Clemson coach Dabo Swinney is well aware of the narrative about his quarterback. With D.J. Uiagalelei having thrown 14 interceptions in 21 career starts, he also understands why it exists.
“That’s his story,” Swinney said this week.
But Swinney has already made one prediction about his quarterback that has largely come to fruition, and he’s betting on Uiagalelei again.
“He certainly didn’t have a good day (against Syracuse), but he’s played really well,” Swinney said. “There’s no way we’re 8-0 without him. He’s made huge plays with his legs and huge plays with his arm. He’s been a great leader, and he’ll respond.”
Swinney is once again coming to Uiagalelei’s defense after an outing that more closely resembled one from last season than this one for Clemson’s quarterback. Uiagalelei was benched midway through the third quarter of the Tigers’ win over Syracuse last week after committing three turnovers.
It was an outlier this season for Uiagalelei, who had only been responsible for three turnovers through Clemson’s first seven games. Swinney backed Uiagalelei after the game, immediately shooting down any notion of a quarterback competition between Uiagalelei and true freshman Cade Klubnik, who played the final 21 minutes and change of Clemson’s comeback win over the Orange. It’s a position Swinney similarly found himself throughout the offseason, including in July during the ACC’s annual preseason kickoff media event in Charlotte.
Swinney said then that he believed Uiagalelei was going to be much improved from a forgettable sophomore season, one in which the former five-star signee threw more interceptions (10) than touchdown passes (9). For the most part, he has been.
Uiagalelei has still accounted for more than three times as many total touchdowns (21) as turnovers (6) so far this season. His completion rate (63.8) is up eight percentage points from what it was last season.
Saturday’s game was an outlier. At least that’s Swinney’s belief. Uiagalelei’s two interceptions matched his total for the season coming into the game, and his red-zone fumble in the first half turned into a scoop and score.
After the way things went for Uiagalelei and the rest of the offense a season ago, Clemson’s coaches and players said the Tigers lost confidence on that side of the ball. First-year offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter, who’s been Uiagalelei’s position coach for the last three seasons, said a focus for him during the bye week will be to make sure Uiagalelei doesn’t let one bad performance take away the cache he’s built for himself in that department throughout the course of this season.
“Playing quarterback, it’s 80 to 90% mental. It really is,” Streeter said. “So continuing to build him up and look at what he’s accomplished already as a starting quarterback. (Our winning streak) is at 14 in a row now. We’ve got the longest streak in the country, and he’s been our starting quarterback every single game the last 14 games. So just continue to build his confidence. He’s got a lot of it, but just making sure that it doesn’t waver at all.”
Uiagalelei will get his chance at further redemption when Clemson returns to action Nov. 5 at Notre Dame.
“He’s earned that, and I’ll go to battle with that guy any day,” Swinney said. “Now he’s obviously got to clean it up a little bit from the things he did (Saturday), and he will.”
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