DJ Lagway’s 2025 freefall was the moment the Billy Napier Era died

For almost two years before he even put the jersey on for Florida, DJ Lagway was hyped up to be the savior of the Gators and of Billy Napier. The former five-star prospect had all the tools needed to morph into a Heisman winner down the road, and even when things weren’t going great for Napier, there was still the hope and promise of Lagway.

That hope and promise fizzled out as Lagway showed flashes of what he could do in 2024 but hit a freefall in 2025.

As a result, both Lagway and Napier are now gone from Gainsville, having accomplished none of what seemed possible when they originally arrived.

DJ Lagway set to hit the transfer portal

To fully grasp what a flop 2025 was for Florida, one has to understand the vision coming out of the 2024 campaign. Napier was embattled, but the Gators ended the season on a high note in large part because of Lagway taking the reins as the starting QB. 

In the games that Lagway started and finished in 2024, Florida was undefeated.

But then an offseason filled with chaos doomed Lagway and Napier before the first snap of 2025 was even taken. Right as spring practice was about to start, it was revealed that Lagway wouldn’t be throwing all spring due to a shoulder issue as well as a hernia issue. 

That alone raised red flags because the Gators had so many new wide receivers they were trying to break in, and there were already question marks as to what it would do to Lagway’s timing with the offense. Shortly after spring camp, Lagway started throwing again, only to suffer a calf injury on the eve of fall camp that further delayed his ability to practice.

As Napier made sure to let us know multiple times throughout the season, Lagway had missed a significant portion of the offseason, and it showed.

His footwork was sloppy, his arm strength was gone, and his ability to read the field had regressed.

The free-and-easy gunslinger from 2024 had morphed into a caricature of a bad seven-on-seven QB who looked, at times, like he had never played organized football in his life.

Who gets the blame?

In time, it will come out how much of this was on Lagway, how much on Napier, and how much on QB Ryan O’Hara. The lack of arm strength is understandable if his shoulder was still a problem, but it doesn’t explain why Lagway’s footwork and ability to read the field were as bad as they were.

Whoever’s fault it is, the end result is that Napier had built Florida into a position for Lagway to be the guy who would save everyone. When Lagway didn’t do that, Napier was fired and went down as the worst coach Florida has had since World War II.

In the modern world of college football, none of this is shocking. Of the top ten rated QBs from the class of 2024, Lagway now makes the 5th to have already transferred from his original school. Of the five QBs still at their original school, only two had at least 100 pass attempts in 2025.

It’s a reminder that no matter how talented a prospect may be coming out of high school, one should never count on any single player being the guy who will save a program.