Walk-on Greg Huegel will be the first guy out on the field when No. 12 Clemson needs a field goal or extra point in Saturday’s game against Wofford.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney again said Huegel is still the guy heading into Saturday’s season-opener, and he did nothing in Wednesday’s practice to discourage that. According to Swinney, Huegel made a 52-yard field goal and then concluded the practice by making a simulated game-winner.

“He has continued to really do a good job for us,” the Tigers’ head coach said. “I’m excited to see him get out there and have an opportunity to go do it in front of a bunch of people.”

Joseph is better. Second-team middle linebacker Kendall Joseph is expected to play in Saturday’s game in Death Valley despite missing a good part of fall camp with nagging injuries. Swinney said the redshirt freshman has looked well in practice this week and has been better each and every day. He, along with true freshman Jalen Williams at weakside backer, has taken all of the second-team reps.

No decision, yet. Swinney said he has not determined who will start at defensive tackle next to Carlos Watkins. The Clemson coaches are expected to sit down sometime on Thursday to discuss their options and then they will make a decision. It could be a game-time decision before Swinney announces to the public who will be the starter.

It appears the starting assignment will come down to either redshirt sophomore Scott Pagano (6-3, 295) or true freshman Christian Wilkins (6-4, 315).

“Tomorrow is kind of our last staff meeting. We will talk about game specific things as far as how are we going to rotate guys,” Swinney said. “It could be like last year. We never knew who was going to make that start at tackle until after Thursday’s practice because literally every rep counted because the competition was so tight.

“We will make that decision after tomorrow, but we have a bunch of guys that are going to play.”

No more fumbles. Early in fall camp, running back’s coach and co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliott spoke of some issues in regards to ball security from a few of his backs, which in turned forced he and his players to have to run following practice a few times.

Since then, according to Swinney, losing the football has not been an issue. With the exception of one of the stadium scrimmages, the running backs have done a good job hanging onto the football.

“Outside of that, it has been a solid camp,” Swinney said. “Tony works and nobody works harder at the fundamentals, the techniques of ball security than Tony, and it reflects on the backs.”

Swinney says the magic turnover number to reach or stay below if they want to be considered a true contender for the national championship is 18. He admits he doesn’t want a single turnover, but he understands that is too much to ask.

“The biggest thing is we want to win that turnover margin. Hopefully, we don’t have any, but if we do then we have to go get a couple from the other team. It all goes together,” he said. “But it has been solid. I think they have done an excellent job.”