Dabo Swinney touches on Clemson’s kicking situation
Clemson football struggled in a big way against the Duke Blue Devils, including in the kicking department, where the Tigers had a field goal blocked and another one missed.
Tuesday night, during his radio call-in show, Dabo Swinney spoke on Clemson’s kicking situation following the devastating 28-7 loss to Duke. Swinney mentioned multiple kickers, including backup Quinn Castner, who Swinney “gave a try”.
“We just gave him (Castner) a try tonight,” Swinney said. “So, we’ve got him and Hogan Morton, and then also Aidan Swanson is actually a pretty doggone good field goal kicker, too. He’s our next kickoff guy. He’s got a really strong leg.”
With the struggles in kicking, Swinney does hope starting kicker Robert Gun III does turn things around. According to Swinney, the redshirt freshman kicker had a great camp but will look elsewhere if he doesn’t.
“Just disappointing because Robert, he had a great camp – I mean, just an amazing camp,” Swinney said. “But sometimes these guys, those lights come on, and sometimes they can kind of get in a funk, and you just gotta work your way out of it. And hopefully, he will, because he is incredibly gifted and incredibly talented. …
“It’s a process that you go through for sure, and unfortunately, he didn’t take it to the game the other night, and it was costly. But hopefully, he’ll respond. If not, you’ve got to put somebody else in there, and it’ll be Quinn and Hogan and Aidan that will get the next opportunity.”
This is a situation to monitor. For the Tigers to turn their early season struggles around, they will need a kicker who can find consistency.
