Imagine sitting at home, planning to move to a new city in two weeks, then getting a text from Dabo Swinney. That's what happened to Jonathan Weitz.
The Clemson football coach reached out to the former kicker after hearing word he was still enrolled in school. While living in Charleston, Weitz was taking online classes through the school to earn his master's degree. He had recently accepted a job offer in New York City when Swinney contacted him, asking if he had was still in school. When Weitz replied that he was, Swinney asked him to rejoin the team.
Weitz wound up starting his first game back against No. 4 Florida State in September, and his outing was met with mixed results. He made an early field goal to give Clemson the 3-0 lead, but missed a go-ahead field goal from 29 yards out with 1:45 left. Clemson wound up losing 31-24.
Weitz replaced redshirt sophomore Robert Gunn III, who's struggled in his three games this season. He had two field-goal attempts blocked against Duke and missed a field goal and an extra point against Florida Atlantic.
To help with Clemson's kicking struggles, Swinney decided to "bring a guy off the street."
The older Dabo gets the more frequently his words/mannerisms sound like Steve Spurrier. Can totally see Spurrier rattling on in a fashion similar to this as Dabo explained the decision to not just try out Jonathan Weitz, but make him the starting kicker: pic.twitter.com/kYRvIhq7aE
— Larry Williams (@LarryWilliamsTI) September 19, 2023
Why did Dabo Swinney bring back Jonathan Weitz?
It's no secret that the Tigers were struggling with their field goals. B.T. Potter even noticed it.
Potter is just who Clemson was needing to replace. He was the team's kicker for four seasons and made all but one extra point. He's the Tigers' all-time leader in field goals.
A teammate with Weitz, Potter said they had joked about the possibility of Weitz getting called back to the team this year after another kicker entered the transfer portal in May. After watching Clemson's first three games, the possibility became even more likely.
“I did not say anything to Jon. I did not want to bring it up to him," Potter said to The Clemson Insider. "But I talked to some of the other guys I used to play with, and I said, ‘We have to keep an eye on it. Something might happen.’”
When other kickers at practice failed to rise to the opportunity to become starters, Swinney went to Weitz for his maturity despite being a backup during his four seasons at Clemson.
“It’s either going to be a great story, or it’s going to be terrible. It’s not going to be anything in between," Swinney said on this weekend's game against Florida State.Because of his low-trajectory kicks, Gunn will be used for longer field goal attempts while Weitz will come in for the close "layups."
Who is Jonathan Weitz?
Weitz is a former walk-on kicker for Clemson football, competing from 2019-2022. He's pursuing an online master's degree in data science and analytics and expects to graduate in December. Because of the pandemic, he had an extra year of eligibility available.
He hadn't even kicked a football since April, but Swinney called him anyway. So Weitz drove to Clemson for tryouts and nailed seven of eight attempts from inside the 45-yard line. He has been the kicker since, making 3 of 6 field goals and all nine extra points entering this weekend's game against Miami.
