By Will Vandervort.

Dabo Swinney admits that he is no kicker. In high school and college he played wide receiver and never once attempted a field goal in practice, not even for fun.

But sometimes things change. So the other night at practice, just to lighten the mood of practice and to prove a point, Swinney lined his team up and made them watch as he attempted a 23-yard field. The same distance his kicker, Ammon Lakip, missed in last week’s overtime loss to top-ranked Florida State.

“I called them all up and I said, ‘Now look. I’m fixing to kick a 23-yarder right here. I’m going to make a point to all of you guys. I’m 44,’” Swinney said. “Now my son was there and he asked, ‘What if you missed?’ I said, ‘Well, it would not have gone as well.’”

But Swinney nailed it. He old schooled it and toed it through the upright and of course his players loved it. But remember, Swinney was making a point.

“The point being, obviously it does not take a lot of talent to kick a 23-yarder. So it is not talent and it is not physical,” he said. “It’s about mentally being in the right frame of mind. So we had a little fun with that the other day.”

In hopes to help Lakip get out of his funk and focus on just kicking, Swinney had a little more fun on Wednesday. Again he lined the whole team up – offense on one side and defense on the other and there was nobody on the field, but a snapper, holder and a kicker.

“I called Ammon out. He has missed three kicks and we went through all three kicks,” Swinney said. “If he missed it, it was instant consequences for the team. Everybody has to sprint over and back as hard as they can go.

Swinney was the one who played the role of the heckling fan.

“I was the one telling him his shoe was untied and that his hair was messed up. Hook it left and all of that stuff,” Swinney said. “He nailed every single one of them. He was not going to run. He was going to have to watch the team run.

“It was good to see. I was just trying to have a little fun and try to create some opportunities for him to respond. Obviously, we can’t simulate 85,000 in that type of situation. Again, we have seen Ammon in practice and he has been really, really good and he was good at home (against S.C. State). Hopefully, he gets some confidence these next few weeks if he can come out of this week as still the guy. Maybe the next we get out on the road he will perform a little better.”

Swinney says Lakip has responded well to the competition this week. He said Bradley Pinion has also looked solid and freshman Alex Spence has come on. The Clemson coach says they could decide who will play in the North Carolina game this Saturday after Thursday’s practice.

Regardless, he plans to dress anyone who can kick. He even joked around about putting offensive lineman Kalon Davis out there, given Davis’ background as a soccer player.

But after all the laughing was done, Swinney made a point to make sure that the missed field goals that cost them at Florida State were no laughing matter.

“We have some good things going on,” Swinney said. “We will get it all worked out.”