Two years ago, Clinton Durst was a high-school soccer player with professional dreams and exactly zero football experience.

Last fall, he was an Auburn freshman with a dream, watching the Tigers from the Jordan-Hare Stadium stands and wondering if he could make the team in spring practice.

By Saturday, he could be Auburn’s No. 1 punter.

It’s safe to say Durst has come a long way.

And he’s as surprised as anyone.

“I played soccer, that was my main passion, but … I love football,” he said. “And I figured, ‘Hey, if I can kick a soccer ball, I can kick a football.’”

Most college punters will tell you it’s not that simple: No one just picks up a football as a 20-year-old college freshman and starts
booming deep spirals with top-notch hang time.

No one, that is, except for Durst.

He decided to walk on last year, but was told to wait until spring practice. That was fine with Durst: It gave him time to teach himself how to punt, from scratch.

Durst wasn’t totally unfamiliar with football — his father, Justin, played football in high school and passed on his love for the game — but he says he’d never tried to kick one.

So he bought a ball — “from K-Mart,” he says — and headed out to Auburn’s intramural fields. His first punt was a high, booming spiral. His second kick didn’t spiral, but still had plenty of distance. So did the next one. And the next.

“I’m confident, but not overconfident, you know what I mean?” he said. “I was like, ‘I think I can do this. I’m going to give it a shot and see what happens.’”

So far, so good. Durst made his mark during spring practice. He quickly began pushing returning starter Ryan Shoemaker for the starting job and was named the special teams MVP of the A-Day game, averaging 48.3 yards on three punts.

And he hasn’t missed a beat since the start of preseason practice. He’s spent the past two weeks as the No. 1 punter — not bad, considering Shoemaker was a second-team All-Southeastern Conference punter last season, while Durst was just an ambitious tailgater.

The job isn’t Durst’s yet. Head coach Tommy Tuberville says he might wait until gameday to name a starter, and Shoemaker is recovering from a hamstring injury that caused him to miss a few days of practice.

“If it’s Shoe, he deserves it,” Durst said. “He’s a great punter.

“If it’s me — I don’t think I deserve it, but I’m going to do everything I know how to do.”

That includes tackling. Durst isn’t afraid of physical play — he was a sweeper on his high school soccer team because, he says “I loved to go in there and hit people” — but he knows his limits.

“If I have to make a hit out here, I’m more than likely going to kill myself doing it,” the 6-foot-2, 190-pounder joked. “Look at me — I’m not a big guy.

“I’m not scared: I know I’ll get killed, but I’ll do it.”

He is also honest enough to admit he’s a little nervous. If he is named the Tigers’ starting punter, he’ll have butterflies when he steps out for his first career punt. But he’s optimistic.

“I’m nervous,” he said. “I’m not going to lie. I think I’ll be all right. We’ll see what happens.”

And if he plays well enough, who knows? Maybe he could start a trend.

“I tell you what, they need to start recruiting more soccer players, to be honest with you,” Durst said with a smile. “I know a few guys that have some legs back home.”

Attention, college punters: Look out.

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