CLEMSON — Coming into fall camp, one of the few position battles centered around who will be doing the punting for Clemson this season.
Many thought Dabo Swinney should have gone to the portal for a punter, but the head coach chose not to, insisting he was comfortable with who was already on the roster.
Jack Smith, Will McCune and former placekicker Robert Gunn are the ones currently battling it out, and after the first scrimmage of camp on Saturday, there is no more clarity than there was when camp began. However, Swinney maintains that he is mostly pleased with some of the results, but that he is still looking for more consistency.
‘Tried to create as much pressure on those guys as we could,” Swinney said after Saturday’s scrimmage. “There was some good. I tell them I need them to be consistently good, not occasionally great. We just to hone that in. We are getting better. It is good competition. It is a three-horse race right now. Some really, really good at times, then a miss here or there. We have to get the misses a little bit more in line with what we need.”
However, there is one area on the special teams in which Swinney sounded a little more frustrated, and that is the placekicking. After Nolan Hauser was so good as a freshman last season, there were very few concerns regarding what he would do as a sophomore.
While Hauser did miss seven kicks during his debut season, six of those were blocks, due to protection issues. He only missed one all season that made it past the line of scrimmage.
During Saturday’s scrimmage, Hauser had one miss, which this time was not on the protection, and after it was over, it was clear that Swinney wanted to send a message to his sophomore kicker.
“I think he’s been average this week,” the head coach said. “He was 2-for-3 today, but one just terrible kick. I think he’s had an average week. So, he needs to pick it up. Last year’s kicks don’t carry over. He had a nice kick to finish today, good to see him respond, but he was 2-for-3, and we need him to be 3-for-3. The miss was 100% on him.”
While many have been worrying about getting consistency from the punters, Swinney is also looking for some from his placekicker.
“He hasn’t been as consistent, so we need him to pick it up.”
Photo courtesy of Dawson Powers