Florida State began the college football season with a loss to Georgia Tech on Saturday. The No. 10-ranked Seminoles left Ireland at 0-1 in their first game with D.J. Uiagalelei as the starting quarterback.
His father, affectionally known as Big Dave, does not put any blame on his son.
Uiagalelei was the top-ranked recruit in the recruiting Class of 2020 and began his career at Clemson. He transferred to Oregon State in 2023. He will exhaust his fifth and final year of eligibility in Tallahassee.
Unfortunately, Uiagalelei’s brief tenure with Florida State began with a three-point loss in Dublin.
The Seminoles had a lot of issues on both sides of the ball. What is arguably the deepest running back room in the country did not have a single rusher go for more than 40 yards. A highly-touted defensive line often looked like Swiss cheese against a Yellow Jackets team that mostly pounded the rock.
And then there was the quarterback play. On paper, Uiagalelei did not play poorly. Going 19-of-27 for 193 yards without a touchdown isn’t necessarily good, but it’s also not bad.
However, when you really dive into the stat line, Uiagalelei barely threw the ball more than 10 yards down field— especially during the first half. Whether it was warranted or not, he got roasted online.
Big Dave made it abundantly clear on X that his son should be exonerated of blame.
The elder Uiagalelei’s reposted a lot of praise for D.J. on social media.
“Your son did a great job today it’s only up from here” — @Woj_Time
“DJ put us in position and gave us a chance.” — @donnoles92
“Dj played well” — @JSeminole56
“DJ Uiagalelei gets ALOT of hate, but the young man had ICE IN HIS VEINS on that last drive.” — @RGIII
“We will be fine. Your son looked good. I am glad he is a Seminole. We have 11 more games. We can win them all!!!” — @RossWorshipsHim
“Crazy thing is DJ played well. I don’t care about analytics I was there. He started off the game 11/13 with 2 incompletions being drops. Coach gotta get KYP #10 need to be involved in the game way more” — @TheFullCountPod
“Dj had a good game we got this!!” — @YouWish80_00
“He did his job. This loss is not on him. I will always show support for DJ.” — @RealEstateDM
“I thought DJ played pretty well in spite of some of the pressure at the line and on the receivers.” — @nirgal2002
Big Dave also criticized the coaching staff. He (not-so) indirectly called out Mike Norvell and offensive coordinator Alex Atkins for poor execution by resharing the opinions of others. It is his belief that D.J. Uiagalelei was not set up for success and was not involved enough with the offense.
“DJU has been in plenty of big moments. Dude isn’t timid imo, he just executed the plays given. The plays didn’t showcase him as a QB.” — @Seeyouat5pm
“Play calling got to get better. When we see cover zero we got to dial them up not run the ball into a stacked box.” — @JonSapp10
“Need Norvell to open up the playbook and let DJ sling it man. It’s not on DJ at all today.” — @NebraskaNole
Uiagalelei also shared a post that criticized Florida State’s linebackers and asked whether D.J.’s little brother, Matayo, could join the team. Shots fired?
This is not the first time that Big Dave Uiagalelei went to bat for his son. He threatened to fight a Florida fan during a fiery explicit rant during the preseason!
It will be interesting to see where Florida State goes from here. The Seminoles can either respond, or roll over. Either way, Uiagalelei will continue to be one of the most divisive players in the country.
Some people think he is trash. Others believe that the coaching staff is not putting him in position to win.
There is an argument to be made on both sides and Big Dave stands firmly with the latter!