Back in September, when Dabo Swinney held out hope that his passing game could be more dynamic, Clemson’s coach made a declaration that seems relevant given where things stand now that the regular season is over.
“You can’t win at the highest level if you can’t throw the ball. You just can’t,” Swinney said following the Tigers’ first two games. “You’ve got to have a great passing game.”
Ten games and a couple of losses later, Clemson is in jeopardy of missing out on an ACC championship for the second straight season, though that will be decided when the Tigers duke it out with North Carolina next weekend in Charlotte. Sure, Clemson’s defense has taken a step back under first-year coordinator Wesley Goodwin, particularly in the secondary. And D.J. Uiagalelei hasn’t gotten much help from a receiving corps that’s sorely lacking the impact players it’s had in the not-too-distant past.
But one would be hard-pressed to make a case for anything other than insufficient quarterback play when it comes to the primary reason why Clemson has already assured itself of missing out on another College Football Playoff appearance.
It was always going to be a tall if not impossible task to try to meet the unenviable bar of expectation that Trevor Lawrence (and Deshaun Watson before him) set during his time at Clemson before the Jacksonville Jaguars made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. But for most of the last two seasons, the Tigers have struggled to be average at the most important position on the field.
Uiagalelei dazzled in those two spot starts for Lawrence against Boston College and Notre Dame as a true freshman in 2020, but that seems like a lifetime ago. In his two seasons as Lawrence’s successor, Uiagalelei, a former five-star signee himself, has completed 58% of his passes with 31 touchdown passes and 17 interceptions. He threw more picks (10) than touchdowns (9) a season ago.
After an offseason of physical and mechanical tweaks, there was confidence from Uiagalelei and a public backing from Swinney in his belief that his strong-armed signal caller would show significant improvement this season. Early on, it looked like that assessment might be spot on.
Uiagalelei averaged 243 yards passing with 14 touchdowns and just two interceptions through the first half of the regular season. There was that 371-yard, five-touchdown performance in a double-overtime win at Wake Forest in late September that looked like a legitimate breakthrough moment.
But things started trending in the opposite direction a couple of weeks later against Syracuse. Uiagalelei threw two picks and lost a scoop-and-score fumble in a comeback victory he watched from the Tigers’ sideline after being benched in the second half. He’s committed at least one turnover in six of the last seven games, including a pick-six against Notre Dame that contributed to him being pulled again.
And despite the assistance of a running game that’s averaged nearly 214 yards over the last five games, Uiagalelei has surpassed the 200-yard passing mark just once in those games. A completion rate that sat right at 65% through the first seven games has dropped to 62.2% since.
Things bottomed out against South Carolina on Saturday. Uiagalelei set career-lows in completions (8) and completion rate (27.5%). He also threw his seventh interception of the season in a one-possession game midway through the fourth quarter, one that was sailed well beyond tight end Davis Allen’s reach and was easily picked by Carolina’s Marcellas Dial in the Gamecocks’ 31-30 win.
It was Clemson’s fifth loss in the last two seasons, the same amount the Tigers had in the previous four seasons combined amid their six-year CFP run. In those losses, Uiagalelei has completed exactly 50% of his passes for 707 yards with two more interceptions (6) than touchdown passes (4).
But Uiagalelei was never benched Saturday. In fact, Cade Klubnik, another blue-chip signee at the position, hasn’t gotten much opportunity this season outside of those limited reps against Syracuse and Notre Dame when Swinney said he thought the offense needed a spark.
Yet despite Uiagalelei struggling more than at any point this season against the Gamecocks, Swinney didn’t turn to the freshman. Klubnik wasn’t asked to do much through the air against Syracuse (Clemson ran for a season-high 293 yards that day) and threw an ill-advised interception of his own against Notre Dame deep in his own territory, but that was one of just two snaps Klubnik played in the Tigers’ first loss.
Klubnik has attempted just 22 passes in eight games to this point. He’s been Uiagalelei’s backup all season, but his lack of opportunity indicates Swinney and offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter aren’t yet at a place where they fully trust the youngster to log meaningful game reps.
So Klubnik’s potential remains unknown while Uiagalelei, a two-year starter who’s played in 35 games over the last three seasons, is at a point in his career where the sample size suggests he is what he is. Swinney said Sunday that Uiagalelei is still the Tigers’ starter. But when was asked after Saturday’s game about the possibility of the two splitting reps during practice this week, Swinney was short with his answers yet not exactly dismissive of the idea.
“We’ll see,” he said.
Clemson has another blue-chipper in line to join the quarterback room next season in Briarwood Christian (Alabama) School standout Christopher Vizzina, who’s expected to make his commitment official next month during the early signing period. For now, though, the focus is on how Swinney is going to handle the quarterbacks he’s already got from here on out.
It’s a situation the Tigers have to get figured out sooner rather than later. Their hopes of getting back to being one of college football’s elite depends on it.
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