Dave Aranda has been fired as Baylor’s head coach, and typically, a Big 12 coach getting fired would have nothing to do with Florida fans. Aranda did take in former Gator QB DJ Lagway this offseason, and for most Florida fans, this was just a footnote back in February, and most Florida fans wouldn’t have had a reason to care.
But it turns out when you attempt to craft an offseason PR campaign that tries to scapegoat Florida fans as the reason why your new starting QB wasn’t successful in 2025, only for that same starting QB to be among the reasons you were fired seven games into the 2026 season, that we here at Hail Florida Hail might have one or two things to say.
DJ Lagway has a second coach fired in two years
Let’s just take a quick review of the timeline of Lagway and how we got here:
Lagway committed to Florida in December of 2022, and despite efforts from other teams around the country, he never backed off that commitment. Lagway started the 2024 season as the backup to Graham Mertz, but when Mertz was hurt in the opener against Miami, it was Lagway who got the start against Samford and instantly wowed everyone.
Lagway and Mertz would engage in a convoltued rotation that the Man in the Black Polo conjured up, until Mertz tore his ACL and was out the rest of the season. In Lagway’s first SEC start against Kentucky, he tore the Wildcats up with 259 yards off just seven completions.
Lagway got hurt against Georgia, returned against LSU, and helped spark a four-game winning streak to close out the 2024 season.
Then during the 2025 offseason, Lagway was the center of a weird melodrama involving his rehab efforts after he didn’t want to have surgery on his shoulder. Just as Lagway was ready to start throwing, he strained his calf to open fall camp.
Once the 2025 season itself started, Lagway was a shell of what we saw in 2024. The Man in the Black Polo was fired midway through the season, and while Lagway did finish the year out, he transfered away once Jon Sumrall came to town, and he opted to go to Baylor, which is where his father played.
Gator fans didn’t have hard feelings until…
When Lagway transferred out, most Gator fans understood and had no hard feelings. Lagway seemed to try his best, was handcuffed by an Ask Madden offense, and if he wanted a fresh start, then it was what it was.
But then the PR campaign started, and that's when feelings toward Lagway went south. Lagway’s camp, alongside Aranda, ran around all offseason to any national publication that needed content to paint a picture that Lagway’s struggles in Gainesville had very little to do with Lagway himself.
And frankly, if Lagway’s camp had cast blame at the Man in the Black Polo, most would have agreed. Instead, Aranda and Lagway’s camp tried to blame Gator fans for Lagway's failure. Florida fans were to blame for Lagway staying isolated in his apartment, and they caused him to doubt himself. Never mind that these same fans were begged to donate money to Florida Victorious so that Lagway could have multiple luxury cars and his parents could have a private jet to games; it was Gator Nation that was the problem.
If one is going to craft a campaign like that, then it better be backed up. Well, the same Lagway camp that took offense to any notion that Lagway might be injury prone had to watch as Lagway was hurt in the first game of the season. The same Lagway camp that claimed there was too much pressure on Lagway in Gainesville, and that he'd play more freely at Baylor, had to watch Lagway botch up a relatively easy throw against Auburn with the game on the line. The same Lagway camp that felt 93,000 fans in The Swamp were being unreasonable got to trot out in front of 46,000 fans when Baylor lost at home to TCU 17-6.
And the same Lagway camp that refused to blame The Man in the Black Polo now have to look around and wonder why their head coach has been fired midseason two years in a row.
Dave Aranda shares in this because he went along with the narrative that it was all Florida’s fault. One might look at this piece and go, “DJ Lagway is rent-free in the head of Florida fans.”
We would counter with Florida living rent-free in the heads of Aranda and Lagway. Florida fans had mostly forgotten about Lagway, but every time we looked up this offseason, they were blamed for his failures.
So maybe, just maybe, we can stop blaming Gainesville for the downfall of people, and we can admit that some people just aren’t cut out for what is required at a place like Florida.
Especially when those same people aren’t cut out for what is required at Baylor.
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