Just two years ago it feels as if the Clemson Tigers were on top of the College Football world. They had won 2 of the first six College Football Playoffs in its infancy years, as well as appearing in 4 of them. They were led by who many deemed a generational talent at quarterback, in Trevor Lawrence and he had quite the supporting class. Trevor had the likes of Amari Rodgers, Tee Higgins, Travis Etienne, Hunter Renfrow and Justyn Ross on offense in his Freshman year in 2018, the year in which they were last champions.
In 2020, what would end up being Trevor Lawrence’s last year enrolled at Clemson, the Tigers had yet another big-time recruit land at Clemson and another that played QB. D.J. Uiagalelei enrolled at Clemson and seemed to form what would become a dynasty at the QB position for the school. Uiagalelei was a consensus 5- star, who ranked as the number 10 player in the nation, number 3 prospect in California, and number 1 pro-style QB. He was compared to Jamarcus Russell by 247 and was the third QB in what seemed to be a QB dynasty forming at Clemson (others being Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence).
Uiagalelei would see his first action in his true freshman season, stepping in for a Covid-19-stricken Trevor Lawrence. His first start would come against Boston College and he lived up to the hype he was given coming out of high school. Now if you have kept up with Uiagalelei, you would know he has since fallen off as a prospect. So what happened? Was he an ok QB surrounded with exceptional talent? Did Clemson lose coaches that made him appear better than he actually is? Did something change in his mechanics? That’s what we’re here to find out today. I will be going back and looking at his games from 2019 (where he played a significant amount of time) in Boston College, and Notre Dame and comparing them to where he is at now.
So, let’s set the stage, the year is 2020, and Uiagalelei is a true freshman at Clemson, the supporting cast on offense consists of Travis Etienne, Justyn Ross, Amari Rodgers, Cornell Powell, and Joseph Ngata. However, Ross is out for the year due to injury; so that really leaves Uiagalelei with Rodgers, Etienne, Powell and E.J. Williams. Now, let’s dive into Uiagalelei vs Boston College.
In his first start against Boston College, Uiagalelei finished 30-41 with 342 yards passing and 2 touchdowns. On the ground, he added 6 attempts for 25 yards and 1 touchdown. His mechanics were sharp, and he displayed good weight transfer from his back leg. He squared up his shoulders before making throws on the run. He had the ability to feel where pressure was going to come from pre-snap and make sure he got the ball out to an open receiver before taking a hit. He was on time with his throws, optimizing the receivers catching window. He was confident, not afraid to throw into a tight window and trusted his arm strength. You saw him manipulate defenders with his eyes to open throwing windows. His escapability wasn’t the greatest and his footwork appeared rushed when throwing to the left side, especially on out routes. To sum it up, he was quite sharp, especially for a freshman.
In his second start, we saw a lot of similar things to his first start. He trusted his arm strength, and was quite good when throwing over the middle of the field, footwork still appeared rushed throwing to the left, again specifically on out routes. In order to get him feeling more comfortable throwing to the left-hand side, there was a significant increase in behind the line of scrimmage throws (to the left). It went from 3 in the first game (two were completed) to 8 in the second game (six were completed). Uiagalelei finished his second start going 29-44 with 439 yards passing, 2 touchdowns, 0 interceptions and he added 2 yards rushing for 1 touchdown on 13 attempts on the ground.
So in his first season, the main takeaways are:
1) He threw with confidence and trusted his arm, often releasing the ball as the receivers got in and out of their breaks.
2) He showed the ability to manipulate defenders with his eyes
3) There was a significant drop-off in his accuracy when throwing to the left, as opposed to the middle of the field or right side of the field.
Gotta stop asking Uiagalelei to throw outside of the numbers. His footwork when working to his left especially is rough. Asking for a pick-six on an errant out-breaker.
— Benjamin Solak (@BenjaminSolak) October 31, 2020
4) Uiagalelei is exceptional when throwing over the middle of the field.
