Clemson’s Dabo Swinney jokes K Greg Huegel has ‘Publix’ status

Clemson kicker Greg Huegel has an interesting nickname.

Huegel, a walk-on, won the right to be Clemson’s kicker for the first three games of the season while starting kicker Ammon Lakip was suspended. Before the season began, coach Dabo Swinney joked he found Heugel kicking a can in the parking lot of a Bi-Lo, a grocery store headquartered in South Carolina.

“I honestly don’t know where that came from, and for my first nickname at Clemson, I didn’t know how I felt about it,” Huegel told GreenvilleOnline.com last week. “But I guess one nickname is better than nothing.”

During Clemson’s 20-17 win at Louisville on Thursday night, Heugel kicked two field goals, one from 27 yards out and a 36-yard field goal. His success elicited compliments from Swinney, who joked about going from the Bi-Lo to a better grocery store. Huegel said he had to make sure throughout summer practice that Swinney knew his name.

“Ol’ Greg Huegel, made two big kicks,” Swinney said. “This kid, I told him, he’s getting promoted to Publix. He’s our grocery store kicker and he made two big kicks. You know that ain’t easy. I don’t think anybody wants to come out of the stands and walk out in front of all those people and walk out there and kick in pressure situations. My hat’s off to that young man and the mental toughness he displayed.”

Lakip was suspended for at least three games before the season started because of an offseason arrest for DUI and cocaine possession. Through the first three games of the year, Huegel is 4-5 on field goals and 13-13 on extra points. So far, Lakip’s suspension hasn’t impacted the team too much and he could find his job a bit harder to win back.

And while Clemson didn’t look incredibly impressive in grinding out a conference road win Thursday night, Swinney was certainly happy after the game.