Good read on former Tiger kickers.

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Apr 30, 2025, 12:31 PM [ in reply to thanks but not a current subscriber ]

Former Clemson Kickers Team Up To Tackle Capital And Construction
Kathy Laughlin
Marketplace Greenville

Transitioning from the football field to careers in private capital funding and construction, Christian Groomes and Greg Huegel carry the life lessons, values, and even the Swinney-isms instilled in them at Clemson University.

“Everything you need for great success as athletes ties directly into any industry, whether it is teamwork, having the trust of others, being reliable, or waking up at the crack of dawn to get the job done,” Huegel says.

Huegel and Groomes were place kickers for Coach Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers.

They’ve recently founded PK Capital and PK Legacy Builders – named for their roles on the field.

“PK stands for place kickers,” Huegel explains. “We have orange in the logos for our companies. It’s a cliché, but we bleed orange. That's what's gotten us here.”

Huegel played with the Tigers from 2015 to 2018, while Groomes played from 2014 to 2017. Both were walk-ons and contributed to the Tigers’ national championship victory in 2016. Additionally, Huegel was part of the championship team in 2018.

“It’s been a heck of a journey. It's paying dividends and has gotten us into rooms and conversations that we never could have imagined,” Huegel says.

Plans for the lending company and the construction company were hatched in college.

“Best friends, late nights, on the couch, throwing ideas around. We knew that we would eventually work together. We just didn't know how, what, when. All of the pieces of the puzzle are coming together now,” Groomes says.

At PK Capital, Groomes and Huegel will put together funding packages to make loans to investors for residential projects throughout the country.

PK Legacy Builders will function separately as the builder or general contractor of luxury condominiums and townhouses, as well as high-end remodeling for a single room or from the ground up, Huegel says.

During their years at Clemson, Swinney taught players more than football, Groomes says. The Tigers are ranked among the top five NCAA football programs in “academic progress,” according to “College Football News.”

“Coach Swinney cares about his players. He cares about his players getting jobs. He cares about his players’ lives after football,” says Groomes, who grew up in Central.

Groomes and Huegel were part of the inaugural P.A.W. Journey, an initiative for Clemson Football scholar-athletes that supports personal growth, life skills and professional development. P.A.W. stands for “Passionate About Winning.”

“We joked that we would have Swinney meetings. His jokes and sayings are crazy,” Groomes says.

“Like … ‘How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.’ We thought they were jokes as 18 year olds. Now that we’re more mature, we’ve relied on a lot of that,” he says.

“We find ourselves saying some of those same Swinney-isms,” Huegel concurs. “But words only take you so far. At some point, you’ve got to execute and stand by your actions.”

Huegel tore his ACL, MCL and PCL during his fourth year at Clemson.

“It was a very traumatic injury. The way he handled the therapy, the surgeries, the long recovery … I think a lot of it was a God wink,” says Groomes, who often drove Huegel to and from the stadium. “I knew we would do something together. He knew, too.”

After graduation, Huegel began working in commercial construction.

“I grew up doing residential construction. That's where my passion is. I got into commercial work because I felt that the projects were more complex. It was more challenging, required me to learn faster,” says Huegel, who went to high school in Columbia.

In 2018, Groomes joined a private lending firm in Greenville for real estate investors, and during his six years there, he says he closed more than $700 million in loans. “I loved every second of it,” he says.

“Scotsman Guide,” a lending industry magazine, named Groomes one of the Top 20 Originators nationwide by dollar volume in 2023. He ranked No. 14 in the Top Emerging Star category in 2022 and vaulted up to No. 3 the following year.

“It seems like a large industry, especially with it being nationwide. In reality, it is a small group. Everybody knows each other,” Huegel says.

“Christian is one of the big names. It’s about name recognition, and it's relationship-based. Once you're in, you become one of the go-to people in the industry,” he says.

When Huegel began work on a project in Greenville, he called Groomes.

“I didn’t know how long I’d be in Greenville, but I needed a place to stay,” Huegel says. “That’s where those late-night conversations picked right back up.”

About a year into the COVID pandemic, Huegel says he was exhausted from 70- to 90-hour weeks. In mid-2021, he joined Groomes in the private lending industry.

Huegel says it was a step toward “building something special.”

Groomes says he and Huegel decided to strike out on their own last fall with PK Capital and PK Legacy Builders.

PK Capital will provide private funding for investors who want to buy distressed property to rehab or want to build a custom home, community of homes or portfolio of rental houses, Groomes says.

PK Legacy Builders employs an in-house structural engineer, a project manager and a lead superintendent who works with crews and subcontractors on-site.

“Many residential construction companies don't have in-house engineers,” Huegel says. “We're bringing commercial expertise and a level of class and sophistication to the residential side of construction in the Upstate.”

Groomes says he and Huegel want to build a good reputation for both companies.

“We are here to do what we say we're going to do, whether it's lending or construction,” he says. “We want to be a part of the generation that changes the stigma around this.”

Huegel agrees. “Perfection may not be possible, but that is the goal.”

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Good read on former Tiger kickers.

thanks but not a current subscriber

Me either, but it worked for me. Maybe there was a limit, I'm not sure.***

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I used "Reader View" and was able to read it.***

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