Dabo Swinney makes several jokes at the expense of Clemson punters, assesses their performance

Earlier in the week, Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney said that his punters made up one of his few remaining questions as Clemson exits spring ball. B.T. Potter and Aidan Swanson have been competing for the starting punter job, with freshman Jackson Smith seeing some time there for Clemson as well.

Following Clemson’s spring game on Saturday, Swinney made a couple of jokes at the expense of his punters, but then went in depth on the position’s outlook as the Tigers come out of the spring.

“Yeah, you see why I said that,” Swinney joked about the questions surrounding Clemson’s punters. “Was like Nostradamus today.”

Potter might have the inside track on the punter job for Clemson, at least he did coming into the spring. Potter is entering his fifth year at Clemson and has not attempted a punt, though he has extensive experience as the Tigers kicker. In his career, Potter has made 53 of his 71 field goals (74.6%) and 185 of his 186 extra point attempts, accounting for 344 career points.

“Well you see what we’ve loved about B.T. Potter,” Swinney said. “I mean he bombed a few and he can do it, but you know the first snap, it was a little high, it wasn’t perfect. I got my man (Philip) Florenzo out there getting his first – I imagine the winds blowing, he was probably a train wreck. He was a little high. But Potter needs to – he’s got to make that play. It’s not always going to be perfect. But Potter hasn’t really done that. So he’s going to work his tail off because he really wants to compete and win the job.”

Swinney on Clemson’s punters: ‘We got work to do there’

When assessing the play of his punters in Clemson’s spring game, Swinney said that he was actually impressed with Smith after he escaped a potentially disastrous situation. In the end, the punter position is one of Swinney’s few remaining questions, and he knows that they have work to do before solidifying that position.

“And then Aidan (Swanson) goes out there and he muffs one and shanks one. Jack (Smith), I was actually pleasantly surprised because he had about a 30 mile an hour wind at him on his very first punt and he’s three yards in the end zone. I’m like this has potential for disaster. And really his process was good, that’s really all I wanted to see. I wanted to see him just have a good process, handle the ball, and he got three or so. He’s going to be really good, but he’s kind of been like a high school senior out here. He’s got to just settle in and I’ll be anxious to see where he is when we get to camp in August.

“But that’s really the only question mark I have coming out of the spring is who’s running out there first to be the punter. We got work to do there.”