Billy Napier assesses DJ Lagway's play early on vs. Mississippi State
Florida plans to rotate its quarterbacks routinely in today’s game against Mississippi State, with the talented freshman DJ Lagway set to get every third series in the game.
Lagway came in and immediately had some positives mixed with negatives, to be expected from a freshman quarterback.
“Well much like we did there, we got him an easy completion on the perimeter,” coach Billy Napier said in an interview on ESPN after the first quarter. “Look, he’s got to let the game come to him. I think if we watch the replay there we had an opportunity to throw the deep post. But great young player, great experience for him. He’s ready to go. He’s had a great week of preparation.”
Through a quarter’s worth of action, Lagway was 1-of-1 passing for 10 yards. He had also rushed once for three yards.
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Ahead of the game, the ESPN broadcast noted that Napier had planned to play Lagway on the third, sixth and ninth series of the game and go from there. Lagway was involved on one play during Graham Mertz‘ second drive, so there’s at least some flexibility within that plan.
Billy Napier breaks down the DJ Lagway plan
At his press conference on Monday, Napier praised both quarterbacks while laying out the plan for how the Gators will approach the position.
“I would say that we’re committed to playing both players,” Billy Napier said. “The impressive thing to me is just how both these guys have handled themselves, how they’re working together, the camaraderie that they have that piece is impressive to me. That can be divisive if you’ve got the wrong people in the building. So, just the way they handled themselves last week.”
Graham Mertz came into the 2024 season as Florida’s starting quarterback. However, DJ Lagway despite being a freshman, came to Florida with a lot of excitement around him. When Mertz went down with a concussion, Lagway got his opportunity and Napier has chosen to play both, rotating drives, now that they’re both healthy.
“I think we tried to define it for them so they weren’t looking over their shoulder and I think that worked. But the humility of both of these guys, the confidence of both of these guys and then the working relationship that they’ve had since the first day,” Napier said. “So, both have character. Both understand the dynamic. I think both of them can help our team and certainly it was great to have Graham back from injury and I thought he played well for the most part.”
On3’s Dan Morrison also contributed to this report.