CLEMSON — Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney mentioned Monday during his weekly call with the media that kicker Robert Gunn has been battling a quad strain and has not been kicking in practice the last two and a half weeks.
Swinney said the week heading into the Florida State game that Gunn did not kick in practice, nor did he during the weeks of the Syracuse and Wake Forest games.
“They have just been trying to nurse him through the week and get him ready for game day so he could kickoff,” Swinney said. “Obviously, he is a weapon with that, but he has been battling some soreness there and some swelling. I think he is trending in a good direction, and hopefully he can get back out there and start competing again.”
Swinney did not indicate when Gunn injured his leg. The redshirt freshman struggled as the placekicker early in the season, as he missed four of his five attempts and one extra point before being replaced by graduate student Jonathan Weitz, who Swinney called back to practice from his Charleston home the Sunday before the Florida State game.
Gunn has just kicked off for the Tigers since Weitz’s return to campus.
“He has not kicked in practice. I think they are going to let him kick this week for the first time on a very limited pitch count,” Swinney said. “He has literally, for the last couple of weeks, just shown up on game day and kicked off. That is it.
“So, he has not had a chance to get back out and compete for the job. We certainly are looking forward to that because this kid is super, super talented. He needed a little bit of a reset. Jonathan has definitely brought some maturity and a little bit of confidence to that point. I think that is ultimately going to be good for Robert. He is eager, I know he about has all the soreness out of his leg. He is eager to get back out there and start competing. We will see how it goes.”
Clemson is off this coming Saturday, as it gets set to play at Miami on Oct. 21.
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