FSU football: 6 reasons DJ Uiagalelei could silence critics in 2024

QB's Have Improved Completion % Under Mike Norvell

The biggest knock on Uiagalelei is his low completion percentage. He only completed 57 percent of his passes last year, but again they pushed the ball down the field to smaller receivers. However, Uiagaleli completed 62 percent of his passes at Clemson in 2022, with 6.8 yards per attempt (370 attempts). He completed 66.7 percent of his passes in 2020, with 7.8 yards per attempt (117 attempts). The low completion percentage is overblown considering, Jordan Travis was 62-64 percent between 2021-2023 and doubled his passing yardage from 2021 to 2022. Deondre Francois completed 58 percent of his passes in 2016, and FSU had a top-10 offense that season and all of their losses were because Charles Kelly's defense was terrible. I say that to say you don't have to have Drew Brees completing 70 percent of his passes to have a great offense.

Mike Norvell has a track record of improving a quarterback's accuracy. Jordan Travis went from 55 percent in 2020 to 63 percent in 2021, 64 percent in 2022, and 64 percent in 2023. At Memphis, Brady White went from 62.8 percent in 2018 to 64 percent in 2019 while throwing for 718 more yards that season. Completion percentage is a useful stat, but it's not the best metric to determine how good a quarterback is. If a guy completes 70 percent of his passes and the ball never goes more than 10 yards past the line of scrimmage, that's not saying much.