The Clemson Tigers will be trusting a young assistant on the recruiting trail

The Clemson Tigers are getting set for an important offseason with the program hoping to take a big step forward in 2025.

It was a strong campaign for the Tigers in 2024.

After a down season by their standards in 2023, Clemson bounced back and won 10 games and the ACC title. While 2024 was a successful year, 2025 has the potential to be something special.

With quarterback Cade Klubnik electing to come back for his senior season, the Tigers are going to enter the upcoming campaign with one of the best players in the country at the most important position. He will be a Heisman candidate to start the year, and with one of the best wide receiver corps in the country, the sky is the limit for the potential of the Tigers’ offense.

This season, while the offense started to show some signs of excellence, it was the defense that let them down at times.

Recently, Clemson hired Tom Allen from the Penn State Nittany Lions to come in and be their new defensive coordinator. Allen will be running the show for the Tigers’ defense, coming off a strong season with the Nittany Lions.

Head coach Dabo Swinney spoke about Allen’s role with the team recently and also mentioned that he won’t be going on the road recruiting as of now to catch up on missed time.

However, he also highlighted that he’s got a lot of confidence in assistant linebackers coach Ben Boulware to step into a bigger role.

“We’ve got Ben,” Swinney said to The Clemson Insider. “We are in the process of kind of finalizing some things there with that room. But (Allen) will run the defense. He’s not going to go on the road recruiting. He is going to always be with the team. I really, really like that. Ben will be out on the road (Thursday).”

Making sure Allen has time with the team and the staff is going to be very important.

Due to the success of Penn State in the College Football Playoff, his arrival at Clemson was a bit later than what would be ideal.

However, Swinney seemingly has a lot of confidence in Boulware to get the job done on the recruiting trail.

On the other side of the ball, Matt Luke does a lot of recruiting as the offensive line coach, signaling Swinney has a lot of faith in his assistants to do a good job.

So far, the 2026 class is shaping up to be a solid one for the Tigers as they continue to navigate the new NIL waters.

Overall, it is an exciting time for Clemson with the addition of Allen as the new defensive coordinator, and it’s a great opportunity for Boulware to prove what he can do as a recruiter.