TALLAHASSEE — DJ Uiagalelei has played in 47 college games and thrown for 8,319 yards. He’s learned different offenses at Clemson and Oregon State. But in his final season of college football, he’s enjoying a new challenge at Florida State.
“I’m an older guy,” Uiagalelei said. “I’ve played in a little bit of games, but it’s my first days in the offense. There are guys that have been in the offense for over a year now, know this offense a lot more than me. I try to look at them, ask them questions.”
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This is the dynamic for one of college football’s top transfers, an experienced mentor as well as a new guy learning his third playbook. But it’s a relationship that works for him as well as a room full of freshmen quarterbacks, with Brock Glenn the only one who has played at FSU. There’s also true freshmen Luke Kromenhoek and Trever Jackson, an Orlando native, but Uiagalelei is viewed as the front runner to grab the starting job in his final year of college football while helping Glenn prepare for the future.
What Uiagalelei brings to the table was evident at Clemson and Oregon State, a 6-foot-4 frame that has zip on the ball to the far side of the field as well as can slingshot a deep pass. In the first few days of FSU’s practices, Uiagalelei showed he’s still building rhythm and timing in the passing game.
The relationships are building and he’s often accurate, but at other times a missed connection on high-percentage short passes pop up (it’s one of the question marks as his completion percentage was just 57.1 in 2023 at Oregon State). Deep passes look almost effortless, and he’s often thrown it on time to an FSU receiving corps that has added speed through the transfer portal and has developed talented, fast younger players, too.
Uiagalelei offered the most praise for Alabama transfer Malik Benson, who he said “has the right mindset to go out there and dominate.” But he also took time to compliment FSU veterans Ja’Khi Douglas, Darion Williamson and Deuce Spann as well as second-year standouts like Destyn Hill and Hykeem Williams.
There is a learning curve — as to be expected with a new offense, teammates and coaching staff. But FSU coaches have optimism based on what they’ve seen and how they’ve interacted with Uiagalelei.
“There’s a fine balance between a guy that’s played a lot of football and figuring out what he does really well with and at,” FSU quarterbacks coach Tony Tokarz said. “It’s a fun challenge for me as a coach of finding that balance of give and take with it. And then just from a schematic standpoint, he has seen a lot of football.
“Some of those conversations are fun. He challenges me as a coach, which I absolutely love. And at the same time my job is to continue to find ways to challenge him so he doesn’t get bored. It’s a good little game of ping-pong sometimes.”
Ping-pong is rapid. The same goes for FSU’s practices. Uiagalelei said he isn’t as used to the tempo of practice, although coach Mike Norvell said the pace picked up considerably after Day 1.
“At Oregon State we were a little slower, huddled every play,” Uiagalelei said. “The practice tempo is a lot faster. Coach Norvell brings that intensity, brings that energy every single time. It’s nice though to have a guy like coach Norvell who really cares about each player’s development on and off the field.”