DJ Uiagalelei ready to leave his mark with FSU Football in 2024!

congratulations man you uh you got engaged since the last time we saw you right yeah I guess I did yeah no I guess since the last time yeah no me and my fiance AA man congratulations appreciate it man I'm blessed man to be have a a woman like that in my corner blessed to have her in my life and it's been grateful just thankful to have her man yeah we don't have to make it all about that just so y'all met I assume it Clem s she played volleyball there right yeah so we met my freshman year uh she played volleyball last team captain she played four years there uh she was a little older than me she two above me but and we end up me my freshman year and we've been together ever since that's amazing man well congratulations I'm uh I'm sure we got lots of football stuff to dive into again folks throw your questions Jordan will will'll throw them up for us but um dude I had this moment today where I was texting a group chat of my friends and I was like I tomorrow I'm going to play a college football video game in my office with DJ U the starting quarterback at Florida State University and I was like man that's a in 2021 that sentence would have broken everyone's brain like in an office college football video game DJ what is going on here but uh times have changed it's crazy right and it's dope man I was playing it early right before I got here I was playing it I was playing it yeah is it I got to ask it I guess maybe there's no way to know any different but like as someone who's good at football has been highly successful knows what the heck's going on in real football like how much does that help you in the video game like how screwed am I tomorrow when we have to play honestly I mean it helps a little bit but not too much man if you if you a gamer like if you really a gamer then you're going to be good at college football Madden and every other game like it even like cuz this guy is like I'm not the best I'm definitely not the best at college football I just played one of my boys and I got whooped so but at the end of the day like I mean you know how to play the game you know play like it helps you a little bit you can see coverages I guess but at the same time it's man sometimes you just want to do whatever you want to do yeah so it's not too big of a deal like uh yeah maybe run some trick play you do some crazy stuff some crazy stuff in the game 100% I wanted to talk about just and again we'll get some questions going but um just maybe where you're at with the team compared to last time we talked a couple months ago during the Spring you know you made it through the full spring you know you had kind of the offseason throw guys guys it looked like some receivers joined you in California um how much stronger is is the chemistry with your receivers your running back just the whole offense headed into fall Camp than maybe it was a few months ago when you first got here uh I think I think definitely I think the more time we spend with one another spend with receivers offensive linemen running backs even guys on on the defense just as a team the more times you get to be able to be with each other and just practice whatever that's lifting practice outside the facility whether it's just hanging out at a house playing video games or something like that's where the the chemistry the team Bond and that's where the team grows you know obviously we have a lot of Talent on the team but talent's only going to take you so far it's the Brotherhood it's the chemistry it's the connection between the guys on the team that's going to take us to the top where we want to be at so it's been good man like the chemistry from the receiver and from us in the receivers quarterbacks not just me but all quarterbacks I feel like and grows each and every week we put a lot of time and effort out there to be able to try and be great be able to have a great season put our best before going to the fall Camp yeah absolutely and tast fungus has specifically uh about the connection improving between you and Malik Benson I know that that's uh that's one folks are really excited to see on the field so talk about the connections developed between y'all coming in here Malik's dope man uh first of all hell of a re hell of a receiver fast as hell can really run man and then the one thing man that a lot that shows up a lot is he super hard worker he puts in a lot of work he wants to do the extra stuff like he's not a guy or I got to text him or like hey man make sure you're there like he's going hit me up first L man let's get rout St with store today like I want to get some extra work and keep come throw and like that that stuff as a quarterback that's all you want from receiver like that makes my job easy it's like oh shoot like this guy really wants it you know the same thing so Malik man he's been he's been he's been dope man he's going to have a great year this year I'm excited to see him play and it's got to be again just build your confidence too just in the room as a whole to know that there are so many guys you know lead by example in that room you don't have to be on the room as a whole jakai jayen like there's a lot of guys in the room like a lot of those guys in the room for the most part everyone in the receiver room like wants to put in the extra effort like come to the Thrones the extra Thrones besides that no coaches are there just quarterbacks receivers and like they come out there run don't complain like they come out there and come ready to work man so it's a good offense and it's a good it's a good group of guys man they're hungry and man we want to be great I love it man I love it uh fairy ask did the game get your arm strength right hey that was the one thing I was really looking to see man was I'm like obviously the overall I didn't really like overall yeah I hope my aall is okay but it wasn't the big that's that wasn't what I was looking for there was like three things it was arm strength throwing power Trucking and then what was the other one uh speed I a want to be too low I I'm not the fastest guy I know I'm not the fastest guy you're not the slowest guy though like you can that's what I'm saying I'm not the slowest but I'm not the fastest guy but like like as long as I'm like solid like I think they gave me like 78 77 like that's smooth you know as long as like my my specialty is 10 yards you know I'm get first down then I get down like third and short like that's where I live at but my Thor power I think they gave me 97 I was like oh yeah that's nice yeah that's that's very accurate that's very accurate I was like that's what I was hoping for and then Trucking they gave me 80 okay I was like oh yeah that's Elite for a quarterback I seen that so I was I was pretty happy with that I I was I will say I was really excited my first fourth and one to run the great option with you I think they flipped the controls though now you got to hold X to keep the ball so I watched you run off in this direction not understanding why the controller is vibrating as got tackled but you know live and learn Smith as uh DJ how is having an offensive mind like Norvell dialing up plays for you been it's been crazy uh that dude is a genius and he doesn't stop like every single day he's drawing up new plays talking about new stuff like he's a machine and a lot of the other guys in the offense to coach tar coach tuck coach but Norv himself man he's he's a machine and he's he's crazy man like the scheme he does and like how he DWS up plays and how he sees the game of football yeah it's it's it's been a blessing to