Coach on DJ Lagway: 'His dream is to be the greatest player to ever touch the field' at Florida

The Florida fan base added a whole new community on Wednesday as On300 No. 7 QB DJ Lagway committed to the Gators over a host of college football bluebloods, namely USC, Clemson, Texas A&M and Baylor, where his father played.

Now, consider Willis, Texas — a town of just more than 6,700 people — Gators Country.

Friday nights in Willis center around watching Lagway, who threw for 2,000 yards with a 24:5 touchdown to interception ratio this fall for the Wildkats, adding another 500 yards and seven scores rushing. He’s the Consensus No. 21 overall player in next year’s recruiting class, and more than anything has maneuvered through the rigors of recruiting as seamlessly as he operates on the field.

That’s astounding, of course, if you knew what this young man expects of himself.

“I’ve never walked a day in his shoes or gone through what he deals with, but how he handles it, his approach to doing things the right way, and showing everyone the same love on the same scale has been tremendously awesome to watch,” Willis head coach Trent Miller told On3, who has spent the past year working closely with the young quarterback.

“The entire town is relying on him to lead us to the promised land. He’s the face of the program and the face of the city, and he had everyone in the country on pins and needles,” he continued. “He bet on himself so much because he sees the end game. It’s completely baffling that a kid can be so mentally strong at such a young age.”

Aiming to be the best, ever

On3 has documented Lagway’s travels throughout the fall as he got second and third looks at schools on both coasts and several programs in between.

For Lagway, getting on the same page as the coaches was essential. He and Billy Napier had similar visions for the 6-foot-3, 225-pound quarterback leading the offense and putting him on the path to accomplish his dreams.

“Gainesville did a tremendous job of getting him on campus and the student body showing him love, but DJ is such an internal person. He loved it, but I don’t think that played as much of a role in the recruiting process,” Miller detailed.

“The biggest thing was development — where he’d develop the quickest and who can get him on the field the earliest.

That’s because Lagway is on a timeline, and the stakes are enormous.

“Every high schooler wants to play in the NFL or Division I football, but those aren’t DJ’s dreams,” Miller started. “His dream is to be the greatest player to ever touch the field in the NFL. It’s a different mindset. People might think it, but they don’t say it. He says he wants to be a Hall of Famer, the best player that touches the field at Florida, and the best quarterback in the NFL, and that’s how he trains.”

“The best sales pitch was from Florida on that aspect to help him now, help him get on the field Game 1 as a freshman and the three-year career to become a first-round pick in the NFL. That’s how Florida separated themselves from the rest,” he pointed out.

‘The entire town is relying on him’

Even more than the season-long travels following Friday night games or the confidence exhibited in moving up his timeline, it’s Lagway’s maturity through the decision-making process that’s impressed those around him most.

“As much as I love him, to be in his shoes as a 17-year-old kid, as a 37-year-old man I don’t envy his situation,” his coach laughed.

“He never wanted to burn bridges or tarnish relationships. It speaks volumes about the young man, it’s been a roller-coaster and he knows what he wants to do after talking about it the past week. It’s how he’s been raised, he’s learned how to treat people. It plays right into the person he is, how he’s done things, how he carries himself from a maturity aspect.”

The connection away from the field loomed equally as large as Lagway’s opportunities away from it.

“It’s a brand-new coach with longevity on the up and up on the East Coast, with a stable of money to build the program up,” Miller said of Florida. “He went with the mentality of picking the right one from the standpoint of how he’d grow as a human being and what he’s looking forward to doing there.”

You can count on the entire Willis community tuning in to see it unfold.

Lagway is the nation’s No. 3 junior quarterback, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average.