Before coming to Clemson this year as the program\u2019s new defensive coordinator, Tom Allen served as the defensive coordinator\/linebackers coach at Penn State in 2024. \u00a0Along with helping lead the Nittany Lions to a school-record 13 wins and a College Football Playoff berth, Allen helped guide defensive end Abdul Carter to unanimous All-America honors \u2013Penn State\u2019s first time having a player earn that distinction since running back Saquon Barkley in 2017.<\/p>\n
Carter thrived under Allen\u2019s tutelage, tallying career highs in tackles (68), tackles for loss (24) and sacks (12) en route to being named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and ultimately being selected by the New York Giants with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n
Now, star Clemson defensive end T.J. Parker is hoping to enjoy similar success under Allen during what figures to be Parker\u2019s final year with the Tigers, as the 6-foot-3, 265-pounder is widely projected to be a top-five or top-10 pick in next year\u2019s NFL Draft.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust like Abdul was able to have his best season of his career in his final year this past season, that\u2019s what I expect T.J. to do this year,\u201d Allen said this week during Clemson Football\u2019s Media Outing at the Allen Reeves Football Complex.<\/p>\n
Parker followed up a freshman All-American selection in 2023 with an outstanding sophomore season in 2024, when he blossomed into one of the country\u2019s most dangerous pass rushers and earned second-team All-ACC honors after tallying 64 tackles, 19.5 tackles for loss, 11 sacks and six forced fumbles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Allen sees a lot of the same qualities in Parker that he saw while coaching Carter a year ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s can you get to the quarterback? And obviously T.J. has shown the ability to do that in the past, and so that gets you a lot of excitement. And those guys [Parker and Carter] had similar numbers a year ago,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think [Parker] has a knack to be able to position himself \u2013 great use of his hands, great leverage on offensive blockers and tackles and whoever chooses to block him. I think that pops out to me. His relentless effort to get to the quarterback is another thing that sticks out on film. His work ethic, I just love how he works. Those are all key things that matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only all of that, but Allen added that Parker\u2019s \u201ctechnique has continued to get better and better all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got a great coaching staff around him up front,\u201d Allen said, \u201cand a lot of NFL experience there to work with him and get him ready to play at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last season, Parker was the only player in the nation to rank in the top 10 nationally in forced fumbles (tied for second), tackles for loss (fifth) and sacks (ninth). He set the Clemson record for forced fumbles in a single season while also finishing tied for second in the nation and tied for the national lead among power conference players in forced fumbles.<\/p>\n
Parker\u2019s tackles for loss and sacks totals were both the most by a Clemson player since Clelin Ferrell\u2019s 19.5 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks in 2018, while Parker\u2019s 11 sacks rank ninth in a season in Clemson history.<\/p>\n
A former top-50 national prospect from Alabama, Parker enters the 2025 season credited with 105 tackles (32.0 for loss), 16.5 sacks, six forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries and three pass breakups over 27 career games (17 starts) in his two-year Tiger career thus far.<\/p>\n
Allen is looking for Parker to perform well in fall camp and then carry that over into gamedays this fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think T.J. Parker works extremely hard. He needs to have a great training camp, like they all do,\u201d Allen said. \u201cObviously, it\u2019s like everybody else \u2013 it\u2019s about what you do on gameday. He had a great campaign a year ago, and he\u2019s got to be able to elevate his game and keep getting better, and that\u2019s what I expect him to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parker landed at No. 9 overall in\u00a0CBS Sports\u2019 ranking<\/a>\u00a0of college football\u2019s top 150 players, while Pro Football Focus ranked<\/a> Parker at No. 10 among the top 50 players in college football ahead of the 2025 season. He was\u00a0ranked by Pro Football Focus<\/a>\u00a0as the No. 3 returning edge defender, and he was ranked by ESPN<\/a> as the second-best pass rusher for 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before coming to Clemson this year as the program\u2019s new defensive coordinator, Tom Allen served as the defensive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5320,7,5324,5322,6,15,5321,5323,5325],"class_list":{"0":"post-220615","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-clemson-insider-podcast","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-gymnastics","11":"tag-hero","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-nfl-draft","14":"tag-noonan","15":"tag-track-and-field","16":"tag-wednesday"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114882443270777183","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}