DJ Lagway was back on the football field last Saturday for his highly anticipated sophomore season. Things didn’t go as smoothly as the Texas native would have liked in Florida’s season opening 55-0 win vs Long Island. Still, Lagway completed 15-18 passes for 120 yards and three touchdowns, a stat line an overwhelming majority of college football quarterbacks would be thrilled with. Not Lagway.
“Feel like definitely wasn’t what I expected to go out there, feel like I definitely could play better,” Lagway said postgame. “Just as a group I feel like it was very sloppy. I feel like we weren’t playing our brand of football. Defensively, they played their butts off, shutout, that’s always great when you get a shutout from the defense.”
As all of you know by now, Lagway spent a majority of the offseason not participating in 11 on 11 team reps, which was evident in the opener. The 6’3, 247-pound quarterback was rusty: missing some reads, shuffling in the pocket too quickly, and his accuracy was off a touch too.
Lagway got sharper as the game progressed, throwing three touchdown passes in the second quarter alone.
“I definitely think it got more comfortable for me as the game went on,” Lagway said on his performance. “I know I need to play better than that and I’m going to play better than that and I’m just thankful you always get another week. You get to start over and you get to prepare and that’s what I’m excited for.”
“Offensively, the pass game, I got to do better and it starts with me,” Lagway added.
There were a lot of positives from the game too. For one, I thought the ball came out of Lagway’s arm with velocity, indicating the shoulder wasn’t negatively affecting his arm strength. He also moved around in the pocket quite a bit, and there were no limitations that the eye could see regarding the recent calf injury.
During Monday’s press conference, Napier reassured the media that Lagway had no issues with his health during the game, which may be the most significant takeaway from week one given his injury riddled offseason.
“It’s always just a blessing to be out there on the field,” Lagway said. “I’m just thankful what I’ve been through this offseason, it was definitely hard. I’m just grateful for a great group of guys around me. The training staff, Coach Napier having a plan and me sticking to the plan, it was great. It’s just like, like I said, I’m happy that I was able to be out there. Definitely wasn’t excited the way I played. I feel like there’s things always to clean up on, but I’m just excited to get out there for next week and compete and have fun again.”
Florida is set to take on the USF Bulls in week two, who knocked Boise State 34-7 in their season opener. All eyes will be on Lagway as he looks to clean up some of the mistakes ahead of three consecutive games against AP top ten teams.