DJ Uiagalelei met with the media on Monday, a little over a week removed from being benched in the second half of Clemson’s win over Syracuse on Oct. 22.
The Tigers’ starting quarterback gave his assessment of Cade Klubnik’s performance against the Orange. Of course, the highly touted true freshman replaced Uiagalelei on Clemson’s fourth possession of the third quarter and helped lead the fifth-ranked Tigers to a 27-21 win at Death Valley.
Klubnik went just 2-of-4 passing for 19 yards but sparked an offense that scored 17 points in four possessions after he took over for Uiagalelei, who struggled against the Orange while throwing two interceptions and losing a fumble that was returned 90 yards for a touchdown.
“I thought he did a great job,” Uiagalelei said of Klubnik on Monday. “I feel like coming in, in a situation like that, it’s tough I feel like for anybody – if it’s a senior, freshman, junior, sophomore – I feel like it’s tough coming in, in a situation like that. I thought he did a really good job.”
Uiagalelei, who has had a strong junior season aside from the slip-up against Syracuse, thought Klubnik did an excellent job of managing the game after he took the reigns of the offense.
“At quarterback, that’s the main thing that you’ve got to do is be able to manage a football game,” Uiagalelei said. “I think you see that in the NFL, in college – the best quarterbacks, they manage football games. That means they’ve got to throw, that means they have to run the ball, that they do a really good job managing the game and the game comes slow to them. But I thought he did a great job.”
After completing only 55.6 percent of his passes with more interceptions (10) than touchdown passes (9) in his first full year as Clemson’s starting quarterback a season ago, Uiagalelei has been much better in 2022, connecting on 64.1 percent of his passes for 1,803 yards and 17 touchdowns with just four interceptions across eight games.
As a true freshman two seasons ago, Uiagalelei filled in for Trevor Lawrence at Notre Dame when Lawrence was sidelined by COVID-19, and Uiagalelei had one of the more memorable performances of his career in the Tigers’ 47-40, double-overtime loss on Nov. 7, 2020.
That night, Uiagalelei completed 29-of-44 passes for a career-high 439 yards with two passing touchdowns while also adding a rushing touchdown. His 439 passing yards broke the school freshman record of 435, set by Deshaun Watson against North Carolina in 2014, and the 439 passing yards were also most ever thrown against the Irish by an opposing quarterback, breaking the mark of 425 held by USC’s Carson Palmer in 2002.
Fast forward to the present, and despite the quarterback change against Syracuse, Uiagalelei remains Clemson’s starter as head coach Dabo Swinney has made clear.
But asked if he feels Klubnik would be capable of going into an environment like the Tigers will play in at Notre Dame on Saturday night and ready to get the job done as a freshman if he had to, Uiagalelei doesn’t think there’s any doubt about it.
“A hundred percent, yeah. I think from a preparation standpoint and the way he approaches the game, his mindset, I think a hundred percent, yeah, I think he’d be able to handle the situation of playing college football,” Uiagalelei said. “At the end of the day, man, the situation of coming in in that thing, it’s all in the mindset and how you look at it. I feel like Cade has done a really good job of his mindset and just not making the game bigger than what it really is. At the end of the day, they’ve got 11 people on the field, we have 11 people on the field, and he’s got to go out there and play football – something you do your whole life.”
In limited action over five games this season, Klubnik has completed 9-of-19 passes for 85 yards and a touchdown.
Uiagalelei believes the more snaps Klubnik gets going forward, the more the game will continue to slow down for the former five-star prospect from Texas.
“I think the biggest thing with the game slowing down, it’s also reps. I feel like that’s the big thing, man,” said Uiagalelei, a former five-star prospect himself. “The more reps you get, the slower the game starts to slow down. I feel like the more comfortable you get with the more reps you get, so as Cade gets more and more reps, I feel like he’s going to continue to get more and more comfortable.
“But he’s done an amazing job so far, and I’m excited to see his growth as the season goes on and excited to see him continue to keep balling, man. It’s been great.”
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