By Hale McGranahan.

Not everybody offers scholarships to kickers and punters. Hardly anyone hands them out to long-snappers.

To make the jump from high school long-snapper to college long-snapper, prospects have to sell themselves.  Austin Spence made himself a marketable commodity at the Dabo Swinney Football Camp the summer before his junior year at West Florence High School.

“They had all the kickers go to the other field. They brought me and another long-snapper over there and I really impressed them while I was snapping to the punters,” Spence said.

Afterwards, he found himself in Dabo Swinney’s office, alongside his kicker of a brother Alex, who wound up picking up a scholarship from Clemson.

“When we went into Dabo’s office, when Alex got his offer, they recognized that I was his brother,” Austin said. “They were like, ‘We realy want you up here, too.’ Because I really impressed them with my snaps. After that, they kept up with me.

“Through my brother, they’d talk to him and be like, ‘How are you doing?’ Then, after my brother went up there, I went to all the games this past year as a recruit.”

There was never a doubt that Austin would join Alex at Clemson.

“I loved it ever since I came up there the first time,” Austin said. “The atmosphere, the family environment, the campus, just everything about it. Everyone up there was friendly. Everyone up there was personable. I loved everything about it.”

About a month before Signing Day, UConn began to emerge as an option, but the ball never really got rolling. Spence was already committed to Clemson.

“I did have a couple of other schools that were interested, but it didn’t really pan out, because I didn’t really recruit myself,” he said.

With the departure of multi-year starter Michael Sobeski, Clemson has an opening at the position.

“I’m ready to compete, but if they don’t start me that’s totally fine,” Spence said. “I’m happy to do whatever they want. I’m just really excited about the opportunity.”

He added, “I’m not sure what their plan is for me. I haven’t really talked with them too much about that. We’ll see when we get up there.

“I’ve got my acceptance letter and my signed NLI and stuff like that. I do want to compete as soon as I get up there.”

Spence told TCI that he’s 6-foot-2 and just under 200 pounds.