Now, looking at season 2 let’s see what changed. Roster changes saw Tee Higgins leave for the NFL as well as two offensive linemen in John Simpson and Treymane Ancrhum Jr. Tony Elliott remained as offensive coordinator, but gave up tight ends coaching duties. Brandon Streeter remained the passing game coordinator and QBs coach. Robbie Caldwell remained the offensive line coach, and Tyler Grisham remained the receivers coach. Justyn Ross was returning to the field healthy, so let’s set the stage for season 2 for DJ Uiagalelei. His supporting cast now consists of a healthy Justyn Ross, Joseph Ngata, EJ Williams, Frank Ladson Jr., and freshman running back Will Shipley.
In the first game against Georgia, the offensive line inexperience showed as Uiagalelei was sacked or pressured 4 times alone on the first drive of the game (18 for the game total). He didn’t seem to see the field as well, we saw receivers visibly confused as to why he wasn’t looking their way on certain play concepts. He continued to trust his arm and it led to some interceptable throws against a stout Georgia defense. Clemson continued to manufacture touches for him to get comfortable throwing left. He was 7/11 with 6 of the throws going no further than 2 yards past the line of scrimmage. By my personal charting Dj threw twice as many interceptable balls against Georgia, as he did in his two starts the previous year. His middle-of-the-field accuracy took quite a dive, but these both can be contributed to the defense he was facing, so let’s look at another opponent.
In the second game I watched of 2020, DJ had similar struggles as to what he experienced against Georgia. The offensive line looked much improved against NC State compared to the Georgia front, a number of the sacks came from DJ holding onto the ball too long. DJ still threw 2 interceptable passes by my personal charting. We actually saw him push the ball downfield on the left hand since, although his accuracy did not change much. His delivery appeared to be a bit slower on out routes, where the ball would be reaching the receiver a couple of steps out of their break rather than it being almost instantaneous. However, what really stood out, was DJ is no longer manipulating defenders with his eyes. This is a hard thing for QBs to pick up and master, which is why seeing him do it as a freshman was so impressive, so what happened from his freshman year to his sophomore year? Is his offensive line bad enough, to where he can’t trust that he has the time to do this? I think that very well could be partially to blame.
We do not have the ability to go into a player’s head and see what mental situations are factoring into their game, so could it be he lacked confidence? Sure. Could it be that his parent’s divorce affected his on-field play? Absolutely. All I’m able to go off of is film, so that’s exactly what I did. What I believe happened to Uiagalelei is he is not developing. He has always been a capable passer, when passing in the middle of the field, and even to the right side, he has shown flashes. It is outside the hashes when his accuracy and decision-making drop off (and specifically on throws to the left). Clemson tried to manufacture a lot of touches near or behind the line of scrimmage to the left to get him comfortable, it just has never worked. When he is asked to go down the field on the left side his footwork often seems rushed leading to inaccurate throws. Could it just be that Uiagalelei was just a product of circumstance and stepped into a team that had great weapons and a good offensive line in 2019? That very well could be the case, although he is off to a good start in 2022 throwing for over 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns to 1 interception in 4 games. Could it be the weight? He did drop from a listed 250 pounds to 235 pounds per the school’s website this season.
I asked the resident Clemson fan at Blue Chip in Jared Feinberg his thoughts on Uiagalelei and he had this to say “ I don’t think he was confident. He didn’t seem uncomfortable and poised. He could never get into a rhythm and he was just bad all season. Played overweight, I believe (250-260). A public divorce between his parents was also a big distraction for DJ. There was also a combination of inexperience at OL and WR that you could point to as something that affected his play. Overall, he wasn’t good last season, plain and simple along, with most of the offense. Looks like a different player so far this season.”
It is quite apparent that Uiagalelei has the size and arm talent that evaluators drool over, it’s the lack of consistency that has plagued him so far. Hopefully, he can continue to build on a strong start to this year’s campaign and rebound some of his draft stock.