Florida football fans could be seeing the last of DJ Lagway. At least for the rest of the 2025 season.
New questions have risen on the Gainesville campus, across the Southeastern Conference, and the nation: Will the once hyped Heisman Trophy contender Lagway redshirt? Or take a benching?
Even if the former is the move from Billy Napier and Florida, it still means Lagway must sit. Time to dive into how we got to this point in “The Swamp.”
DJ Lagway has taken a beating in 2025 with Florida
The Gators sit at an uncomfortable 1-3 mark. Long Island is Florida's only victory — which represents the Football Championship Subdivision.
Miami grabbed him down for four sacks in Saturday's 26-7 rout. Hurricanes edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr. even trolled Lagway and Florida.
Now Lagway has new concerning news attached to him.
Lagway got spotted in a walking boot Monday, per Zach Goodall of Swamp247. Florida has a huge showdown with Texas next following a bye week.
“A source familiar with Lagway's situation expressed confidence that the second-year quarterback will be ready to face Texas on Oct. 4, following the Gators' Week 5 bye,” Goodall wrote.
Ex-Gators great critiques Lagway's play
Shane Matthews fired off the warning before the Miami loss that something is off with the Florida QB1.
Matthews, who starred in Gainesville from 1990-1992, zeroed in on where the QB's flaws are.
“The interceptions that were thrown the other day were due to just staring receivers and the fundamentals are bad. I’ve been talking about it for two years. His feet are bad. You can’t change it. It’s muscle memory,” Matthews explained on his podcast. “They work on it, but he is who he is. He got away with it some last year. Now, can he improve by next week? No. You can’t. You can’t.”
Sure enough, Lagway never improved his feet facing Bain and a vastly improved Miami defense. Now Florida fans know his feet were never healthy.
What Florida must do with Lagway moving forward
The sky is falling on “The Swamp.” The waters in Gainesville are also choppy in looking at the state of the Gators.
Florida is still mathematically alive to clinch a bowl game. This team just needs to win five games to seal a spot. Though winning out will be better at UF.
But Florida needs the 2024 Lagway instead of this current one — as this version clearly isn't healthy.
It's time to roll with graduate transfer Harrison Bailey moving forward, which means redshirting Lagway. And it starts with this week in practice inserting him with the first team.
Why redshirting Lagway is the move
Lagway is showing he was never healthy enough to compete this season. Florida still has three top 10 programs left on the schedule in Texas, Texas A&M and Georgia. They then close with three more ranked foes in Ole Miss, Tennessee and the season finale versus Florida State.
Yes, Napier is likely guilty for tailoring the offense to Lagway. He'll need to prevent Lagway from drifting off if Napier is greenlit to come back in 2026.
Except Bailey is coming off Sun Bowl MVP honors from the 2024 season. He knows the SEC too, as a former Tennessee Volunteer.
Redshirting obviously isn't going to be popular among Florida fans. Especially with no guarantee Napier will return. But Lagway is Florida's most valuable vehicle — and this car needs to stay in the shop for more advanced repairs.
The unforgiving backend of the schedule doesn't secure hope Lagway will be healthy by season's end. Nor provide Gator fans hope their team will contend for the SEC title. The best case scenario is roll with an experienced, healthier passer and pray for competitive Saturdays. Because Lagway isn't at full strength to carry on.
