Florida’s star quarterback DJ Lagway made his preseason camp debut Saturday, throwing passes while wearing a sleeve on his left leg after suffering a strained calf injury this summer. It was a key step forward for the Heisman Trophy hopeful, who missed spring practice with a shoulder issue and has been on the shelf numerous times since the start of his college career last year.
The sophomore strained a hamstring in that same left leg last season and missed a week with the injury.
Gators coach Billy Napier said this week that Lagway would be limited to start camp and was listed as day-to-day.
“In general, he’s made a lot of quick progress,” Napier said. “But it will be something that we’re monitoring, and hopefully as we go, his ability to participate in practice will be a little bit more each opportunity that we get going forward.”
So long as the latest ailment remains a relatively minor issue, Lagway should be back on the field well in advance of Florida’s Week 1 game against Long Island. The Gators may go as Lagway goes this fall; a healthy version could make them a darkhorse contender to reach the SEC Championship Game.
That outlook is the product of a stellar conclusion to Lagway’s true freshman season, wherein he dazzled over the final four games of the campaign and led Florida to wins in each of those contests, two of which came against ranked opponents. Lagway completed 59.9% of his passes on the year and threw nine interceptions, but the bright spots outweighed his growing pains. A 456-yard explosion against Samford was a tremendous introduction to the Lagway era, and he concluded the 2024 season with a 305-yard effort in a Gasparilla Bowl blowout of Tulane.
Lagway joined Florida last year as the No. 1 quarterback in the 2024 recruiting class and No. 3 prospect overall. The five-star signee, per 247Sports, projects as the face of the program as he hopes to elevate a Gators squad that struggled in the opening years of the Napier era. In the process, he may cement himself as a premier NFL Draft prospect.
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