College Football

Remember the Name: D.J. Uiagalelei

Updated Jul. 14, 2021 4:49 p.m. ET

By RJ Young
Special to FOX Sports

Top-ranked Clemson had not trailed in the 2020 season before Boston College took an early lead in Death Valley last Saturday.

Playing without Heisman candidate Trevor Lawrence, who was out following a positive COVID-19 test, Clemson kept digging a bigger and bigger hole, as BC threatened to stun the college football world, as well as the playoff system.

Tigers star tailback Travis Etienne added to the adversity when he fumbled the ball on the BC three-yard line early in the second quarter. Junior defensive back Brandon Sebastian scooped the ball and ran it back 97 yards for a TD that gave the Eagles a 21-7 advantage.

The Tigers were coming undone and looked rattled. Etienne sat beside himself on the sideline. The versatile senior was down. Most of the team was down.

Freshman quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei was the one outlier.

The young QB walked over to Etienne and helped steady him after the costly fumble. He told Etienne, "I got you. You just hang in there."

As media and fans were still scrambling to learn how to pronounce his name, Uiagalelei scrambled the BC secondary like eggs in a skillet in the final two quarters. He finished the game completing 30 of 41 passes for 342 yards with three total TDs. The five-star recruit played like a seasoned vet, not a true freshman making his career college start.

Uiagalelei made sure to feed Etienne and feed him often. The tailback set the ACC all-time rushing record against BC in one of the largest comeback victories in school history, while recording seven catches for 140 yards. He ended up accounting for 224 all-purpose yards as Clemson rallied from a 15-point halftime deficit to a 34-28 victory. He was awarded the gold leather helmet for being MVP of this edition of the rivalry game.

But he did not keep it.

Since 2008, the gold leather helmet trophy has been awarded to the MVP on the winning side of the Boston College-Clemson game, in conjunction with the O’Rourke-McFadden Trophy. When the game was won and Etienne was being celebrated, the senior walked up to his freshman QB and told him, "You deserve this."

Etienne handed Uiagalelei the MVP award after the Tigers escaped with a 34-28 victory. None of that surprised Clemson coach Dabo Swinney.

"He’s just special that way," Swinney said of Uiagalelei. "Just not overwhelmed at all. Very confident kid, knows who he is."

The spotlight will only get hotter Saturday, when Uiagalelei will again start in place of Lawrence — although this time, at fabled Notre Dame Stadium against the No. 4 Fighting Irish in South Bend, Ind.

Uiagalelei will need to rely on knowing himself. In the age of COVID-19, Lawrence’s absence after testing positive for the virus personifies how wild this season has been and can still be. Lawrence won't return to practice until Monday, but his shadow will loom large over one of the biggest games of the year.

A Natural Winner

When college football coaches are evaluating quarterbacks, they’re often looking for a trait that is staring us all in the face.

Some evaluators emphasize accuracy when throwing the ball. Others want a player who moves well in the pocket. Or identify coverages and leverages. Some want QBs to get the offense out of a good play by audibling into a great play.

But they all talk about recruiting a winner.

"The biggest thing we look for is: was the guy a winner?" said Oklahoma coach and QB whisperer Lincoln Riley. "And, at the end of the day, if you’re a good enough high school player as a quarterback, then your team is gonna win."

At St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, Calif., Uiagalelei was a winner — a national title winner to be exact. In 2019, he led the Braves to their first undisputed national championship after earning the honor in both the final USA Today and MaxPreps polls.

At Bosco, the football record book reads like Uiagalelei’s résumé. He didn’t start for the Braves until his sophomore season, though he owns this brick of Bosco records: total offense (11,594 yards); total offense in a season (4,634 yards); total offense in a game (474 yards); career passing yards (10,494); passing yards in a season (4,223); passing yards in a game (446); completions in a career (585); completions in a season (222); completions in a game (26); TD passes in a career (127); TD passes in a season (48); TD passes in a game (7); all-purpose yards in a career (11,594); all-purpose yards in a season (4,634).

That’s a lot of yards and a lot of touchdowns, and it becomes more impressive when you learn that most of the records he broke belonged to Josh Rosen. Yeah, that Josh Rosen.

And while Uiagalelei already looks fit to become a first-round selection in the 2023 NFL Draft, he has options: For Bosco’s baseball team, he routinely hit the mid-90s from the mound and has the option of playing college baseball at Clemson.

Over the course of his high school career, Uiagalelei's name would continue to come up alongside not just Rosen’s but other high-profile QBs, such as J.T. Daniels and Bryce Young. He played against both when they were at Mater Dei in Santa Ana. Tellingly, Daniels is playing college football at Georgia after first making a stop at USC, and Young is a true freshman at Alabama.

With Clemson and Bama both mainstays in the College Football Playoff, Uiagalelei could meet Young again someday on the grandest stage in the sport. Like Justin Fields and Lawrence, Uiagalelei and Young were the two highest-rated and most highly recruited QBs of their senior class. And like Lawrence once did, Uiagalelei is staring down a Notre Dame team that is one of the four-best teams in the sport as a true freshman.

He’s talented, but it’s Uiagalelei’s maturity as quarterback, development as a leader and winning attitude that has inspired belief not only from his coaches, but from veterans, too. That’s the kind of player ND is going to have to beat.

Irish Eyeing A Statement Win

At the beginning of the season, this game was circled. This was to be the rematch between Lawrence and Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book. Now, we’ll have to wait for that. ND has no excuse for losing this one, though Book isn’t so much worried about Lawrence as he is Brent Venables’ defense.

"I know it’s probably killing him inside," said Book about Lawrence missing Saturday’s ACC showdown. "I’ve met him before. I know he’s a good dude, and I know he’s a competitor. So I couldn’t imagine. I bet that really sucks. But at the end of the day, he's on the offensive side. He doesn’t play defense."

For his part, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly sees Clemson as its usual, powerful self. During his press availability on Monday, he reached for the Clemson depth chart and brought it before his face. He began studying it aloud like he was picking out a daily fantasy football lineup.

"We have their depth chart here," Kelly said, "and I’ll take their fourth SAM linebacker. Let’s see — I’ll take their fifth defensive tackle. I’ll take their fourth defensive end. So, they’re in pretty good shape."

Kelly clearly remembers the last time the Fighting Irish played Clemson, which possessed the most dominant collegiate defensive line of the last decade. Lawrence shredded the ND defense for 327 yards and three TD passes, and the Irish were humbled 30-3 in the 2018 CFP semifinal.

This time, they’ll get the Tigers not on a neutral field in Dallas, but at home in South Bend. They’ll possess the most experienced quarterback in the game in Book. They’ll face a Clemson defense that will not feature its best player and leader in linebacker James Skalski.

Kelly's program desperately wants to show it has closed the gap since December of 2018. The defense has held half of its opponents this season to single-digits, including one shutout. As the fifth-ranked team in the country on Oct. 10, the Irish offense rolled over a Florida State team that knocked off No. 5 North Carolina the next week.

This is Kelly and the Irish’s best chance to beat Clemson. This is also the only chance they’ll get to boost their psyche ahead of what looks like a probable rematch in the ACC title game at the end of the season.

"Really all that matters is that we get an opportunity to play Clemson this Saturday," Kelly said, "and compete against them. Who knows? This might not be the only time we play them this year."

But if Notre Dame can’t beat Clemson when its the most vulnerable its been in five years, there is little reason to believe the Irish can beat them again when they have Lawrence back in December.