CFB analyst offers bold prediction about DJ Lagway’s performance in 2025

Quarterback DJ Lagway was a five-star recruit in the 2024 recruiting class. However, he was not expected to play a significant role on the Florida Gators last season. He was supposed to be a backup behind starting QB Graham Mertz. However, Mertz struggled with injuries throughout the season, and as a result, Lagway needed to step in as the starter several times.

While appearing in 12 of the Gators' games, Lagway showed he is ready to be a full-time college starter. He completed 115 of 192 passing attempts for 1915 yards and 12 touchdowns. He also will not be contested for the starting job because Graham Mertz will not be back after getting selected by the Houston Texans in the 2025 NFL draft.

On Monday, a new episode of the "Ultimate College Football Show" was released. In a clip posted on X, college football analyst Smoke Dixon spoke about what to expect from DJ Lagway next season.

"DJ Lagway, when you study him, all you've seen since high school is progressively year in and year out he's gotten better in completion percentage," Dixon said. "The team went from a few games to Tampa this year. Then you go back and study last year's film, every time he got into a game, he was a morale booster. When he stepped in the huddle, they just had a little more pep in their step.

"Just throwing 1192 balls last year, I believe that his trajectory in the sophomore year, everyone says sophomore slump, nah, this is a sophomore jump in terms of production and performance. The only reason we're talking about Florida right now is because of DJ Lagway's right arm."

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DJ Lagway resumed throwing at the end of April

Although there is a lot of excitement for what DJ Lagway can do next season, he has not been able to show it much in spring practice. He was not able to participate in the team's spring game because of a lingering shoulder injury from the season.

However, Gators coach Billy Napier maintained confidence throughout his media appearances during spring practice that Lagway would be returning soon and would be available next season. In late April, Lagway was able to resume throwing drills.

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Although it is not ideal that Lagway was not a full participant in spring practice, he should still be good to go for next season.

About the author

Alexander O'Reilly is a journalist at Sportskeeda from Kingston, Ontario with over seven years in the field at companies including SenShot, RVBlogger, Monarch Media, WordAgents, GSeC LLC, and IGC.

His favorite college team is Duke, and his favorite sporting memory was Duke winning March Madness in 2010. JJ Redick was Alex's favorite college player when he was young but more recently, Caleb Williams gets the nod. As the Chicago Bears are Alex's favorite NFL team, this was a perfect match.

Alex's proudest moment came when he was interviewed by a radio station in Ottawa on his opinion on recent moves by the Ottawa Senators, which gave him a confidence boost and the knowledge that he could succeed as a writer.

Aside from sports, Alex likes to spend his time playing games. He is also very passionate about running and strives to improve at the half and full marathon distances.

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Edited by Alexander O'Reilly