DJ Uiagalelei ‘bet on himself’ by visiting Florida State without an offer

At one point this offseason, Cam Ward was atop Florida State‘s transfer portal wishlist. After declaring for the draft and mulling his other offers (which was eventually Miami), DJ Uiagalelei took a visit to Tallahassee — without an offer — and made the move before Ward could finish his excursion.

Warchant.com’s Ira Schoffel joined On3’s Andy Staples to discuss Uiagalelei’s transfer and how he ultimately become the new quarterback at Florida State before Ward made his final decision.

“What’s interesting about that to me, and this isn’t a slight on Cam Ward, I think he’s fantastic football player,” Schoffel told Staples. “But I think if you were making a decision based on — I think DJ was looking for ‘Who’s gonna help me get to where I want to get?’ So he’s coming back for a fifth year his third school and he’s trying to prove to himself, but he looked at the landscape and said, ‘Florida State’s where I want to go. Mike Norvell can help me get to where I want to go. I like the way their offense is run.’

“He bet on himself, but he also identified what’s going to be the best place for me, whereas Cam Ward wasn’t quick to make that decision. I think if it was about that, I think he might have made the quick decision to go to Florida State. Instead, he just tried to see the NFL and then he ends up at Miami.”

Staples responded, noting that both quarterbacks likely ended up in the best situations for themselves regardless of how they got there. He’s also going to have close eyes on the Miami-Florida State game this season when the two quarterbacks match up in the fall.

“Yeah, but I guess my point is, I don’t know that — DJ’s goal was a little bit more specific,” Schoffel continued. “Cam was still trying to figure out the big picture. And you’ve just got to give DJ credit for knowing exactly what he wanted, going after it, betting on himself and ultimately getting it.”

Now, he’ll look to replace star Jordan Travis and lead the Seminoles back to the ACC Championship and beyond during the 2024 college football season.

Of course, Uiagalelei is coming off a season in which he threw for a career-high 2,638 yards and 21 touchdowns, with seven interceptions during his lone season at Oregon State. He also ran for 219 yards and six scores. During his four-year college career, Uiagalelei has logged 8,319 passing yards, 57 touchdowns and 24 interceptions. He has run for 1,132 yards and 21 scores.

Uiagalelei will kickoff his FSU career during the regular season opener on Aug. 24 in a special Week 0 matchup vs. Georgia Tech in Dublin, Ireland.