While the Florida State Seminoles head into the offseason still upset over their College Football Playoff snub and reeling from their 63-3 Orange Bowl loss to the Georgia Bulldogs, there’s good news on the horizon in Tallahassee.
According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel former Oregon State and Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagalelei will be heading to Florida State to play for head coach Mike Norvell.
DJ Uiagalelei tells ESPN that he has committed to Florida State. He committed to Mike Norvell in the last hour. https://t.co/UuQI13xncv
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 1, 2024
As Thamel also noted, this has been in the works for a while now, as Uiagalelei was deciding between the Seminoles or the NFL. He was seen as one of the best quarterbacks in the transfer portal and will replace FSU’s Jordan Travis who has exhausted his eligibility.
After starting his career at Clemson as Trevor Lawrence’s backup in the 2020 season, Uiagalelei became the starter for the Tigers in the 2021 season, where he led the team to a 10-3 record but threw just nine touchdown passes to 10 interceptions. He improved vastly in 2022, throwing for 22 touchdown passes, but was benched in favor of Cade Klubnik in the ACC Championship and decided to transfer to Oregon State.
Uiagalelei’s one season at Oregon State also saw tremendous success, as he led the team to an 8-4 record and threw for a career-high 2,638 yards and 21 touchdown passes, just one off his career-best.
While the date hasn’t been announced yet, Uiagalelei and FSU are scheduled to play his former team Clemson at some point next season.
