CFB analyst places his bets on Florida Gators in 2025 under one specific condition

The Florida Gators had an up-and-down 2024 season. The season started poorly as they lost two of their first three games and five of their first nine. However, they finished the season strong, winning their last four matchups, including two wins over ranked opponents, LSU and Ole Miss.

A big reason for the Gators' success was the emergence of freshman quarterback DJ Lagway. He stepped up for the team when starter Graham Mertz went down with an injury. His coming to light is a big reason that analyst Ari Wasserman thinks the Gators will be much better next season than most fans expect.

On Monday's episode of "Andy & Ari," Wasserman spoke about how the Florida Gators are the team he is picking to exceed expectations next season. However, he gave the condition that Lagway needs to be healthy.

"I told you I pick a team to be good that people laugh at me for. I think Florida's gonna be my team this year," Wasserman said (0:30). "Let me be perfectly clear. If he's not healthy, I'm not standing by that. This is predicated on DJ Lagway being awesome. When you have freshman receivers, my No. 1 concern with them is they don't have enough receiver power to get consistently open and have game breaking ability.

"Because the more the years go on, the more the good teams that end up winning the most have those guys who can't be covered and make plays at important times are the ones who are really good. I just don't know how good Florida's receivers will be, but I feel a lot better now than I did on Friday."

DJ Lagway is expected to start throwing again "in a couple of weeks" for the Florida Gators

DJ Lagway emerged as a star last season for the Florida Gators, but the offseason has not been perfect for him. He has dealt with an undisclosed shoulder injury. Fortunately for the team, he is not expected to be out for long.

Gators coach Billy Napier spoke after practice on Saturday about how he expects him to start throwing in a few weeks.

"DJ's doing great," Napier said. "He'll start throwing here in a couple weeks. We will start OTAs in June; he'll be 100%. Everything is on schedule."

It appears to be an optimistic outlook for Lagway to get healthy well before the start of the 2025 season in late August.