Clemson Football: The Case for D.J. Uiagalelei as starter

Even before he played a snap many fans were calling for Cade Klubnik to be named the starting quarterback for Clemson football.

Almost all of us knew that wasn’t going to happen.  Not if Deshaun Watson didn’t beat out Cole Stoudt and Trevor Lawrence didn’t beat out Kelly Bryant.

There’s no doubt that D.J. Uiagalelei struggled at points in the opener, no doubt there were awkward plays, baffling decisions and poor throws.

But maybe it wasn’t as bad as we thought.

Sometimes when you’re predispositioned to believe something, your eyes can mislead you into believing you saw something that didn’t occur or overlook something that did occur.  Especially, if you’re watching on TV, which picks and chooses what to show you on a play and what replays you see from what angle.

According to Pro Football Focus Uiagalelei was pressured on 33% of his drop backs and had the most drops in college football.

Not only that, but Uiagalelei had 2 big time throws and an adjusted completion rate of 79.3%, a number that number factors in the balls Uiagalelei threw on target that were dropped.

We know the offensive line struggled to contain the Georgia Tech rush, there were those pesky drops, a couple of wayward snaps, Clemson couldn’t run the ball for a large portion of the game and there were plenty of other issues on offense, yet few are talking about any of those today.

Numbers aren’t everything, I agree.  But, they’re a tool to check ourselves and what we think we saw and perhaps a glimpse into what the coaches see when evaluating a quarterback’s play.

Numbers aren’t everything, but they’re a tool to check ourselves and perhaps a glimpse into what the Clemson football coaches see when evaluating a quarterback’s play.

Is Dabo being stubborn or does he see a quarterback that’s not playing great, but also playing with an offense around him that’s not helping the cause?

It could the case that’s the old “chicken or the egg” question, right?  If D.J. played better maybe the rest of the offense would play better.  I think there may be something to that in that quarterbacks should elevate their team’s play, not drag them down to their level, assuming it’s subpar.

Both things can be true: It could be that D.J. played better than most believe AND he didn’t play well enough to elevate the Clemson offense.

If fans minds weren’t made up before Monday night, they’re almost universally made up today, despite what the numbers (and coaches) say.