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CHARLOTTE, NC — Mike Norvell and FSU arrived at ACC Media Days with perhaps the most important player on their team, quarterback DJ Uiagalelei, purposefully absent.
Uiagalelei, the fifth-year transfer via Oregon State and Clemson, was offered a spot on the plane with Norvell from Tallahassee. Uiagalelei has the polish and shine to wow the media and say all the right things for a program leading off media days of a conference it doesn’t even care to be in anymore.
Instead, Uiagalelei’s choice to remain absent, offering the spotlight to teammates who were members of the 2023 ACC Champion Seminoles sp0ke volumes, anyway.
“I feel strongly that Florida State should be represented by players who were part of last year’s ACC championship team,” Uiagalelei wrote in a social media post earlier this month. “The players who helped put this program back on top of the ACC should have the opportunity to be recognized for their contributions. This team is more than its quarterback, and I’m excited for my teammates who will experience this fantastic event.”
SDS asked coach Mike Norvell on Monday about Uiagalelei’s decision, and Norvell gushed in reply.
“It speaks to his humility as a young man,” Norvell said. “DJ doesn’t talk about himself. He isn’t here because of status or personal gain. It’s about work for him. It’s about investment. You want to know how to earn the respect of your teammates? Do what he did and stay back and work and give your new teammates the spotlight. That’s who he is.”
Uiagalelei will get plenty of the spotlight on the field come Aug. 24, when Florida State opens the regular season in Dublin against Georgia Tech. By then, he’ll be the pivotal player on a team with aspirations to repeat as ACC champions and end the season where they weren’t invited to play a season ago — the College Football Playoff.
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The spotlight is nothing new to Uiagalelei, who was a 5-star recruit and the heir apparent to Trevor Lawrence at Clemson. Life at Clemson didn’t go quite as planned for Uiagalelei, but there were moments, including a brilliant 4-touchdown game (3 passing, 1 rushing) in a victory at Florida State in 2022 — still the last regular-season football game Mike Norvell and FSU have lost.
“You saw all of what DJ was capable of against us in that game, that’s for sure,” Norvell told SDS. “The competitive fire, the big arm, the ability to make a throw in a small window against great coverage. And he’s a much better player today than he was 2 seasons ago. His understanding of defenses is better. His decisions are quicker. He plays with great confidence. That takes toughness. After everything he’s gone through, he has a chance to have the best year of his life and execute at the highest level.”
If Uiagalelei does execute at the level Norvell expects, the Seminoles figure to be formidable.
Yes, the Noles lost 11 offensive and defensive starters from last year’s 13-1 ACC champion team. But Norvell has reloaded where he’s always shined — in the transfer portal — and inked the best recruiting class at Florida State since the Jimbo Fisher era, with 16 blue-chip signees. The Seminoles are deep and talented on the offensive line and Norvell feels like he has the best group of running backs he’s ever coached.
That leaves Uiagalelei as the obvious key. Can he replace Jordan Travis, the 2023 ACC Player of the Year who passed for 8,644 career yards and accounted for 96 touchdowns, becoming the heart and soul of Norvell’s FSU reload in the process?
For Norvell, it isn’t about Uiagalelei being Travis. That’s not possible. But it is about leadership. And Norvell loves what he’s seen.
“He leads with humility. He’s embraced just being himself and being invested in Florida State. He is professional in his approach. He didn’t come here to be Jordan Travis. He came here to be himself and we like that guy.”
After a 22-6 tenure as Clemson’s starter and a terrific season at Oregon State, where Uiagalelei posted career bests in yards per attempt, passing success rate and quarterback rating (minimum 150 attempts), it’s easy to understand why the Seminoles feel they found their man. With a very forgiving early schedule that features little in the way of genuine challenges until Clemson comes to Doak Campbell on Oct. 5, Uiagalelei also earns the benefit of time — to adjust to Norvell’s offense, to adjust to a new set of receivers, to adjust to the privilege of expectations at a premier program again.
Will all of that translate into a Playoff appearance for Florida State?
All-ACC defensive lineman Joshua Farmer, a mainstay on the best defense in college football a season ago, believes the Seminoles are on a mission.
“We’re pissed off, man,” Farmer told SDS. “If you are like me, you believe everything happens for a reason. Did we deserve to be (in the Playoff) last season? There’s no question. We won all of our football games. We won our conference. But we just have to use it as fuel and try to get the get-back and do what we can and get where we’re supposed to be, which is the 12 team Playoff.”
Farmer’s remarks tell me the narrative that FSU isn’t good enough is still ringing in the Noles’ ears. The 63-3 loss to Georgia in the Orange Bowl, skeleton roster or no, did little to silence the doubters.
But Florida State, for all the talking season chirping, remains one of the nation’s destination programs. It’s one of the two preeminent academic institutions in the second most talent-rich state in the sport. It’s the lone program in the history of the sport to post 14 consecutive top-5 seasons. It boasts 3 national titles, all of which came in the modern, post-integration era of football.
Former 5-star quarterbacks don’t just fall into the lap of any program. Uiagalelei is at FSU because his talent befits their brand.
In his final year of college football, Uiagalelei can now elevate FSU’s brand back where it belongs — among college football’s consistent elite. Uiagalelei didn’t need to be at ACC Media Days to prove that. He and Florida State can do that on Saturdays this autumn.
Neil Blackmon covers Florida football and the SEC for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
