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WATCH: DJ Lagway reacts to Florida's loss at Miami

On3 imageby: Zach Abolverdi09/22/25ZachAbolverdi

MIAMI — Florida quarterback DJ Lagway had another poor performance in the Gators’ 27-6 loss at No. 4 Miami. He didn’t throw any picks but had a career-low 61 passing yards among his full starts.

Lagway, who is now 7-4 as a starter at UF, met with reporters following Saturday’s game. In the video above, check out what Lagway and Graham had to say along with his full transcript below.

RELATED: DJ Lagway says ‘this is not acceptable’ after Gators loss

DJ Lagway Q&A

On his thoughts on the offense:

DJ LAGWAY: “It’s been frustrating. We gotta clean a lot of things up. We’re not playing nowhere near playing the brand of football we know how to play. So, we gotta clean a lot of things up.”

On the issues on the first half:

DJ LAGWAY: “I would say the weather and stuff like that was playing a big part of it but just trying to get our foot in and stuff like that. Trying to figure out what the defense was doing. We came out in the second half and kind of had our rhythm. Tried to run the ball. Tried to make some plays in the air.”

On why UF went 0-for-13 on third down:

DJ LAGWAY: “We just got to execute as an offense. We just got to execute what the coaches call, and we just got to play better.”

On Miami’s defense taking away the deep ball:

DJ LAGWAY: “Wasn’t tough at all, just taking what the defense gave me. You know, I learned a lot from last week. Just gonna take what the defense gives me. Can’t force anything.”

On the 80-yard touchdown drive and response after the break:

DJ LAGWAY: “Oh yeah, for sure. We showed a lot of toughness right there, a lot of heart. Wish we could have had more drives like that to continue to build on and stuff like that. But, we came out there, we were resilient, we fought hard. We just fed off each other. That’s how it’s supposed to be done.”

On what worked on the TD drive that wasn’t present on the other possessions:

DJ LAGWAY: “I would say we were running the ball real well. Ja’Kobi and Jadan, they were running the ball, and I had to make a couple plays with my legs as well. At that point, it’s just doing what we got to do to try to get the W and stuff like that.”

On his individual performance:

DJ LAGWAY: “I didn’t play my best ball tonight. I took what the defense gave me. I didn’t make a lot of plays that I needed to make to stand out in the game. I kind of just managed it. I didn’t make a lot of big plays, so I’m trying to find the balance between both. And still just development. Just trying to get better.”

On the focal point going into the bye:

DJ LAGWAY: “Man, just got to keep on developing. Continue to get better each and every day. That’s all we can do. That’s all I can control. It’s just 1% better each and every day.”

On if it’s a good time for a week off:

DJ LAGWAY: “Yeah, for sure. I would say it’s a good time just mentally just to kind of rally the troops and just kind of get together and just compete and work on our craft. We haven’t had a lot of time as a whole offense together, everybody healthy, just to work on our craft altogether as a group. So, it’ll be good just this next week to get together and work on our things, work on things that we need to fix.”

On recreating the bye week they had last year:

DJ LAGWAY: “We got to compete each and every day at practice. Competition drills and stuff like that. It’s going to be a fun environment to continue to get better offensively.”

On the field conditions:

DJ LAGWAY: “The field was definitely a little slippery out there, but we got to, as an offense, make adjustments. I got to clean up my drops a little bit knowing that it’s a slippery surface out there, gotta tighten up our feet work a little bit.”

On UM’s defense: 

DJ LAGWAY: “For sure, they definitely have a very good defense. Credit to them as well. Of course, offensively we got to execute simply. Defensively they played really sound. But at the end of the day if we execute and do what we’re supposed to do all the chips will fall but we didn’t execute tonight.”

On being motivated to help the team stick together in the bye week: 

DJ LAGWAY: “That’s my biggest thing now, keeping all the guys together. Just all got to stay together. We’ve got to compete together. We’ve got to do a lot of things together. We’re going to get this fixed for sure.”

On handling adversity: 

DJ LAGWAY: “It’s been hard, but you can tell we’re going to get things changed for sure. I guarantee that. I can guarantee that. This is not acceptable at all. I’m not going to sit here and lie to you all and make this seem like this is okay. This isn’t okay. We’ve got to play better football and it starts with me.”

On building off what they learned from last year’s game: 

DJ LAGWAY: “We definitely watched film on last year’s game of course. We see things that worked, see things that didn’t. And of course, we tried to make adjustments and things fell how they did. At the end of the day, if we executed and played our brand of football things would have fell in line. but we didn’t.”

On his conviction things will change moving forward: 

DJ LAGWAY: “What gives you that conviction? Because I’m the head of it. I’m going to start with it. I’m going to demand greatness from everybody. It’s not — we’re done with the playing around stuff. It’s time to get serious and it starts with me. I’ve got to set the tempo. I’ve got to set the tone in practice. In meetings, around the building. I know for a fact it’s going to change because it’s going to start with me.”

On what he would tell fans: 

DJ LAGWAY: “It’s really not about what everybody else thinks to be honest. It’s about what we think in the building. How we approach things. At the end of the day we’ve just got to execute. Once we start executing things are going to fall in line.”

On if he’s still confident in the coaching staff: 

DJ LAGWAY: “For sure, Coach Napier had a great plan. You know, as an offense we’ve just got to execute as players. I feel like Coach put us in a lot of great situations. I just feel like we have to make the plays when the plays can be made.”

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