Clemson Football: DJ Uiagalelei named a Heisman long-shot bet to make

As many of you already likely know, the Clemson football program has yet to have a Tiger win the Heisman Memorial Trophy. 

We’ve seen Clemson greats come incredibly close, the most recent being two college football legends, Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence, who were both deserving but fell short of the honor. It is an individual award that has alluded the program. 

Recently Fox Sports released an article discussing the 2023 Heisman odds best college football long-shot bets to make. One of the players mentioned is former Clemson and now Oregon State quarterback DJ Uiagalelei. Here is what writer Geoff Schwartz had to say about the former Tiger. 

DJ Uiagalelei, Oregon State: +10000 

DJU is the best quarterback Oregon State has ever had on campus, and he will boost the Beavers’ offense into one of the most efficient in the game.

Jonathan Smith, entering his sixth season as Oregon State’s coach, has built this program from two wins in 2018 to a 10-win team this past season.

However, there were plenty of times last season where you’d think, “If only they had a quarterback,” because receivers get wide open in this offense.

I guarantee you will not be saying that this season.

It’s a run-first operation, but that’s because they’ve never had a quarterback like Uiagalelei. The run game opens up the play-action pass, giving DJU easy throws for big yards.

Also, the Beavers are aggressive on offense and go for it on fourth down all the time. They do this with their run game, and they will use DJU in that spot. Uiagalelei will have plenty of highlight-worthy plays on fourth down to show the Heisman voters.

Oregon State’s schedule sets up for the Beavers to be a top-15 team heading into their final two games against Washington and Oregon. DJU will have two nationally televised games to end the season to showcase his skills.

As far as long shots go, with these odds, you could do a lot worse.

These are some deep odds for a former five-star quarterback, but it does make sense. Oregon State is a great program, but they will likely have to have what they’d consider a top-tier season for Uiagalelei to be truly in the running.

Uiagalelei is definitely a long shot, but we’ve seen crazier things happen in the world of sports.