Swinney says Clemson has options at kicker with 'two legit dudes' battling

Liam Boyd made a statement in the placekicker battle by hitting a 51-yard field goal with ease in the spring game.

by Nikki Hood - Staff Writer - Mon Apr 24 14:18:08 GMT-04:00 2023

GREENWOOD, SC – If you hadn't heard of Liam Boyd before the spring game, you probably have now, and the walk-on from Asheville has a chance to win the starting placekicker job.

The Asheville native made a splash in Clemson's Orange & White game by nailing a 51-yard field goal on the Orange team's opening possession and driving his three kickoff attempts deep into the endzone.

After a strong spring, head coach Dabo Swinney said Boyd and fellow redshirt freshman Robert Gunn have separated themselves from the pack in the placekicking competition.

"Absolutely (he has a chance to win the starting job)," Swinney said of Boyd at last week's Greenwood Prowl and Growl event. "He and Robert separated in spring, for sure. Those two kind of separated from the other guys and made it a two-man competition in the latter part of spring. We'll see how that carries over during the latter part of the fall. The biggest thing is we've got two guys who can legitimately kick off now. That's exciting. The other couple of guys on the roster can kick off, but not like Robert. Liam doesn't have quite as strong a leg as Robert as far as kicking off, but he's really good. Robert is just abnormal when it comes to kicking off. He has unbelievable explosive power. Those two guys separated, and I'm really proud of them."

While Boyd was an unknown to Clemson fans, he has been on Swinney's radar since he attended high school football camp and competed with Gunn for the lone special team scholarship.

"Liam was a guy that we almost offered out of high school. It was when we offered Robert. We had it down to three or four guys, and Liam was in that group," Swinney said. "He didn't have a lot of experience. He was a soccer player and had never played until Covid. Soccer got canceled, and he wanted to go play, so he ended up kicking for his football team. Then we went down and did like a post-grad year at IMG. He decided he wanted to come walk on, so he walked on a year ago in January and went through the season. Honestly, he wasn't very competitive last fall. I think he was just kind of getting himself going. He's had a great spring, and he and Robert have separated."

Swinney expects the battle to replace BT Potter to go well into fall camp, but he is excited to have two 'dudes' who can kick.

"Robert came in out of all the guys in the country, he won the scholarship, but none of that stuff matters," he said. "It's about competing. I think both of those guys will battle. It's good to have some options, and it's good to have some competition. It will serve us well to have really two legit dudes."