DJ Lagway and Billy Napier earn surprising honors no one saw coming this week

On a week in which the Gators made history with their first win over the University of Texas in Florida history and knocked Texas out of the AP top 25, the Gators earned surprising honors in the process as well.

The Southeast Conference on Monday named Florida quarterback, DJ Lagway as the SEC offensive player of the week. And even more surprising was that head coach, Billy Napier joined him in being name SEC head coach of the week.

Lagway on Saturday against Texas was 21-for-28 and 298 passing yards. He averaged 10.6 yards per pass and recorded two passing touchdowns as well. He threw one interception, but Florida did enough to negate that interception and go on to defeat Texas 29-21.

Lagway’s first passing touchdown of the day came in the second on a 13 yard pass to Dallas Wilson who ran it in for the Gators’ second touchdown of the day to extend their lead to 17-7 over the Longhorns. 

In the third quarter with under a minute to play, Lagway again connected to Wilson on a 55 yard pass that extended the Gators’ lead again to 29-14.

In total in 2025, Lagway, who suffered a couple offseason injuries and has continued to work his way back to 100 percent health, now has 988 yards with seven touchdowns.

It wasn’t a surprise that Lagway earned honors after the performance he put up against the then No. 9 Texas, but what was surprising was that the SEC coach who’s been under fire this whole season joined him as the SEC named coach Billy Napier the SEC coach of the week.

With his job under fire, Billy Napier led the Gators to a huge win over Texas on Saturday. That win was win No. 61 for Napier (No. 21 with the University of Florida). 

Napier still has work to do, however, as he sits just 21-22 with Florida and has a gauntlet of a schedule coming up the remainder of the season.