Uiagalelei Felt Like He Could Have Done More in Loss to Notre Dame
In the one of the most high-profile games in ACC history, top-ranked Clemson came up just short on the road against fourth-ranked Notre Dame.
The Tigers lost 47-40 in a thriller to the Fighting Irish on Saturday night, a game that took two overtime periods to determine a winner. It was Clemson's first overtime game since the 2016 season.
D.J. Uiagalelei made his second consecutive start in place of Trevor Lawrence and followed up his outstanding debut last week with an equally impressive performance in South Bend. Uiagalelei finished the night 29-44 for 439 yards but the team was just 4-15 on third downs and the freshman quarterback says that was a big reason for the Tigers failing to come away with a win.
"I felt like we played ok, just not enough to get it done," Uiagalelei said. "Notre Dame definitely had a really good defense, a really great defense. Did really good things on third down. Felt like I could have done a lot better today, but they played a great game."
Not only did the Tigers struggle converting third downs, they also could never get anything going on the ground. Clemson finished the game with just 34 rushing yards, while averaging just 1 YPC, and Uiagalelei says the Irish had a good plan to combat what the Tigers were trying to do.
"Hats off to them, they had a really great defense," Uiagalelei said. "They had a really good scheme coming into the game and did a really good job stopping the run. The just did a really good job, hats off to them."
Despite hitting on 66% of his passes and eclipsing the 400-yard mark, Uiagalelei said there were some throws he wishes he had back. At the same time he says he will do what all great quarterbacks do, which is try and grow and learn from the first loss of his collegiate career.
"I felt like it was good for some parts," Uiagalelei said. "I don't know what I threw for but there were definitely some throws that I missed out there that I should have made. It is what is, we can't go back now. Just got to move on, watch film, and learn from the mistakes."
