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Writer's pictureAnthony Pagnotta

Heel Tough Blog: Tar Heels Add Clemson Transfer to Kicker Battle

Ken Ruinard- USA Today Sports

The second transfer window has been a quiet one for the Tar Heels in terms of incoming pieces. The team only had one public target, UAB transfer Jaylen Key, who announced that he was heading to Alabama over the weekend. Out of nowhere on Tuesday, though, the team landed their first transfer of the window in the form of an intra-conference kicker.


Clemson transfer kicker Liam Boyd announced via his social media that he was transferring to the Tar Heels after just one season with Tigers. Boyd, who entered the transfer portal on May 1st after spending the spring with Dabo Swinney’s squad competing for the starting kicking job. That battle with Robert Gunn III looked as if it would extend into the fall, especially after his 51-yard field goal in the spring game. Boyd instead opted to enter another race, this time in Chapel Hill.


Boyd came to Clemson as a walk-on last offseason after an interesting path to the college level. He had never played football prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but when his high school, Asheville High School, shut down soccer because of it, he decided to give kicking the football team. He had a nice season in 2020 with the Cougars before spending what Dabo Swinney called a ‘post-grad’ season with IMG Academy in 2021 fine-tuning his skills.


Boyd will immediately enter the battle for the Tar Heels starting kicking job that exited the spring with more questions than it entered with. Cincinnati transfer Ryan Coe was expected to come in and take hold of the job quickly but wasn’t able to do so and has left many fans concerned after the 33-yard extra point that he missed in the spring game. That has opened the door for Boyd to step in as the Tar Heels continue their search to find someone more consistent than Noah Burnette, who is battling for the job as well, was a year ago.

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