Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has so much to improve on after a troubling 2025 season. He needs all hands on deck, especially those of kicker Nolan Hauser’s. However, he was far from impressive in the Tigers’ first spring scrimmage this year. Swinney didn’t hesitate to sound off on the kicker.

“He didn’t show up today,” Swinney told the press after the scrimmage. “He’s already laying on the beach somewhere for spring break. He missed three layups, so I was disappointed in that. He was terrible today, he wasn’t ready. We’re counting on him, and he’s not a freshman. I don’t think he was mentally where he needed to be today. I don’t know where he was at, but he wasn’t at Clemson football practice today.”

Dabo Swinney‘s comments are an extremely bad look for Hauser, who is a star on the special teams. The kicker stunned the crowds in the ACC title game that year with a 56-yard field goal, that too with only three seconds left on the clock. That season, he was a true freshman and landed 75% of his field goal attempts. Five of his misses were against blocks, and Swinney deemed only one was Hauser’s responsibility. Hauser improved in 2025 with an 81% success rate, but he also seemed to have lost some juice.

The wound from the 24-21 loss to Georgia Tech is still fresh in Clemson’s fans’ memories. The numbers favored the Clemson football all night. 381 yards of offense, 6.2 yards per play, and a 64% third-down clip against the Yellow Jackets football. However, Hauser’s missed field goal attempt in the first half kept the Tigers short of the three points required to tie the score with GT. Hauser also missed a field goal against LSU, after which the latter tied the score at 10 with a touchdown in the second half. That one would have gone for 62 yards.

In all, Hauser missed two field goals in the 40-yard range, one from the 40-49 yard mark, and one attempt that covered 50 yards and beyond during the 2025 season. However, Swinney was still confident about his kicker during the season. He said that he’d even let Hauser kick a 60 yarder if he found his “mojo” back. But looking at the head coach’s comments on him after scrimmage, it is not boding well for Nolan Hauser.

Interestingly, this is not the first time Swinney has complained about the kicker because of his first scrimmage showing.

Nolan Hauser has disappointed Dabo Swinney in practice earlier

Last year, too, the kicker came up with a weak performance, which included one “terrible” kick. Swinney also stressed that “[last] year’s kicks don’t carry over.” However, Hauser improved in the next scrimmage, earning quite the high praise from Swinney.

“He had a great day, make sure you print that,” the head coach told the press.

Swinney got to see Hauser operating in good form since then, but that might have been struck off one of the chances he would get to redeem himself. Now that he has failed for the second straight year, that’s another one strike on his chart. He might only have a few remaining, based on Swinney’s extremely harsh critique of the kicker.

Clemson is preparing for a comeback after the team finished at a poor 7-6 last year. Swinney told the press that the offense looked poor in the latest scrimmage, especially because of injuries. And, Clemson only has a few starters this season (five on offense and three on defense). In such a situation, it is crucial that Nolan Hauser finds his spark. It’s been some time since he’s lived up to his reputation of being a five-star recruit from high school. 2026 gives him yet another opportunity to do that.