Where is Charlie Ward when you need him?
The DJ Uiagalelei era at Florida State University is already in crisis after two games following Monday night’s disastrous performance in the home loss to 17-point underdog Boston College.
Uiagalelei completed just 21 of 42 passes for 272 yards, including a touchdown pass and an interception, in the 28-13 loss that dropped the No. 10 Seminoles to 0-2.
Florida State fans began chanting “We want Brock” for backup quarterback Brock Glenn before halftime after the Eagles scored early in the third quarter to take a 21-6 lead.
Seminoles coach Mike Norvell did not say whether he is considering benching Uiagalelei on Monday or whether he is considering a change for the team’s Sept. 14 home game against Memphis.
“We’ve struggled on offense and there are a lot of reasons for that,” Norvell said, without singling out his struggling playmaker. “Obviously, we’ve got to push and get better in everything we do and that’s what we’re going to focus on. We’re going to focus on getting better and we’re going to put our guys in the best position to be successful and that’s what we’re going to focus on.”
Uiagalelei came to Tallahassee to take the reins of a team that had a 13-1 record last season and might have played for a national title had quarterback Jordan Travis not been injured.
Florida State is Uiagalelei’s third school after an uninspiring stint at Clemson, where he was replaced as the team’s starting quarterback, and a solid, if unspectacular, 2023 season at Oregon State.
It’s starting to look like all good things aren’t going to work out for Uiagalelei, as Florida State is threatening to become the biggest disappointment of the season early on.
Uiagalelei completed a mediocre 19 of 27 passes for 193 yards and did not concede a single touchdown in the surprising season opener against Georgia Tech before completing just 50 percent of his passes on Monday night.
The redshirt senior led Florida State to just two field goal drives in the first half, and Florida State failed to score a point in the final 20:19 minutes after cutting the deficit to 21-13.
He also made two particularly brutal throws.
Late in the first half, trailing 14-3, he missed a completely open pass that could have been an easy touchdown, but the Seminoles settled for a field goal.
Early in the third quarter, on fourth-and-5 downs at Florida State’s 47-yard line, Uiagalelei threw an interception when no Seminole was around that led to a Boston College touchdown and gave the Eagles a 15-yard lead.
This season, Uiagalelei has thrown 465 yards with this one touchdown pass.
Despite Uiagalelei’s poor performance, his coach criticized his team’s performance.
“For us, it’s just upsetting the way this season started,” Norvell said. “Obviously I failed to prepare the team tonight to go out there and respond.”
