Clemson football, Dabo Swinney add former soccer player to 2025 roster
Clemson football has added a former Tigers men’s soccer player to the roster.
Former Clemson goalkeeper Charlie Reed has joined coach Dabo Swinney’s football team as a kicker, according to the team’s updated 2025 roster page.
He is joining as a walk-on, a team spokesman confirmed to The State.
Charlie Reed is the younger brother of Ian Reed, a redshirt sophomore offensive lineman on the team, and previously played soccer at Clemson. He played kicker and punter at Vandegrift High School in Texas, according to his MaxPreps page.
Charlie Reed (6-3, 195) joins the team as a redshirt freshman with four years of eligibility. He did not appear in a game last year for Clemson men’s soccer.
Reed is now listed as a “former” soccer player and is expected to play football only.
Reed is the second Clemson athlete from another sport to join the football team this offseason. After exhausting his basketball eligibility, former Tigers forward Ian Schieffelin (who also has football experience) joined the team as a tight end.
What does adding Charlie Reed mean for Clemson?
Reed’s addition is an interesting one for Clemson.
Barring injury, the Tigers are set for three more years at kicker. Nolan Hauser was a freshman All American in 2024 after going 18-24 on field goals (including a walk-off 56 yard make in the ACC championship) and 59-60 on extra points.
But punter is a position of interest for the Tigers.
Clemson graduated sixth-year punter Aidan Swanson last year, and Swinney declined to go into the transfer portal to find a potential replacement for 2025.
The Tigers are instead sticking with a group of scholarship redshirt junior Jack Smith, Charleston Southern walk-on transfer Will McCune and scholarship redshirt junior Robert Gunn III (a kicker who has punting experience).
Smith is the favorite for the job, but he’s punted just five times in four years with an average of 35.8 yards, a long of 40 and two punts inside the 20 in mop-up duty.
Smith punted two times for 77 yards (average of 38.5 yard, long of 39) and McCune punted one time for 40 yards during Clemson’s spring game on April 5.
Adding Reed to the special teams unit could hypothetically give Clemson another option at punter entering a season where the Tigers have massive expectations.
Swinney isn’t above making unexpected moves at kicker and punter — two years ago, when Gunn struggled, he convinced Jonathan Weitz to come out of retirement and put a New York City finance job on pause to kick one last year for the Tigers.
Although Reed’s punting experience is unclear, his MaxPreps page listed him as both a kicker and punter at Austin, Texas’ Vandegrift High School during the 2023 season.
Reed made a 48-yard field goal and an extra point that season and also kicked off three times for 120 yards (average of 40, long of 60).
But his punting skills were great enough that Clemson was considering adding him as a punter instead of a kicker, TigerIllustrated.com reported earlier this month.
The Tigers ultimately opted for the “kicker” designation, but that obviously doesn’t stop Reed from practicing as a punter as well.
This story was originally published June 30, 2025 at 10:11 AM.
