Clemson Football: Should Tigers stick with Robert Gunn?

Clemson Football delivered their most consistent game of the 2023 season thus far with their 48-14 victory over Florida Atlantic Saturday night.

After a game, I review the things that I saw that I think were good, but I also find what I think was bad. Often I feel guilty identifying the bad parts because when the Tigers have an overall good night, sometimes one bad thing stands out more than usual and seems much worse than it is.

There were a couple of things people mentioned from Saturday that they didn’t like. A few people have commented that they were disappointed the defense allowed two touchdowns after the reserves entered the game. A few didn’t like the look of the confrontation between CJ Spiller and Will Shipley.

Those were overall small things compared to the main concern brought up by most people: the continued concerns about the kicking game.

Robert Gunn is the starting field goal kicker and he is off to a rough start. Through three games Gunn is 1 for 4 on field goal attempts and 14 of 15 on extra points. He had two field goals blocked against Duke. He bounced an extra point off the goalposts against FAU and then hooked a short field goal badly.

He hasn’t performed well in the first quarter of this season, but that doesn’t mean things can’t improve.

First, let’s keep in mind that it isn’t unusual at all for kickers to be shaky when they first get the starting job. We tend to remember BT Potter fondly because he was a relatively reliable kicker, but even he started rough. As a redshirt freshman in 2019, he was only 13 for 21 on field goal attempts.

Potter never missed fewer than five field goals in any season he played. He missed an attempt in his final game against Tennessee in the Orange Bowl. Potter finished his career as a 75% kicker.

In other words, Potter missed one out of every four kicks he attempted.

I’m not saying Potter wasn’t a good kicker. He was good. He also missed sometimes.

One for four on field goal attempts isn’t good, and some are calling for Dabo Swinney to give one of the other specialists an opportunity. When he addressed the press Sunday, Swinney suggested he was giving that option some consideration.

Clemson Football should give Gunn a chance to shake off the yips

I’m worried about Gunn’s performance thus far, but I’m not sure I would be quite ready to bench him as the field goal kicker quite yet. He easily has the best strength of any of the placekickers, a trait he shares with Potter. The best-case scenario for Clemson is for Gunn to work out the wrinkles that have impeded him. I think it is worth it for Clemson to give Gunn another chance and stick with him. He could work through these struggles.

Fortunately, it sounds like Swinney is keeping this in mind right now:

"“Hopefully, Robert will get this thing turned around and get out of this little funk he is in. As I have said many times, he is as talented of a guy as I have ever been around, but sometimes guys can get in a little bit of a bad spot mentally or in a slump.”"

If Gunn continues to struggle, then I don’t think it would be a bad idea to give Aidan Swanson or Quinn Castner a shot, but I’m glad Swinney wants to give Gunn a chance to see if this is just a case of the yips.