2024-08-25 05:30:02
In the age of the college football transfer portal, a player’s career can feel like it spanned across several lifetimes, even if it has only been the customary four or five years.
Look no further than DJ Uiagalelei for an example of that trend.
The quarterback has had several different careers and narrative arcs neatly compressed into a five-year window.
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The No. 10 national recruit in the 2020 class — per 247Sports’ Composite rankings — appeared destined to become the next great Clemson quarterback, following in the footsteps of Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson. After things didn’t go quite as planned with the Tigers, he sought redemption at Oregon State, where he piloted a team that spent much of the 2023 season in the top 25.
Now, he’s back in the ACC, where he is hoping to help Florida State and Mike Norvell build on the resounding success of last season.
But how, exactly, did Uiagalelei wind up with the Seminoles? Here’s what you need to know about Uiagalelei’s move, why it happened and how he got to this point:
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After an uneven career at Clemson, Uiagalelei transferred to Oregon State ahead of the 2023 season. Once in the Pacific Northwest, he threw for a career-best 2,638 yards, as well as 21 touchdowns to seven interceptions. He also helped the Beavers go 8-5 while competing in a deep and talented Pac-12. It was just the second time since 2013 the program had finished with more than seven wins.
Following the season, however, Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith left to become the new head coach at Michigan State, prompting Uiagalelei to look elsewhere to finish his college career.
Immediately, he became one of the most sought-after players in the portal: a former five-star recruit with four years of major-college experience at winning programs. On Jan. 1, about one month after he entered the portal, Uiagalelei announced he was transferring to Florida State.
Though he was linked to several schools during his second go-around in the portal, most notably Louisville and Mississippi State, he has been adamant he only had one target in his search for a new home.
“Going through the process again, being in the transfer portal, my eyes were set on one school,” Uiagalelei told reporters last winter. “I wanted to be here at Florida State. And this is the spot I wanted to be in.”
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Uiagalelei’s three years at Clemson overlapped with Norvell’s first three years with the Seminoles, a time in which he got an up-close look at Florida State’s improvement and the way the program operated. In Norvell’s offense, he saw a fit for his skill set.
“Florida State’s offense plays to my strengths,” Uiagalelei told ESPN shortly after his commitment. “They push the ball down the field. They’re going to take deep shots. They have playmakers all around there. Coach Norvell does an unbelievable job scheming for opponents. He’s a guy that’s a smart football mind.”
The Seminoles also got an assist from their quarterback at the time, Jordan Travis, who had transferred into the program himself and blossomed, offering him a unique and persuasive perspective when talking with Uiagalelei. Specifically, a story about the way the coaches reacted to a three-game losing streak in 2022 resonated with the Oregon State transfer.
“They asked, ‘How are you doing as a person?’ They said, ‘I’m here for you, not just as a coach, but also as a friend,’” Uiagalelei said to ESPN. “That’s something that I value and had at Oregon State with Coach Smith and Coach (Brian) Lindgren. … Obviously they are about the right stuff.”
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Even beyond his lofty recruiting ranking, Uiagalelei appeared to be well-positioned for success at Clemson.
As a true freshman in 2020, he filled in admirably for Lawrence in several games, most memorably a road matchup against a top-five Notre Dame team in which he threw for 439 yards and had three total touchdowns. Once Lawrence was off to the NFL, Uiagalelei entered the 2021 campaign among the betting favorites to win the Heisman Trophy.
Reality didn’t meet those expectations.
He struggled as a sophomore in 2021, completing only 55.6% of his passes with nine touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He threw for more than 200 yards in only four of Clemson’s 13 games and never eclipsed 241 yards.
The 2022 season was more fruitful for Uiagalelei. His accuracy improved, with his completion percentage jumping to 61.9%, and he was a more productive, less mistake-prone passer, throwing for 22 touchdowns and seven interceptions. By the end of the season, however, and after completing 8 of 29 passes in the Tigers’ first loss to rival South Carolina in nearly a decade, Uiagalelei was benched in favor of Cade Klubnik, a five-star freshman.
Between losing his starting job and what he deemed to be an unimaginative Clemson offense that didn’t play to his strengths — he described the Tigers’ scheme as “very basic” to The Athletic — Uiagalelei entered the transfer portal after the 2022 season. The southern California native ended up at Oregon State to play for Smith, who is regarded as one of the top offensive minds in the sport.
“I talked to my offensive coordinator (Brandon Streeter, who was fired after the season), ‘We’ve gotta fix some stuff; like we have to do something that fits me differently,’” Uiagalelei told The Athletic in April 2023. “I didn’t want to run as much. I got tired of running the ball. Sophomore year, I was hurt, tore my PCL, had a broken finger. But I wanted to stay there and stick it out. But my junior year, towards the end, I knew, ‘I want to get out of here. Yeah, I need to leave and get a fresh start.’”
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Uiagalelei has had a bit of an up-and-down college career, ranging from his brilliance as a freshman to his horrific sophomore campaign in which he showed few, if any, signs of his immense promise.
Over the past two seasons, he has stabilized, playing much more effectively while still not quite reaching the lofty heights so many expected of him early in his career. At Florida State, he’ll look to cap off his college career on an emphatic note.
Here’s a look at Uiagalelei’s year-by-year production:
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