Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier named sophomore quarterback DJ Lagway the starting quarterback for week one vs Long Island during Monday’s press conference.
“DJ’s the starter,” Napier said. “DJ has been 100% participant in practice here for several days.”
Questions sparked surrounding the health of Lagway when he was a limited participant throughout spring camp with a shoulder and lower body injury. After Lagway asserted his injuries were behind him at SEC Media Days, the talented signal caller suffered a calf strain roughly a week before the start of fall camp. This kept him from participating in 11 on 11 team reps until August 18th, less than two weeks until Florida takes the field in week one.
“I think he gets better every day,” Napier said on Lagway. “I think he’s having a lot of fun playing football and competing. You know, he’s smiling a lot more often now. So I think he truly enjoys practice and preparing, just the opportunity to get better, you know, I think the kid is consumed with improvement, and he knows the value of practice, so him getting to do that I think he’s happy.”
While Lagway didn’t take live reps for a majority of the offseason, he was observed frequently taking mental reps next to quarterback coach Ryan O’Hara, who Napier credits for the development of the quarterback room.
“It’s important,” Napier said on Lagway staying engaged throughout the offseason. “Coach O’Hara does a great job. I think our quarterback routine started yesterday, and it’s by the minute, by the rep. These guys are always well prepared. Certainly DJ, he’s a football junkie. So, I mean, he’s consumed with improvement. He’s already started his process of getting ready to play this week.”
Lagway’s injury riddled offseason was certainly not ideal, but finding the positive throughout difficult circumstances can be beneficial for a young quarterback.
“I think that it’s healthy in some regards to be uncomfortable, to go through adversity. If you can frame it the right way and have the right mind-set towards it, I think it causes you to be creative in terms of how you create experience for yourself,” Napier said. “A lot of times things happen to you that you can’t control, so there’s opportunities to get better as a result of what he’s going through. I think he’s learned a lot about himself. This won’t be the first time he goes through something like this. You play this game, you’re going to get injured. How you manage that not only physically but mentally. I think the battle begins in the mind. I think for him, that’s been a little bit of a challenge. I think it’s been healthy.”
Napier didn’t disclose how much Lagway will play in week one vs Long Island. From a load management perspective, I believe it’s fair to assume he will not be on the field for four quarters. Week one should also give the Gators an opportunity to test other options at quarterback such as Aidan Warner, Harrison Bailey and Tramell Jones Jr, all of which are battling for the backup quarterback job.
For more injury information, check out Gator Country’s most recent update on August 25th.