Head coach Dabo Swinney loves the focus he has seen from his players in the first couple of days of camp.

“I have been very pleased with their focus. We are in a good spot right now. The players have bought into the work and they have responded so far,” he said.

Although Alex Spence is currently the leader in the kicking battle, walk-on Greg Huegel has impressed the coaches as well.

“He was the one guy we said, ‘We are going to bring him out when fall camp gets here,’” said Swinney. “He has done a nice job.”

Huegel only missed one kick in Thursday’s practice. On Friday, both Huegel and Spence made field goals of both 38 and 43 yards.

“Every kick matters. His (Spence’s) percentage is just a hair higher than Huegel’s who is higher than (Christian) Groomes, who is third, as far as the percentage after four days,” said Swinney.

Swinney also expressed how impressed he is with his 40 freshmen that are in camp.

“They are more talented as a group than the 42 freshmen we had on the 2011 team,” Swinney said.

Of course, Swinney hopes that this new group can use their talent and put in the work to be as successful as the 2011 freshmen class did.

The offense performed better on Friday than it did on Thursday. Although Deshaun Watson threw two interceptions on Friday, Mike Williams caught a 20-yard pass from the sophomore quarterback for one score score, Nick Schuessler hit Germone Hopper with a 17-yard pass for a touchdown, and Kelly Bryant had a 17-yard touchdown pass to Deon Cain as well.

“We expect some mistakes and we will get those corrected, but guys are playing at a high level,” said co offensive coordinator Tony Elliot. “If our guys know what they’re doing, we will have a chance to compete with anybody.”

Tight ends Stanton Seckinger and Jordan Leggett like what they see out of the young tight ends.

“It’s nice to have the young guys here, and those guys are real talented,” said Seckinger. “They’re going to be special.”

There’s definitely not going to be a drop off if one of us goes down,” said Leggett

Seckinger also mentioned that Leggett is “one of the hardest workers on the team right now.”

Linebacker B.J. Goodson took advantage of the summer to get himself in the shape necessary to play every single down this year.

“It’s not necessarily the workout as much as it is the mindset. The mindset has to change and that starts with yourself,” the senior said.

Goodson then discussed how driven this year’s defense is to live up to the standard that has been put in place by last year’s defense.

“Everybody is confident. We’re looking forward to staying a relentless defense. We have a standard that we are held to,” he said. “We go out and we work everyday, grind everyday and try to get better.”

Defensive end Shaq Lawson is confident the defense will be able to get the job done this year.

“There’s a lot of people are sleeping on us because they know we lost a first rounder at defensive end (Beasley),” he said. “There’s no drop off because we’ve all played in those games last year with him too.”

Lawson also mentioned the younger players are stepping up.

“They’re looking good. They actually picked it up better than when we first came in,” he said.

Saturday’s 4 p.m. practice will showcase the players in full pads for the first time this fall.

“We’re kind at that point now where you don’t know what day it is,” said Swinney. “Man it just doesn’t get any better. Tomorrow we go full pads, and we have some live work for the first time,” he said.