Tom Allen shares plan to correct slow starts from Penn State defense

Penn State football has rapidly ascended up the polls in recent weeks, entering the back half of the season ranked third in the nation and hoping to retain its status as one of the 11 remaining undefeated teams in the FBS. But despite the early season success, the Nittany Lions have still needed to work through growing pains under new coordinators Andy Kotelnicki and Tom Allen.

Unlike his counterpart Kotelnicki, who was brought in to revive the Nittany Lions offense, Tom Allen has been tasked with maintaining a Penn State defense that was among college football’s elite under Manny Diaz. And that’s been the case through six games, with the unit ranking in the top 10 in scoring and total defense and in the top third in all other major categories.

However, the glaring observation from Allen’s first two months as defensive coordinator is the Nittany Lions’ sluggishness to start games. Penn State football is allowing an average of 175 yards in the first half of contests this season compared to just half that, 87 yards, following the halftime break. The defense has already allowed 20 or more first-half points twice this year while giving up a combined 27 points during the second halves of its six games.

While the stark difference between first and second half play speaks to the level of adjustments made by Tom Allen and the defensive staff in the locker room, Penn State is undoubtedly playing with fire. It almost came back to burn the Nittany Lions last weekend, needing to overcome a 14-point halftime deficit to defeat USC in overtime.

Tom Allen addresses slow starts by Penn State defense

© Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK

James Franklin has recently addressed the slow starts on both sides of the football for his program, noting that the Nittany Lions will need to be “a four-quarter team, a start-fast team, a fourth-quarter team, all of it” moving forward this season.

Looking ahead, Penn State football likely cannot afford to be digging out of first-half holes in its upcoming games. The Nittany Lions return from their second bye week with a primetime showdown at Wisconsin, followed by the much-anticipated matchup with No. 4 Ohio State. Further, any hopes of postseason success in 2024 will only be increasingly complicated if the Blue and White are forced to play from behind against some of the nation’s most high-powered offenses.

Speaking to the media for the first time during the season this week, Tom Allen shared his assessment of the root causes of the Nittany Lions’ slow starts on both sides of the ball, as well as his plan to get the defense playing fast and aggressively from the opening whistle.

“We’ve obviously played strong in the second half, which is a good thing, but you don’t want to have a slow start,” he said. “Just continue to grow and a keep-getting-better type mindset, rather than fast or slow, to be really where you want to be.

“So, to me, the focus this week is go back and evaluate all the calls. Are we being aggressive enough? There is definitely a feel-out period of a game. I think early in the season, especially when you’re relying a lot on previous years’ video or everybody has new things they throw out, especially when they play us and the way we do things schematically. There’s a little bit less of that moving forward, because you’ve got more 2024 film on teams, rather than trying to rely on things they’ve done in the past.

“Definitely want to see us improve that area without question. Want to be able to start strong and finish even stronger. So we’ll continue to do a great job of making adjustments at halftime, but I feel like it’s going to be more of the mental preparation. Making sure guys are mentally, physically, everything’s ready to play at a high level, but from the get-go.

“That’s on all of us as coaches, and then also doing a great job of making sure we’re calling the right things to put our guys in position aggressively enough and allow us to maybe throw some things in there that they haven’t seen early. Help our guys get in front of those situations and just feel more aggressive about it. So that’s kind of how I would approach it.”

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