Clemson talented true freshman quarterback DJ Uiagalelei is in a similar spot at this point early in his career to where Trevor Lawrence was at the same age, according to Tony Elliott.

The Tigers’ offensive coordinator met with reporters via Zoom on Tuesday evening and spoke about the characteristics that Uiagalelei and Lawrence share as quarterbacks.

“He’s cut from the same cloth,” Elliott said. “You’re seeing that they share that same poise, the demeanor, the command. Nothing is overwhelming. I think that they’re similar from a protection standpoint, they both have good foundations, they understand it. So, I’d say they’re very similar at the same age, but it’s because they’ve got those same qualities. They were very well coached coming out of high school. Nothing rattles them. They’ve got the big arms, they can make the throw.”

Elliott also compared Uiagalelei to former Clemson star quarterback Tajh Boyd in terms of his size and running ability, and Elliott expects Uiagalelei to be a factor in the run game for the Tigers.

“I think we saw it in the spring and you’re continuing to see it,” Elliott said. “As we get into camp, we’ll get some more scrimmage-type situations. We’ll be able to turn him loose a little bit to get a better idea. But very athletic, very smooth, just very natural as a runner. So, he’s got the skill set, it’s just a function of being able to get to that point of our install to where we put some of those designed quarterback runs.

“But he looks good. He’s 245 pounds but he doesn’t look like he’s 245 pounds when he takes off, and if he wants to drop that shoulder, you’ll know he’s 245 pounds. So, probably if I had to compare him, probably more like a Tajh where Tajh was really a good runner and thrower for us. He’s probably more of that kind of runner as opposed to Deshaun (Watson) and Trevor, and Kelly (Bryant), more of a zone-read guy. He would be a guy that can put his foot in the ground and square his pads up and go get some yards in the tough situations.”

Elliott looks forward to seeing how Uiagalelei picks up new offensive install as Clemson progresses in fall camp, but so far, he has done a good job.

“As we go through, we didn’t get to finish spring, so there’s going to be some install that DJ hasn’t quite seen that we’re going to get to later in camp,” Elliott said. “We’ll see how he handles that, but so far with five days of install in, repeating a lot of things that we did in the spring, he’s got pretty good command of it.”

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