With Saturday’s rivalry game just around the corner, quarterbacks DJ Uiagalelei and Spencer Rattler will face off for the first time in their college careers when the annual Clemson-Carolina game returns to Memorial Stadium for the first time since 2018.
“I’ve met Spencer a couple of times, I know Spencer real well,” Uiagalelei said. “He’s a great guy. I met him my junior year in high school when he was a senior. I’ve been to Oklahoma when he was at Oklahoma. I met him there and hung out with him, he’s real good dude. I like Spencer a lot.”
Though the quarterback pair have had very different paths to get to where they are today, they both have encountered their fair share of adversity.
Rattler moved on from Oklahoma after three seasons following freshman Caleb Williams winning the starting job over the junior for the Sooners. Uiagalelei saw some adversity of his own in his first season at the helm for the Tigers after taking over the role from three-year starter and first round draft pick Trevor Lawrence, elevated by Clemson’s 2021 injury issues on both sides of the ball.
“They made a change at Oklahoma and so he [Rattler] moved on,” head coach Dabo Swinney said. “I think the quarterbacks get a lot of blame sometimes, like last year, for example, DJ didn’t play well, but we weren’t very good around him either. I think that it’s taken them some time to kind of hit their stride this year, and now those kids are making plays for him. He’s a very talented player.
“They’ve both kind of had their ups and downs, but DJ’s really played well for us, outside of two games, he’s played well. He’s 21-5 as a starter, he’s a winner, he’s a great leader, and he’s an unbelievably committed guy. I don’t know Spencer, I’ve never met him, I don’t think, but I’ve got a lot of respect for him as a player, and he’s got all the tools.”
Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brandon Streeter echoed Swinney’s sentiments, adding that while the two quarterback’s situations couldn’t have been anymore different, the high expectations coming in were similar.
“There’s definitely some [similarities] as far as expectations coming in, a little bit different but in some ways similar as well just having those high expectations when you’re coming into a program expected to be the guy that saves everything,” Streeter said. “That’s not easy to handle sometimes”
While Uiagalelei himself doesn’t try to compare his journey to others, the quarterback does see a little bit of his own journey in the Gamecock quarterback and the way he has also stayed true to himself in the process.
“I think with his journey, he’s done a great job and is just sticking to him as a person and being the person he is,” Uiagalelei said. “I feel like he’s just done a good job of just playing his game, not listening to the outside noise. I haven’t gotten to watch too much of the season and how he’s played, but overall, Spencer Rattler, he’s a good dude to me. A guy I’ve met and a guy I know, he’s a great guy, great human, a good football player, and I’m just happy for him.”
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