Former Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagaleleiwill have to face his old team Clemson this upcoming season as he will be suiting up for the Florida State Seminoles. There was a time when players playing against their former teams was rare and a pretty dramatic event, but with the transfer portal allowing all players to transfer, there almost isn’t a football game anymore within a conference where there isn’t at least one player facing their former team.
But Clemson is different, and Uiagaleleiisn’t just any quarterback.
Dabo Sweeney and the Clemson Tigers have been one of the last teams to really push back against the transfer portal. In the last three seasons, only 31 players have entered the portal, and the Tigers have only brought in two. 31 sounds like a lot, but when you look at a team like in-state rival South Carolina, which has 58 transfers in the same time span, the difference is pretty stark.
Clemson and DJ Uiagalelei Had a Special Connection
There was a time when DJ Uiagalelei was not only th e face for Clemson football, but really the entire sport. For two years, Uilagalelei led the Clemson Tigers to a 9-3 and 10-2 regular seasons which for Clemson was not meeting the standard
When NIL was made legal, Uiagalelei was one of the first athletes to sign a major deal that was seen nationwide when he was featured \one of Dr Pepper’s Fansville comercials. This was a huge moment for college football, and in a way Clemson as he was clearly the face of the program.
There was a lot of drama of Uiagalelei leaving, with Sweeney and the quarterback both saying it couldn’t work with eligibility, but there were certainly ways it could work out. Ultimately, he ended up going to Oregon State and having a much quieter, but still very efficient going for 2,638 yards, 21 TD, and 7 Int with a 82.0 QBR rating, good for 12th in the nation on their way to an 8-4 record.
Meanwhile, Clemson had similiar results with an 8-4 regular season record.
No Hard Feelings
DJ Uiagalelei and Clemson’s departing was awntkward, but Uilagalelei doesn’t seem to be holding anything against Dabo Sweeney or the team. While doing an interview with Andy Staples with On3 Sports Uilagalelei had the following to say:
“[Playing Clemson], yeah, it’s going to be weird. It’s somewhere I played at, that was the first place I played at, that’s the place I graduated from. A lot of friends are still on the team. A lot of the coaches I still know. I still have a lot of love for Clemson…it was an amazing time I had at Clemson.
Granted, my journey ended up taking me somwhere else, but I loved my time at Clemson. Coach Sweeny is an amazing coach; all the guys there were great and every single staff memeber was great. I graduated, but my best friends still play there. My brothers are still on that team.”
There are many players who seem to have “coach talk” but watching the interview (below), it’s not hard to see that Uiagalelei is sincere about his feelings towards Clemson. This comes less than a year after he bashed the program saying the following:
“I didn’t want to do what I was doing at Clemson. I didn’t really like what we did there scheme-wise,” Uiagalelei said. “It was very basic. It didn’t help me out as a quarterback and play to my strengths. I wanted to go somewhere that would play to my strengths and go somewhere that would develop me for the NFL. Play-action, work under center, throwing the ball deep.”
Conclusion
It will be interested to see which Uiagalelei shows up when Clemson comes down to Tallahassee this upcoming sesaon. Will it be the player who claims to love his team and former coaches, or the player who went on to say that Clemson wasn’t doing what they should have to prepare him for the next level?
Florida State QB DJ Uiagalelei opened up on playing against Clemson in 2024:
“I still have a lot of love for Clemson…”
(via @Andy_Staples) https://t.co/lIQoAI8zc9 pic.twitter.com/c1ILeVrAzn
— On3 (@On3sports) February 15, 2024
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