of unforced errors that have plagued the Tar Heels all season. Belichick later explained he was evaluating every player on the field and taking the game seriously from start to finish, which sounds noble until you realize his offense managed just 64 yards in the entire first half while his defense was getting torched for 367 yards.