Tony Elliott on D.J. Uiagalelei's Off Throws: 'Nothing to Worry About'
CLEMSON — D.J. Uiagalelei faced a much easier version of the Bulldogs to decipher this Saturday than he did last week.
S.C. State still did some things to try and confuse him, but the Clemson sophomore quarterback was able to throw a touchdown pass and lead the No. 6 Tigers on five first-half scoring drives in a 49-3 victory at Memorial Stadium.
However, Uiagalelei didn't look especially sharp in the passing game, completing 14 of his 24 throws for 171 yards. That 7.1 yards per pass attempt was considerably higher than the 4.8 he had against Georgia last week, but there were still some off throws against the FCS opponent.
"I think that some of those were throws on the run, which are hard to make, especially when the receiver is away from the quarterback and he's moving off the launch point," Elliott, the offensive coordinator, said. "Nothing to worry about. But again, you've got to continue to go out there and play. Through experience, those things will sharpen up."
Uiagalelei, who's completed 54% of his passes this season, started just his fourth career game, and he threw his second interception on a screen pass that was too high for the receiver to grab in traffic. Elliott said it was a "touch issue." Uiagalelei also missed on a few other high throws that his lengthy receivers could hardly make a play on.
"We'll go back and look at his fundamentals the best we can on tape," Elliott said. "(QB) Coach Brandon Streeter will do a great job analyzing that and he'll have a conversation with D.J. and we'll continue to work on making sure that isn't an issue."
Elliott said picking up high passes hasn't been an issue for the receivers and quarterbacks in practice, but there were definitely some timing problems Saturday. Some of that is also due to Uiagalelei's lack of experience reading collegiate defenses.
Elliott said it's hard to duplicate the looks and speed of the game in practice, but it's something, like the missed throws, he isn't overly concerned about right now.
"Pre-snap recognition is key," Elliott said. "They were trying to disguise early on with two-safety stuff and they were spinning one way or the other. As a quarterback continues to see that, then that starts to slow down to him and when the game starts to slow down to him, he's able to process all that information he sees a little bit quicker."
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