BEAVERS QB UIAGALELEI, FORMERLY OF CLEMSON, LIKELY TO BE A HANDFUL
The Pac-12 this week had a conference-best eight teams ranked in the AP Top 25 poll.
Those teams are led by what some suggest is the deepest collection of quarterback talent for one conference in college football history.
It begins with No. 5 USC’s Caleb Williams, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.
Then there’s No. 8 Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., No. 12 Utah’s Cam Rising, No. 13 Oregon’s Bo Nix, No. 16 Oregon State’s DJ Uiagalelei, No. 18 Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, No. 23 Washington State’s Cameron Ward and No. 25 UCLA’s Dante Moore.
Moore, who was a handful last week for San Diego State, already has distinguished himself in one regard. He is the only starting QB among the conference’s ranked teams who is still with the same program he attended out of high school. (Then again, Moore hasn’t had an opportunity to enter the NCAA transfer portal. Yet.)
Williams (Oklahoma) and Sanders (Jackson State) both followed their head coaches, Lincoln Riley and Deion Sanders, respectively,
to their new schools.
Penix (Indiana), Rising (Texas), Nix (Auburn), Uiagalelei (Clemson) and Ward (Incarnate Word) all transferred searching for opportunity or exposure. Or both.
Oh, or compensation. Must not forget the lure of name, image and likeness opportunities.
Schools no longer have to develop talent. Just import it.
Uiagalelei is of particular interest to San Diego State as the Aztecs travel to Corvallis, Ore., for Saturday’s game.
The statistics compiled by the 6-foot-4 junior, a fivestar recruit out of Riverside, aren’t as impressive as some of his peers. That’s because the Beavers have had blowout wins over San Jose State (42-17) and UC Davis (55-7) to the open the season, and Uiagalelei returned to the
sidelines early.
Make no mistake, Uiagalelei (28 of 38, 346 yards, 5 TDs passing/3 TDs rushing) has been impressive.
He also has been candid. “I didn’t want to do what I was doing at Clemson,” Uiagalelei told The Athletic in April. “I didn’t really like what we did there, schemewise. I didn’t think we did very much. I thought it was very basic. It didn’t help me out as a quarterback and play to my strengths.
“I wanted to go somewhere that would play to my strengths and go somewhere that would develop me for the NFL. Play-action, work under center, throw the ball deep.”
Uiagalelei had his ups and downs at Clemson, though
he was 22-6 as a starter for the Tigers.
He made an impact as a freshman in 2020, subbing for Trevor Lawrence when the Tigers starter had COVID-19. Uiagalelei threw for 439 yards against Notre Dame, a Clemson record for a freshman.
He started to find his footing last year after an inconsistent 2021 season. The Clemson offense still had its struggles, though, and freshman Cade Klubnik replaced him as starting quarterback.
Into the portal Uiagalelei went. He wasn’t as concerned about finding another big-name program as he was finding the best fit. Enter Oregon State.
“The only reason why I’m going there is to play football,” Uiagalelei said. “It doesn’t need to be a big city. It could have 10 people there; as long as there’s gonna be a football on the field, it was
gonna be fine.”
Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith guided the Beavers to a 10-3 record last season and had starter Ben Gulbranson returning at quarterback.
Uiagalelei beat him out for the job in preseason practice.
“This has been definitely different,” Uiagalelei said. “The scheme is totally different than what we were doing at Clemson. I feel like it’s a lot better. It’s just new stuff. I wasn’t doing any of these run-checks at the line; I wasn’t really under center. It’s a lot more plays.
“All of these different play-action plays; these different two-man routes, three-man routes. All the stuff that I wanted to do at Clemson but we weren’t doing. It’s exciting.”