DJ Uiagalelei’s father "truly grateful" to Clemson |
Oregon State quarterback
DJ Uiagalelei made some headlines in the last week about how Clemson's offensive scheme didn't maximize his potential.
"I wanted to go somewhere where the scheme is going to fit me," Uiagalelei said. "I wanted to go somewhere where they're going to let me be who I am as a player, let me play free, and let me go out there and just cut it loose. Just somewhere where I can do what I wanted to do." Uiagalelei's desire to throw more deep passes in a pro-style offense also influenced his decision to transfer. "I wanted to be able to do play-action, throw a lot of deep balls, deep posts, scheme-wise, a little bit more complex than I was doing at Clemson, a little more NFL-style," he said. Most Clemson fans thought that DJ's comments were a little harsh, throwing his former team and coaching staff under the bus despite himself holding a pedestrian 59.8 career completion rate. That's a mediocre passing rate that will stall drives in any scheme or system. DJ's father 'Big Dave' was interviewed by SiriusXM recently and talked positively about his son's career at Clemson. "I’m truly grateful for what Clemson did for my son,” Dave Uiagalelei said. "There’s nothing bad or anything. I still have a lot of friends at Clemson, and I’m grateful for what they did for my kid." It was tough dealing with all the pressure that came with being the starting quarterback at Clemson. "The experience of him being Power-5, what he took from it, was really tough for him. Being out there alone by himself. What he was able to learn is how to handle the pressure. Yes, it was really tough, but that's what he got, the experiences of being in a Power-5 and playing in those big games. Hopefully, he will take some stuff from that and learn from it that he can bring here to Oregon State." 'DJU' completed 515-of-861 passes (59.8 percent) for 5,681 yards with 36 touchdowns and 17 interceptions in 1,913 snaps over 36 games (28 starts) for the Tigers from 2020-22.
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