Hopes for 'Great Competition' and Development in Kicking Battle for '24 Season

Special teams development has been a central focal point for Clemson this offseason, and many could guess why. All you had to do was turn on the television last season and see it yourself.

Robert Gunn III was benched in the middle of the season for a graduate kicker, Jonathan Weitz, who had only attempted and made three extra-point attempts in his collegiate career. While it helped the problem then, it was not the solution.

The key to this offseason, throughout the spring and the summer, has been to develop the men on special teams and grow to a stable point — these men being the aforementioned Gunn, a redshirt sophomore, and true freshman Nolan Hauser.

Head coach Dabo Swinney commented on these men and the kicking battle Tuesday during his annual Media Day at the Allen Reeves Football Complex, reinforcing the desires for the unit.

“For special teams, it’s the kicking competition. The number one thing for us there is that we have got to get better in field goal,” Swinney said. “That really hurt us, especially in the early part of the year, and we’ve tried to address that. Hopefully we’ll have great competition there and improve there.”

In addition to his wishes for the kickers, Swinney shared the developments with both Gunn and Hauser to this point.

“It was a tough year for [Gunn]. He had a great spring, great summer, great fall camp, and he had some failure early and it wasn’t good,” Swinney said. “I didn’t really know what to expect this spring and how he was going to fully respond and compete, especially with Nolan getting here.”

“I thought that Robert was one of the bright spots this spring,” Swinney added. “He really competed. They both kind of were — they basically finished neck and neck coming out of spring. So, more to come, but I think the biggest thing with Robert is how he will take it to gameday.”

While both kickers have appeared to show immense development and growth in the offseason and the spring, Gunn seems to currently have taken an edge in the “neck and neck” kicking battle, according to Swinney’s thoughts.

How he will take his talents to the field in the 2024 season is a different matter, and is something we all eagerly wait to see come this fall.

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