Yes it was Samford, but Florida Football needs to start DJ Lagway moving forward

One of the follies we wanted to avoid heading into Saturday's game against Samford was overreacting to anything DJ Lagway did in his first start for Florida Football. It's easy to rack up meaningless stats for the sake of stats against an FCS team without there being any substance behind them.

But that is also why we watched the game and had the eyeball test, and on Saturday night, the film didn't lie. Billy Napier isn't going to do it, but if he wants to salvage the Gators' season, he needs to insert Lagway as the starting quarterback for the remainder of the 2024 season.

Florida Football: Go DJ, That's My DJ

The headline from the game is that Lagway threw for 456 yards and three TDs to set a Florida freshman record for a QB in a single game. But it is easy to rack up yards when things like a jet sweep pop pass to Tre Wilson count as an 85-yard pass.

That's why we had said prior to the game we wanted to see at least 150 air yards out of Lagway. Air yards are how many yards down the field the receiver down the field when he physically catches the ball but doesn't count any yards after the catch.

As a reference point, Florida averaged 101 air yards per game last season and had 77 air yards against their FCS opponent last year, McNeese State.

Last night in The Swamp, Lagway had 221 air yards.

Translation, Lagway has the ability to pump the ball downfield vertically in a manner that Graham Mertz does not.

Yes, there is the caveat that Lagway had time in the pocket that Mertz seldom enjoyed last Saturday against Miami, but sometimes all it takes is one throw to know one player has a higher ceiling than the other and Lagway's third QB TD to Aidan Mizell was that throw.

In that play, Lagway did not benefit from time. Rather than take off running, he kept his eye downfield, stayed poised to climb the pocket, and, with the flick of a wrist, found Mizell 41 yards down the field in tight coverage for the score.

Lagway also had deep shots to Tank Hawkins and Elijhah Badger and finished the night with four completions that had at least 20 air yards.

All last season Mertz had a total of 16 completions that had at least 20 air yards.

We like Mertz and thought he was a solid QB last season, but he was not good against Miami and Florida has far too much speed in their wide receiver group to rely upon needing to dink and dunk their way down the field.

But this is Napier we are talking about, and when asked about the possibility of Lagway starting next week against Texas A&M he said:

"(Lagway) was a Gatorade National Player of the Year. He's one of the best players in the entire country, and he had the opportunity to play the entire game today, and he is what we thought he was. We're going to stay the course, and much like we described in the beginning, we'll have a plan for DJ every week going forward."

- Billy Napier

Translation: Mertz will get his job back once he is cleared from his concussion.

It's a story as old as time that the backup QB is the most popular guy on the team. But Florida fans know what they saw on Saturday. They saw things that even against McNeese State, UNC Charlotte, or Vanderbilt they never saw last season.

The scared money is to go back to the sixth year veteran.

But if Napier wants to keep making money in Gainesville, he has to make the tough choice and start Lagway.