While Clemson might have been without a handful of players on the defensive side of the ball this spring, Dabo Swinney was still overly pleased with the progress that has been made.

After the Tigers’ defense failed to live up to expectations a season ago, Swinney went out and hired Tom Allen away from Penn State as his new defensive coordinator. Allen spent the spring overseeing the entire defense, including the assistants on that side of the ball, unlike in years past, where the defensive coordinator was also the linebackers coach.

The transition has been fairly seamless, and Swinney saw evidence of that throughout the spring.

“I think they guys have really bought in, and that has been fun to see,” Swinney said. “How they’ve been held accountable for everything on that side of the ball has been really good.”

Clemson’s defense had its share of struggles in 2025. An inability to stop the run is what many remember, but the issues ran deeper. The Tigers just weren’t where they needed to be fundamentally. The defense was not very good at some of the more basic things, including tackling, gap integrity and getting the edge set.

This spring, Clemson went back to some of the basics, and attention to detail has been a focal point.

“I think he is very attentive to all the details, and I love that,” Swinney added. “He is a great leader for the coaches, too. He is high-energy every day; he is smart,” Swinney said. “But it has been really good. We’ve worked really hard on the tackling. And we’ve worked hard on the red zone, we’ve worked hard on some situational stuff.”

While Swinney was happy with the progress he saw from his defense this spring, the head coach also readily admits it’s just one step in the process. With players like DeMonte Capehart, Shelton Lewis, Stephiylan Green and Jeadyn Lukus out for either all or a lot of the spring, the Tigers were missing several key pieces. That means when fall camp starts later this summer, there is still more work to be done.

“Very incomplete defense, a lot of guys not available, so more work to be done,” Swinney said. “As far as what we could get done with the group that we had, I would say job well done by coach Allen.”