LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Dabo Swinney’s grocery store kicker took his act on the road without issue.
Greg Huegel, the walk-on redshirt freshman from Blythewood, knocked down a pair of pressure-packed field goals in Clemson’s 20-17 win over Louisville at Papa John’s Stadium on Thursday night.
The first, a 36-yarder, tied the game at 10 with 6:57 left in the third quarter. No. 2, which Huegel hit from 27 yards with 9:57 to play, gave the Tigers’ a 20-10 lead.
“I told him he’s getting promoted to Publix,” Swinney said.
Another solid showing by Huegel might bump him into the Fresh Market stratosphere.
“He made two big kicks and I don’t think anybody wants to come out of the stands and walk out there in front of all those people — walk out there and kick in a pressure situation,” Swinney said. “My hat’s off to that young man and the toughness he displayed.”
One game season: There are number of reasons why the phrase ‘Clemsoning’ is all but extinct.
Since taking the program over in 2009, Swinney’s brain-washed the players in his program with a variety of catch-phrases, to help avoid those head-scratching, WTF games.
“Each game is a nameless, faceless opponent.”
“We play Clemson 12 times this season.”
“It’s a one week season.”
Hunter Renfrow, who caught a 32-yard touchdown pass from Deshaun Watson, went with the last one, when asked about the importance of picking up a road win in conference play.
“We just achieved our goal, being 1-0 this week,” he said. “Next game will be a good team. It will be at home. But just being 1-0 every week, it’s what we try to do.”
In the face of adversity: Aside from a couple of early, soft jabs, Wofford and Appalachian State didn’t put up much of a fight against Clemson.
The Tigers rolled the Terriers and Mountaineers by a combined score of 90-20. Adversity was hardly an issue.
That wasn’t the case on Thursday night as Clemson scratched its way to win over Louisville.
“Any adversity we can have early in the season will help us late in the season,” Renfrow said.
Clemson’s schedule is back-loaded with dates against nationally ranked Notre Dame, Georgia Tech and Florida State.
The Tigers now know they can withstand a few punches from a conference opponent.
“It definitely brings confidence and it’s definitely something that we know we can do, to go to places,” Wayne Gallman said.
Fortunately, for Clemson, the games against Notre Dame, Georgia Tech and Florida State are all within the friendly confines of Memorial Stadium.