Florida State began the 2024 college football season at 0-2 with an ugly loss to Boston College at home on Labor Day. Quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei did not play particularly well and his father has yet to comment on his son’s brutal night in Tallahassee.
That is not typically the case!
Big Dave Uiagalelei, as he is affectionally known, is very active on social media. Especially on X. The former offensive guard at the University of Hawaii promotes Polynesian players whenever he can and frequently posts about his two sons, D.J. and Matayo. As his profile admirably states, “there is nothing more important than a Father’s LOVE.”
With that being said, Big Dave occasionally went a little bit too far in defense of his eldest offspring. D.J.’s dad threatened to fight a Florida fan that insulted the Florida State signal-caller during the preseason. He openly criticized the Seminoles’ coaching staff after the season-opening loss to Georgia Tech in Ireland.
D.J. Uiagalelei signed with The Battle’s End NIL collective shortly after transferring to Florida State from Oregon State for his final year of eligibility. The former five-star recruit received a comfortable paycheck to play for the Seminoles in 2024.
This leaves head coach Mike Norvell with a unique predicament. Will he waste all of that money by benching Uiagalelei in favor of Brock Glenn or will he risk more losses by sticking with Uiagalelei?
Fans were extremely vocal in their desire for the former.
Norvell stood by his expensive starter during his postgame press conference.
That’s part of the game. At the end of the day, I mean, there’s — everybody’s gonna have an opinion on what it is. And obviously, you know, it’s playing quarterback, being the coach, being, you know, being a part of a great, great university, great program with high expectations, I mean, it’s our job to go and to play to a high level. And there’s times that you might hear things that you don’t want to hear. You might have to go through, you know, hard and challenging situations and those are all — it’s all part of it.
But I think DJ, you know, he’s mature, he’s obviously been through a lot, you know, I think that he’s — he was very encouraging there on the sideline with his teammates, and very encouraging there in the huddle as we were going, just trying to push to go make the next play. And that’s what you have to be able to live within. You know, when you play this game, the world can be against you, but if you’re able to go out and execute and control that next play, you’ll be able to work yourself through it.
— Mike Norvell
Regardless of what the future holds, Uiagalelei was bad. The 23-year-old quarterback completed only 50% of his passes for 272 yards with a touchdown and a pick. He started the game with just six completions on 16 attempts.
He overthrew a wide open touchdown before halftime.
— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) September 3, 2024
An ugly interception on fourth down led to an Eagles touchdown in the third quarter.
A DJ UIAGALELEI INT ON 4TH DOWN LEADS TO ANOTHER BOSTON COLLEGE SCORE 😱
— ESPN (@espn) September 3, 2024
EVERYTHING IS GOING RIGHT FOR THE EAGLES 🔥 pic.twitter.com/T7MhIW53QC
Big Dave was shockingly quiet on social media in the 12 hours after Florida State’s loss. He made only five reposts and they were all about Matayo’s impressive performance on Saturday. Not one post or repost about D.J.
Zero. Zilch. Nada.
Perhaps the elder Uiagalelei brother asked his dad to chill out after Dublin. Maybe the coaching staff caught wind of his criticism. It is also possible that Big Dave decided to stay quiet on his own.
Whatever the reason, D.J. Uiagalelei’s dad had nothing to say on Monday night or Tuesday morning!