Spiers Family hoping for better outing against Hokies this time

Source: theclemsoninsider.com --- Thursday, September 28, 2017
The last time Clemson had a Spiers punting the football against Virginia Tech was 31 years ago when former Major League Baseball player Bill Spiers handled the choir for the Tigers. The year was 1986, and the Tigers opened the season at home against the Hokies. A few months earlier, Spiers, who was the starting shortstop for Bill Wilhelm’s Baseball program back then, walked on after then head coach Danny Ford took out an out ad in the student newspaper The Tiger looking for a new punter. Spiers beat out 26 other students who tried out for the team and followed it with a pretty good season as he averaged 39.2 yards per punt. Spiers will be on the sidelines as a student-volunteer coach on Saturday (8 p.m.) at Lane Stadium as his son, Will, and the rest of the second-ranked Tigers travel to Blacksburg, Va., to take on No. 12 Virginia Tech. The elder Spiers hopes his son has a better outing against the Hokies than he did in Death Valley on September 13, 1986. On his second punt of the game, Virginia Tech’s Victor Jones blocked the punt and Mitch Dove recovered the loose ball in the end zone for six points. It turned out to be the difference in the game as the Hokies beat Clemson for the first time since 1954 that afternoon, 20-14. “We talk about it and it was only his second punt ever, but we laugh about it now,” Will said. Will, who also walked on to the Clemson team, has gotten off to a better start than his father did. The younge ...

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