be able to be here with him and learn under him and just to see how he thinks and see how he sees the field like it's dope man so I'm excited for him excited to be able to play for him I just like hearing you talk about the arm strength and the throw power you know anybody who follow this program knows what Mike norell is best known for doing is finding each player's strength and using it so I I'm very excited to see I think I speak for by is to see how he uses that arm strength and what he's got dialed up for it cuz we know he'll he'll take advantage of it um FSU football unconquered spirit nice uh how did playing under Center at OSU help you improve as a college QB I think it expanded my variety of what I do I think the NFL you got to be able to go under center it's not 100% and shotgun yeah there's a lot more they do a lot more a shotgun than they have in the past but for me I got to learn a whole new offense got to learn under Center I got to learn making checks at the line giving two play calls actually learning how to be in a huddle like operate a huddle a lot of people don't huddle anymore it's a lot of no huddle uptempo stuff so like actually operate in huddle know how to talk communicate to guys like that stuff might not be something some people actually think about but that's something that's big in the NFL communicate plays and like relay it to your guys but it learned a lot being able to play Under Center and learn that yeah so to developing that communication skill set and and running a huddle do you think that prepared you more too with the radios coming in this year cuz I feel I mean I don't want you give anything away but I imagine there's going to just across football be a lot more huddling with radios coming I would I would I would I would assume that I mean the NFL does that I feel like it's going to get closer to what the NFL looks like with huddling holding shot clock holding like the shot clock the game clock but yeah no I think a lot more people huddle because it's it's a weapon you know and a lot of teams going use it even on the defense like the Mike linebacker gets somebody or the safety they get a thing so the defense coordinators talking to them like we break the Huddle they see the call they see the form the defense the coordinator can just change it right there and he can give him a whole new call like hey I've seen this blah blah blah give a whole different call so it's definitely a weapon jeez yeah know it's wild to think how it's going to change the game but that's I hadn't thought of going under Center kind of giving you that experience to set it up uh James B thanks for joining James B he's always got good questions I say before I read this uh DJ I thought your statement on acc media days was total class was that a difficult decision for you um if I just preface so you had said just you know that you had been asked to go to ACC media days and you preferred you know someone to go that had been part of the 13 and0 team and um yeah again I agree with James me I think that was awesome to see but yeah no I appreciate you James but no it wasn't a hard decision at all like at the end of the day man um there's a lot of guys on this team that deserve to be there I've had the blessing of be able to go to ACC media day two times when I was at Clemson and for me man like I'm a new guy I'm a transfer coming in like there's a lot of guys in this program that built the program to where it is now now and they had guys were on that team last year that are like pivotal guys on the program they've been here for many years more than just a couple months than I have and I feel like they deserved it more so um no it wasn't a hard decision at all and I'm happy for the guys that are going yeah and it's it's just it was an interesting I guess I don't know what the right word is but you know it kind of I guess shows that you know the impact that hearing the guys who have been on this journey stories have already had you know that you've been able to kind of absorb and go okay this is how they've processed what they've been on and giving them the platform to tell it but you know what I guess you kind of saw the FSU story but from a different perspective so you know what is talking to some of the guys who maybe been here two three four years like what kind of perspective has it given you on the journey they've been through yeah I think for them I mean like when I when I came into college like FSU coach n had just took over Co like each and every single year he was steady climbing you could just tell like the players continue to buy in like you could tell the way it was last year like everyone was bought in and then just to see that from an outside perspective and then be able to talk to the guys like it's obvious the Brotherhood the culture here that coach nille brings that it bleeds throughout the program and all the coaches and all the players believe and want to be able to play for coach nille and then believe in just believe in the team itself you know like the guys are out there like yeah we're going to go out there and win every single game have that belief that every time we step on the field that we're going to win the game and we could quote that right I mean that that is what's going to happen this year mind yeah no you got to have that mindset no matter what team you're on but like that's that's the mindset every time you you got to step out on the field absolutely man and and last one for you from girl Master this probably the hardest question of the night DJ are you a tea or coffee guy uh I would probably say probably say neither if anything I drink coffee cuz uh my fiance she loves coffee she loves Starbucks and then sometimes I'll go she'll give me a coffee and I'll drink something like a Vanilla Ice latte but I don't really drink too much coffee or tea anyways we got get you with the the battles in blend we actually just uh yeah yeah we we got the B blend dropped we'll uh we'll get some over here youall have to to try it and give us the review um you like ice or hot coffee I'm a hot coffee guy hot C it's kind of weird cuz I don't like icce coffee but I don't want it to be too hot like I feel like I got to let the hot coffee cool down but yeah you don't want to ride out the pot no no but I don't want like ice I mean I'd rather just get a soda you know if I may get something cold like I want the coffee to be hot but it's a good point yeah what about are you you'll do ice I like ice yeah if I go hot and I'm like man I want a hot chocolate okay yeah yeah you know something sweeter not like hot like yeah I'm like I go ice coffee yeah the double whammy of like things we shouldn't like but we we do hot and and bitter but hey that's coffee and what's not bitter at all unless that's what coffee is supposed to be I'm not sure is the battles in blend but dude again congratulations on on the engagement we so excited to see what you do this fall Camp starting in a week and we appreciate you coming by on a Monday night for us man appreciate you hey tomorrow we got a game we got got game I'm going to be I'm going to be watching YouTube videos tonight I'm going to be oh trust me I'm I'm I'm in the film room watching some videos all right well now I'm excited it's going to be a there's going to be some great sportsmanship I'll say that I don't know how doesn't be trash talking though I hope you like the trash talk yeah know yeah yeah I grew up on this game I was an adult last time I get to play this all I I was I was I was forg in the fires of NCA we're good some of that will come out but yeah man appreciate you brother yep