CLEMSON – In early October of 2015, a day before Deshaun Watson led Clemson to a historic comeback victory over Notre Dame, two Tampa, Fla., high schools matched up for the annual installment of their rivalry football game.

Wharton High School, then 5-0, fell 40-17 to 3-2 Plant High School, continuing a losing streak against the cross-town foe that lasted until 2020. Plant’s Thomas Allen, the son of then-South Florida defensive coordinator Tom Allen, led the Panthers with six tackles for loss and 12 total tackles.

On the other side, Wharton’s sophomore cornerback A.J. Hampton, the son of USF’s defensive backs coach Alonzo Hampton, wrangled in the lone interception of the game.

Neither coach Tom or Alonzo saw the game, however, as they were coaching the South Florida Bulls in a one-score loss to Memphis 10 minutes away, their only conference defeat that year.

Now, 11 years later and several coaching stints removed, those Tampa connections run all the way up I-85, straight to Clemson.

Tom is now entering his second year as the Tigers’ defensive coordinator, along with his son Thomas–the former Tampa Bay Area High School Defender of the Year–newly promoted to be Clemson’s defensive pass game coordinator.

The leader of Clemson’s defensive backs room, and, thus, one of Thomas’ main priorities is A.J.’s little brother, Ashton.

“(Ashton) and I have a good relationship,” Thomas said. “I played against his brother in high school, so that was fun. So I knew him. He was young when I knew him, but I knew him before.”

As two coaches’ kids, Ashton and Allen know what it means to be uprooted at a young age to follow a football job. 

Thomas spent several formative years in Mississippi while his father was a linebackers coach at Ole Miss from 2012-2014. He later committed and played four seasons at Indiana when his dad was hired as defensive coordinator and promoted to head coach. Then, he was a member of Tom’s staff at Penn State in 2024.

“I keep telling Dad I need to get away from him,” the younger Allen said with a laugh. “I try to leave but for some reason I keep coming back. But it’s been fun. It’s a fun relationship. He’s not going to coach forever, so being able to do this right now with him has been a lot of fun and enjoyable for me and my family.”

In the meantime, Ashton moved to Tallahassee, Fla., following his father who took a special teams coordinator role at Florida State. In between his own games, he watched A.J. play cornerback at Northwestern and Tulane. In 2022, their father later took a job as the head coach at the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff. 

With all the moving pieces and stints across the country, though, Thomas and Ashton have now become cornerstones of the Clemson defense, unmoving pieces for a team with double-digit transfers and several new coaches.

Once the fifth-grader watching his big brother duke it out with Thomas on the gridiron, Ashton is now poised to be the leader in Clemson’s defensive backs room. 

And Thomas never lets him forget it.

“He’s the leader, he needs to be the leader of my DB room,” Thomas said. “I tell him that every day. Like, you’re the alpha. He has to take that next role, be a dude. But we expect him to be. It’s been fun watching him grow and seeing that. He needs to take a next step this fall camp and go from there.”

Last season, Ashton started every game for the Tigers, finishing fifth on the team with 47 total tackles, and led the team with 11 pass breakups, tying Avieon Terrell, now an NFL rookie. 

“He just passed me the torch and I’m just taking it over from there and I’m passing it down to the young guys,” Ashton said in the spring. “I’m making sure I’m being the leader in the room. I’m making sure I’m the first one there. I’m making sure I’m echoing all the calls to the young guys, everybody in the secondary–corner, safety. Just trying to make sure I learn every position on the defense so I can help everybody, not just myself out there on the field.”