Breaking down the impact of DJ Lagway’s potential first career start

Florida‘s disappointing 41-17 loss to Miami to open up the season came with an unfortunate injury as well after starting quarterback Graham Mertz left the game in the third quarter. Leading to true freshman DJ Lagway taking over the reins of the offense for the final three drives of the matchup in his first college game.

Mertz is being evaluated for a concussion ahead of Florida’s Week 2 matchup against FCS Samford, a game that Lagway could potentially make his first career start in. Which had significant implacations for the Florida program according to Nick de la Torre from Gators Online.

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“Graham Mertz is going through concussion protocol, and it’s kind of out of Florida’s hands and that’s up in the doctor’s and the trainer’s hands,” de la Torre said at the On3 Roundtable. “So DJ Lagway has all of the tools, it’s a kind of guy that I think could save Billy Napier‘s job. I just don’t know if he’s ready yet, you’re going to be a freshman.”

Lagway was a five-star high school prospect ranked as the top quarterback of the 2024 recruiting class according to the On3 Industry Ranking. A 6-foot-2.5 tall, 230-pound passer who lit up the high school football scene in Texas at Willis.

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“As talented as he is, you’re going to have those mistakes, mental errors, you’re going to try to rush, or try to do too much, and throw interceptions, or fumble the ball, or make mistakes. But DJ Lagway, make no mistake about it, right now is the future of the Florida Gators,” de la Torre said.

Running back Montrell Johnson scored on the first play of a first half drive with a 71-yard touchdown run, but Lagway Florida’s only true touchdown-scoring drive of the game on Saturday. Completing three of his six pass attempts for 31 yards in the game and also scrambling for a 16-yard rush to convert a third down.

Lagway also threw an interception in the game, but still serves as a potential beacon of hope for Florida moving forward according to de la Torre.

“I think that’s where a lot of fans have hope in and look to him as someone that hey, no matter what happens this season, you at least hope that he’s going to be your starting quarterback in 2025. So getting him reps now, there’s no better way to learn and to get better, and to develop than to get game reps, live reps and he’ll certainly get them on Saturday,” he explained.

“I think even if Graham was playing, you would hope that Florida would have a big enough lead against a team like Samford that DJ would play most of the second half, even if Graham were healthy.”

Samford travels to The Swamp this Saturday for a game kicking off at 7:00 p.m. ET in Gainesville, a matchup that will more than likely feature the program’s quarterback of the future one way or another.