The latest on Clemson’s kicking situation heading into NC State

Clemson has three kickers competing for playing time but only room for two on the bus.

Alex Spence will be on the travel roster for Saturday’s game against N.C. State, but the other spot will be a last-minute decision, Tigers coach Dabo Swinney said following Wednesday’s practice.

Walk-on Drew Costa, who was added in the middle of the season, and senior Christian Groomes are competing for the other spot.

“It’s going to be down to the wire,” Swinney said. “Spence has had a heck of a week. So we’ve got a two-horse race to see who gets the other seat on the bus. So we’ll make that decision (Thursday) after practice.”

Swinney opened the kicking competition up after Spence missed two of three field-goal attempts against Syracuse in the Tigers’ 3-point loss, but the junior responded well after the bye week.

Spence made his only field-goal attempt last weekend against Georgia Tech, from 29 yards, and also made all three of his extra-point attempts. He is now 3-for-7 on field-goal attempts this year.

While Swinney is pleased with the way Spence has performed lately, his job is far from safe.

“He didn’t win the job for life,” Swinney said. “He won the job for the week. That’s just where we are. It’s a week-to-week basis around here.”

Swinney has tried to put pressure on each of his kickers during practice so that they will feel less pressure during games, and he is pleased with the results.

Swinney added that Spence’s field goal against Georgia Tech was “no question” the happiest he has been over a kick other than a game winner as it allowed him to have more confidence in the kicking game and hopefully gave Spence some confidence as well.

This story was originally published November 2, 2017 at 4:49 PM with the headline "The latest on Clemson’s kicking situation heading into NC State."