Florida Football's season is trying to be saved by DJ Lagway

This time last week, the bulk of Florida Football fans were despondent following the masterclass of a choke job by Billy Napier against Tennessee. Entering this week, most prognosticators, including us at Hail Florida Hail, predicted a win for Florida over Kentucky but also promoted to take the under in the game.

Florida beating Kentucky isn't shocking. Florida beating Kentucky 48-20 does raise an eyebrow or two.

Florida Football: Go DJ, That's My DJ

When we posted our prediction this morning, we had said:

"So when mapping out how many points I think Florida is going to score, there is what they should/could do and then what they probably will do.

Tennessee, for example, has put up 45, 44, and 33 points against Kentucky in the past three seasons. Joe Milton scored 33 points last year against Stoops, but we are supposed to believe DJ Lagway can't?

Well, that's where what Florida will probably do inhibits their ability to score."

Make no mistake about it; Billy Napier tried his best at times to inhibit Florida from putting up points.

But the deep shots from DJ Lagway dragged Florida kicking and screaming to one of their best offensive outputs in the Billy Napier Era.

Lagway completed a grand total of seven passes and still had 259 yards passing.

Five of his seven completions were for over 40 yards. Not even Kyle Trask or Tim Tebow managed a game of five completions for 40+ yards.

It highlights the frustrations Gator fans have had since the Samford game and it's knowing Florida could be going vertical but were relegated to Napier's Micky Mouse dink and dunk offense.

This isn't a shot at Graham Mertz, who has been the ultimate professional since arriving in Gainesville. Still, after the Samford game, we said that Lagway offered a ceiling that Mertz would never achieve.

Add in Jadan Baugh scoring five touchdowns and even a Cormani McClain sighting, and what transpired in The Swamp was something Gator fans haven't felt since opening night against Utah in 2022.

Hope.

The hope isn't that Napier has turned a corner; his end-of-half decision-making and continued special teams blunders showed that hasn't happened.

The hope is that Lagway will drag this Gator squad to a respectable season despite Napier.

Florida will now go into their bye week before facing four straight top-20 opponents.

Maybe, just maybe, Lagway can win one or two of those.