I’ve spent a fair amount of the summer trying to convince Clemson football fans that 2021 was not all D.J. Uiagalelei’s fault. I’ve pointed out terrible blocking, poor routes, dropped passes and various other reasons that the blame should be shared, other than the obvious – they’re a team.
But, I’m here to share the truth, at least as I see it and that leads me to this: Improved quarterback play is the biggest leap this team can make year over year.
There can be incremental improvement in other areas, blocking, line play and catching the “layups” and a few less injuries will also help.
That said, when you look at objective numbers the quarterback play stands out and not in a good way.
In search of an objective evaluation instead of the “never” and “always” of the quarterback coaches on social media, I found Pro Football Focus NCAA Quarterback Position Grades, and I had to go down 206 spots before I found D.J. Uiagalelei’s name.
That would be 206 out of 294, or the bottom 30% of NCAA quarterbacks for total offensive rating.
Uiagalelei’s passing ranking, 182 of 240, is even worse, which puts him in the bottom 25% of college quarterbacks.
This reinforces what many Clemson faithful believe.
Clemson football quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei doesn’t have to be perfect, but has to make his “layups” for the Tigers to contend in 2022
It’s quite the understatement to say there’s room for improvement, but here’s the thing: D.J. doesn’t have to be perfect. He doesn’t even have to be Deshaun Watson or Trevor Lawrence for the regular season and (if the Tigers make it) the ACC Championship game.
He does, however, have to make the “layups”. The wide open passes that were too often overthrows last year and even the completions that were thrown at open receivers feet that made the tackles easy and the plays a failure despite the completion.
I find comfort in the objective analysis of numbers because using them means it’s less about someone’s “feelings” and more about what actually happened. That said, numbers aren’t perfect either. Uiagalelei’s numbers include more than 20 drops, at least one of which could have made the difference in one of the Tigers losses last season.
There’s always nuance in numbers, but there’s value, too and numbers along with using your eyes can give you a pretty solid foundation on which to judge and measure improvement or the lack thereof.
We know what last year was, where Uiagalelei ended up in these rankings and we have a hint of where he needs to be as Stetson Bennett ended up at number 54 in the total offensive ranking (and 48th in passing) for quarterbacks, inside the top 20%, with a legendary defense.
Make your layups.