Florida football’s path to an 8-5 season was unique given the Gators suffered multiple injuries at quarterback in 2024. After reviewing Florida’s snap count report at the end of the regular season, I noticed that DJ Lagway, Graham Mertz, and Aidan Warner all logged 125+ snaps at quarterback. I thought to myself “Florida has to be one of the only seven win teams that used three different quarterbacks during the season.”
After gathering research, I found that only 10 teams in the country used three quarterbacks for 125+ snaps each during the regular season. The average regular season win total for those teams was 4.60. The only team that outperformed Florida was Iowa, who finished with an 8-4 record. Florida State was the worst amongst the 10 teams, holding a 2-10 record.
Here’s the full list with their regular season record.
FSU (2-10)
FAU (3-9)
UTEP (3-9)
UCF (4-8)
Troy (4-8)
Central Michigan (4-8)
Old Dominion (5-7)
Virginia Tech (6-6)
Florida (7-5)
Iowa (8-4)
I messed around with the snap count minimum to see if there would be a significant change in the number of teams affected. After lowering the snap count minimum to 100+ for three quarterbacks, 14 teams met the requirement with an average win total of 4.78.
Florida was one of two SEC teams that played three quarterbacks 100+ snaps, and the only SEC team to play three quarterbacks 125+ snaps. Kentucky was the other one, who finished with a 4-8 record.
Every team had a different set of circumstances that led them to playing three quarterbacks a significant number of snaps. For example, Florida had injuries to their first- and second-string quarterback, which led to Aidan Warner playing 2.5 quarters vs Georgia and starting his first career game vs Texas. Virginia Tech and Iowa also had injuries to their first and second-string quarterbacks. Other teams, like UCF, just kept experimenting with different quarterbacks in an effort to find their guy. FSU had an injury to their starter and tried different guys as the backup.
Quarterback is the most important position in football. Regardless of your circumstance, having to play three different quarterbacks in one season severely limits your ceiling as a team. Consistency is key at the quarterback position. Florida outperformed nine of ten teams because of freshman QB DJ Lagway, who was able to create enough explosive plays behind a much-improved Gators defense. Still, Florida was handed two losses when their third string had to play significant snaps in conference games. Florida lost both games when Graham Mertz (Tennessee) and DJ Lagway (Georgia) went down. They led by a touchdown in both games at the time of injury.
It’s incredibly difficult to create a three-deep quarterback room in the current NIL and transfer portal era of college football. A surprising amount of teams leaned on two quarterbacks, whether that was due to injury or a QB rotation. But only 7.4% of FBS teams had to rely on three quarterbacks for 125+ snaps in 2024, and the overwhelming majority did not perform well.
This doesn’t excuse some clear deficiencies that Florida had on both sides of the ball, but it does provide context for the Gators’ rather bizarre 2024 season.