Clemson’s biggest question mark coming into the season was quarterback DJ Uiagalelei. Could he hold off the heralded Cade Klubnik? Could he lead the Clemson offense? Would he be better than last year’s uneven season?
After a rocky 1st half against Georgia Tech in Clemson’s opening game, Uiagalelei started trending upward against Furman and again against Louisiana Tech.
That said those games were never in doubt. How would Uiagalelei perform when the pressure was the highest?
Saturday with the Clemson defense stunningly getting torched play after play by QB Sam Hartman and the Wake Forest offense, it was time for Uiagalelei to deliver. Now the Clemson defense is another story as Wes Goodwin despite a defensive roster of NFL talent, has a long way to go to be the defensive play caller and coordinator Brent Venables was.
Clemson needed to score points and a lot of them Saturday.
DJ Uiagalelei came through in a big way for Clemson. The Tigers racked up 559 yards of offense and Uiagalelei had 371 yards in the air with 5 TD passes. Don’t even say it was just a matter of a bad Wake Forest defense. Uiagelelei made number pin-point passes, led critical drives, and if one Clemson player deserved the game ball it would be Uiagelelei.
Clemson is clearly a work in progress, but they still won a road game at a ranked team.
I think DJ turned the corner Saturday and more good football is ahead of him. Now the defense? The honeymoon is over for Wes Goodwin, suddenly the defense is a bigger concern for Clemson than the offense.
Who would have thought that at the beginning of the season?
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