CLEMSON — Dabo Swinney’s philosophy is “Big people beat little people.”

Translation.

Swinney wants to dominate the lines of scrimmage, which is what drew him to former Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Allen.

This past season, Allen’s Nittany Lions defense ranked fifth nationally in sacks (44) and second in tackles for loss (119). They also finished ninth in rushing defense (101.8 ypg allowed) and seventh in yards per carry allowed (3.05).

In other words, Penn State’s defensive front could control a football game.

“That is who we have always been,” Swinney said Wednesday during Tom Allen’s introductory press conference as Clemson’s new defensive coordinator. “Again, that is what I grew up around, won a national championship as a player, and to me, you have to be multiple within that.”

Allen ran a 4-2-5 scheme at Penn State which is what he will run at Clemson. The Tigers also ran a 4-2-5 last year, but not in the way in which Allen likes to run it.

“To me it is pretty simple. Football is not a complicated game,” Allen said. “It is not easy, but it is simple. To me, it’s about playing with a physicality and toughness. You can recruit speed. You want a great athlete, you go recruit those athletes. I love guys that love to run and love to hit.

“So we are going to make a big deal about takeaways, tackling and effort. To me, that is the foundational football side of what we want to be defensively. We want guys that can get to the football at a high level of speed and when they are there they have to have a very violent way to finish.”

In order to that, Allen says they have to create a way to do those things that are simple. Though he is multiple in what he does, he is a big concept guy and he wants his players to play with a ton of confidence.

“Keep it simple and let them play fast,” he said.

And dominate the lines of scrimmage.

“The multiplicity in me is built within the system and the scheme. We as coaches control that,” Allen said. “The guys just get to play and when you do that, you create the tackles for loss, the sacks, the takeaways, the things we spend so much time talking about that change games.

“I just think about the playoff run we just had, we had 29 tackles for loss, 11 sacks, nine takeaways and scored twice on defense. That is what you have to do in order to win and play elite defense.”

Allen says, at the end of the day, the only statistic that matters is points allowed.

“Yards, is what it is, but you have to be able to keep them out of the end zone,” he said. “We were top five in red zone defense (at Penn State). That is the execution piece, tackling and all the individual things you have to coach, so to me it is really about those simple things and we are going to adapt our scheme to our guys.”