What to expect from Clemson QB DJ Uiagalelei today? His high school weighs in
Clemson freshman quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei, from Inland Emprie, California, will make his first career start Saturday against Boston College after Trevor Lawrence tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week.
What can you expect from Uiagalelei (pronounced “oo-ee-AHN-gah-leh-lay.”)? The State spoke with his high school coach — St. John Bosco’s Jason Negro — for a breakdown. Here’s the Q&A:
What makes you confident that D.J. Uiagalelei is ready for this opportunity?
One thing that we’d always stressed to D.J. is like, ‘Look, man, you have to be prepared, because at any moment you could possibly be thrust into the position.’ He’s a very mature kid. The situation is not too big for him. And he’s going to be able to step in and lead the team to a win. I think that’s the ultimate thing that you’re looking for in your backup quarterback.
Our quarterbacks are collegiate ready. We run basically a collegiate offense. In the spring of 2019 we actually spent three days at Clemson in the quarterback room. I got to sit in there and watch Trevor work for three days with (Tony) Elliott, (Jeff) Scott, (Brandon) Streeter. Being able to witness and see how they run their organization, what we do offensively here at Bosco is very much similar in alignment with what they’re doing at Clemson in terms of protection, of a quarterback’s job and his responsibility to set the protection, read coverages and deliver the football at the right time.
His maturity obviously comes out right away. He doesn’t look like a true freshman. He steps onto the field, the maturity that he has, the confidence that he plays at, the mannerisms and the body language that I see, just shows a lot of confidence, because that’s the way he played here. To watch him walk out onto that field and the mannerisms and how confident he was, let me know that, ‘OK, he’s ready for this situation. It’s not too big for him.’
How do you feel like Uiagalelei has played in limited action at Clemson so far?
It’s a little bit hard to evaluate, because he’s only thrown the ball 19 times. And many of those throws have been out to the perimeter and the sideline in a bubble game, because they were blowing people out. They’re not going to let him unleash it yet, which we’re going to see on Saturday. When the Tiger nation gets a glimpse of him and sees actually how powerful he is in delivering and driving the ball down the field, it is going to be something that’s very, very special to watch.
Trevor won a national title as a true freshman. I’m not saying that he’s going to have that same level of success. However, how physical and how powerful D.J. can deliver a football down the field, and any throw down the field he can make, people are really going to be able to see that.
What kind of game plan would be best for Uiagalelei’s strengths?
His whole arsenal that he has with Trevor, D.J. can make every one of those throws that Trevor can make. And people are going to see that and say, ‘Wow, this guy doesn’t have the experience. He doesn’t have the success that Trevor has had yet. But in terms of a skill set he’s going to be able to make every throw that Trevor can make.’
Mentally he has the capacity to take in the entire offense. They should not have to abbreviate the playbook to put him in a position to where he can be successful. Obviously his nerves are going to be there and he’s going to be probably hyped up, so maybe easing him into the game initially would be something that I would expect out of them. But in terms of having to hold things back or having to change or alter their playbook because they are operating with a backup, without question they’re not going to have to worry about that at all.
How excited is the St. John Bosco football program to watch him against BC?
There were a lot of people that really questioned the decision that he was making. Like, ‘Why would you go to Clemson? You’re not going to start as a freshman. You’re gonna go sit behind Trevor Lawrence.’ You think he’s going to go leave after his third year, but there’s no guarantee on that, because you see what Travis (Etienne) did. So in terms of that, there were a lot of questions of why would you go to Clemson? Well this is the reason you go to Clemson.
For a lot of people it’s like, ‘Man, this is really cool that he’s going to get an opportunity to go and play, even though he chose to go to the top-ranked team in the country, which is pretty unique.’
This story was originally published October 31, 2020 at 10:23 AM.
