If you’re not worried about DJ Lagway, credit to you. You clearly have more faith in that 240-pound frame than I do.
The health of the Florida quarterback has been a well-documented subject in Gainesville over the course of the last 9 months. Needless to say, that’s not going away anytime soon.
After On3 reported on Monday that Lagway was dealing with a lower-body injury that had him in a walking boot, Billy Napier confirmed that the second-year signal-caller is day-to-day to start fall camp.
The good news, Napier said, is that the injury happened about a week ago and Lagway has already made progress. There’s hope that he can do more as fall camp ramps up. If that were an injury to a veteran SEC quarterback like Garrett Nussmeier or LaNorris Sellers, it’d be closer to a non-story than a full-blown panic.
It’s not time for a full-blown panic for Lagway, but is it officially time to be worried? You bet.
After all, Lagway isn’t entering 2025 under the same context as Nussmeier or Sellers. That wasn’t some dig at his preseason All-SEC snub. It was a reminder that he didn’t throw a football in spring camp because of his injured shoulder. Lagway has been able to implement a 3-times-per-week throwing program — he even had a session the morning of Florida’s appearance at SEC Media Days in Atlanta that he was present for — but there are 2 bigger issues at stake.
When is Lagway going to develop a rapport with his top receivers?
For guys like Nussmeier or Sellers who got last season with the ones, as well as spring ball, that’s not a concern. Lagway might’ve gotten some reps with the first-teamers last year, but that was still Graham Mertz’s job until he got hurt. Sure, Lagway started 7 games (and finished 6), but that was with his top target (Tre Wilson) dealing with an injury-riddled season of his own.
Lagway’s top 3 targets are expected to be Wilson, UCLA transfer J Michael Sturdivant and Dallas Wilson, who caught roughly a million passes in the spring game, none of which were from Lagway. He and Napier can sell the importance of mental reps and honing in on mechanics, but they know as well as anyone that the best developmental tool for a young quarterback is getting live reps.
The hope throughout Lagway’s shoulder injury drama was that he’d at least have fall camp to get on the same page as those 3 guys, as well as others who’ll vie for targets. Each day that he misses out on that is an opportunity lost.
And sure, we can all point to the first 2 games on the schedule (vs. FCS LIU and South Florida) and point out that Lagway will have some margin for error. But after that? Good luck. Florida might be an underdog in Games 3-6, which consists of:
That’s daunting. It would’ve been daunting if Lagway didn’t have any new health issues pop up in fall camp. It’s not even August yet and that’s already been ruled out.
Not great.
It’s fair to wonder if Lagway is going to be limited within the offense knowing what any further injury would mean
Last year before the Florida vs. Georgia game, UF coaches made it clear beforehand that they weren’t going to run Lagway a whole lot because of the depth at the position behind him. As it turned out, he ended up going down with a hamstring injury that game. He then missed the Texas game and wore a hamstring apparatus upon his sooner-than-expected return to the lineup, but his legs were used strictly to buy time in the pocket. He only scrambled on 11 of the 74 times that he was pressured on a dropback, and post-Georgia injury, he had just 1 designed run (he had 18 before that).
Lagway mentioned at SEC Media Days how strange it was that 2024 was the first time in his entire football career that he didn’t have a single rushing touchdown, and that he looked forward to being able to use his legs again. One can’t help but think that even if Lagway makes a full recovery and is at full-go sometime in the next 1-2 weeks, Florida is going to be extremely conservative with his legs.
With all due respect to former Yale transfer Aidan Warner and the well-traveled Harrison Bailey, but neither of those guys would be safe bets to withstand a grueling SEC schedule. The bottom can fall out of Florida’s season in a hurry if Lagway’s health is an issue.
Shoot, the bottom can fall out of Florida’s season even if Lagway stays healthy, but doesn’t take the Year 2 step that so many believe he’s capable of, myself included. Given the conversations about Napier’s future, which are much tamer than they were at this time last year, you can’t overstate how Lagway’s 2025 season will impact the latter half of the 2020s decade in Gainesville.
That’s why this injury news, while minor on the surface, feels major. Those who want to pretend that the Lagway concern is overblown are more than welcome to do so. As for the rest of us who would prefer to see the best possible version of one of the most talented returning players in the sport, I’ve got a word of warning.
Get ready to hold your breath a lot this fall.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
