Power ranking Florida’s potential DJ Lagway replacements with Aaron Philo in the transfer portal

DJ Lagway reportedly intended to stay at Florida after a tumultuous sophomore season in Gainesville, but it doesn’t appear that he was a match with Jon Sumrall and offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner. With the transfer portal set to open January 2, the former five-star QB has announced his intention to enter his name, and though he struggled and battled injuries in 2025, he’ll be highly coveted. 

While everyone rushes to find a new landing spot for Lagway, what about Sumrall, Faulkner, and Florida? Well, it seems that a few connections have already been made. Faulkner spent three seasons as the Georgia Tech offensive coordinator, two of them with 2024 three-star Aaron Philo as his backup QB to Haynes King. 

The redshirt freshman appeared in two games this past season, after showing flashes as a true freshman in 2024. Now, it appears he’s Florida’s top target at QB. So, while he’s the most likely replacement, maybe even including Tramell Jones and Will Griffin, who are on the roster, it’s fair to ask if he’s the best possible replacement in Gainesville. 

With the portal class looking loaded a few weeks out from the window, there are a few more proven QBs whom Sumrall and Faulkner should consider making a play for. 

He’s not the biggest name to enter his name in the portal this winter, but even with Lagway and Dylan Raiola on the move, Sorsby immediately shot to the top of my board when he announced his intentions to leave Cincinnati on Monday. 

The 6-foot-3, 235-pound former Indiana Hoosier is a high-level deep ball thrower, efficient runner, and elite sack mitigator. His pressure-to-sack rate was one of the best in the country, and combined with his dual-threat ability, he constantly keeps his offense ahead of the sticks. 

AS a thrower, Sorsby is accurate, throws with good anticipation, and has the arm to push the ball outside the numbers. He quickly sets his feet as he clicks through his progressions to ensure he’s always throwing from a solid base from the pocket. Yet, he still has impressive creativity in terms of his arm slots and throwing on the run. 

Sorsby is awaiting NFL draft grades before officially entering the portal, and that’s bad news for QB-needy college teams, because I’d be willing to spend a late first-round pick on him. 

If Sorsby leaves for the NFL, then Leavitt is likely No. 2 on my portal QB board. That’s especially the case for Florida with a Buster Faulkner offense that is going to ask its quarterback to provide something with his legs, which all but disqualifies Raiola. 

In 2024, when Arizona State leaned on Cam Skattebo and a dominant run game, Leavitt played within himself, using his athleticism to avoid sacks at a high level and extend plays as a scrambler and a thrower. He didn’t tend to put the ball in harm’s way, but hit the big plays when they were there. 

In 2025, with Skattebo gone and offensive line issues popping up in Tempe, Leavitt had to become a playmaker and the primary engine for his offense. That increased his sack rate and willingness to throw into tight windows. While that inevitably led to less inconsistent play, it was a necessary concession. In a better circumstance, I expect he’ll meld the two play styles and shoot back up NFL Draft boards. 

Mensah is locked into a big-money NIL deal at Duke and isn’t likely to leave. Pete Nakos of On3 reported that his agent said he’s staying in Durham. Still, it’s impossible not to connect Mensah to his former head coach from 2024 at Tulane. 

Mensah was excellent as a redshirt freshman that season and took another step forward in 2025 despite making the jump from the American to the ACC. He finished with 30 touchdowns to just five interceptions while completing nearly 68 percent of his throws and averaging 8.1 yards per attempt in a pass-heavy offense. He’s not much of a rushing threat, but is a playmaker outside the structure of the offense, which Faulkner could work with if Sumrall somehow pried him away. 

In his lone start this season, against Gardner-Webb, Philo finished 21-for-28 for 373 yards and a touchdown. 2024, though, features his most impressive film, leading a fourth-quarter comeback against NC State with 322 total yards. 

Philo is a good downfield thrower who features exceptional accuracy when throwing on the run. While he won’t be carrying the ball 15 times, he’s a plus athlete who can get himself out of trouble and keep plays alive. There’s a reason that Georgia Tech was high on him as King’s replacement, but now it appears that he’ll be heading to Gainesville with Faulkner. 

There was a moment back in fall camp when it seemed that Kenny Minchey was going to beat out CJ Carr for the starting job in South Bend, and we all saw how good Carr was this season. That has many thinking very highly of Minchey in this portal cycle. 

He’s a far more athletic quarterback than Carr, a true dual-threat who could play more like King in Faulkner’s offense, but there’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding a player who has never started a game at the collegiate level.