GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Highly touted freshman DJ Lagway threw for 456 yards and three touchdowns in his first collegiate start and Florida beat lower-division Samford 45-7 on Saturday to give embattled coach Billy Napier a brief reprieve following a season-opening debacle.
Lagway completed his first seven passes while filling in for Graham Mertz (concussion) and showed why he was the consensus No. 1 quarterback recruit in the country last year. The 6-foot-3, 240-pound Texan connected on six passes that gained at least 30 yards — something the Gators (1-1) accomplished a mere 14 times last season.
“He is what we thought he was,” Napier said.
Lagway hooked up with Elijhah Badger for 77 yards. He hit Chimere Dike and Hayden Hansen for 44 and 40 yards, respectively. He found speedster Tank Hawkins in stride for a 36-yard score. He connected with Aidan Mizell for a 41-yard touchdown. And his shovel pass to Eugene Wilson III turned into an 85-yard score to cap an electric performance in the Swamp.
“Those are accurate, right in stride,” Napier said. “It’s impressive.”
Lagway broke the school record for passing yards by a freshman, topping Chris Leak’s mark of 268 set in 2003 against Kentucky.
Even though it came against the overmatched Bulldogs (0-2) — 38-point underdogs from the Football Championship Subdivision — Lagway’s outing should at least give Napier pause when it comes to determining playing time at the all-important position moving forward. After all, Lagway did things Mertz hasn’t done in two years since transferring from Wisconsin.
“My mindset was to take advantage of my opportunity, go out there and compete with some heck of players around me,” Lagway said.
The Gators led 21-0 following Lagway’s perfectly placed pass to Hawkins in the end zone, and the score could have been more lopsided had freshman running back Jaden Baugh not fumbled at the goal line early.
Samford, which gave the Gators a scare in the Swamp in 2021, avoided a shutout thanks to a 75-yard scoring drive in the third.
By then, the Florida faithful had seen enough from Lagway to start chanting his name. And now Napier has a decision to make: go back to Mertz or give a frustrated fan base a shimmer of hope amid what seemed like a completely dreadful season a week ago?
Then-No. 19 Miami thumped the Gators 41-17 in Gainesville in Week 1, the kind of beatdown that had fans clamoring for Napier to be fired. Napier made it worse two days later by referring to critiques as “what some guy in his basement is saying in rural central Florida on social media.”
No one would need a front-row seat in the Swamp to realize Lagway is special.
He completed 18 of 25 passes and stayed in the game despite getting drilled twice while scrambling. Wilson finished with six receptions for 141 yards, Badger caught three passes for 123 yards and Montrell Johnson ran 15 times for 67 yards and two scores.
But the night was all about Lagway.
“Oh, man, I love that kid,” defensive end Tyreak Sapp said. “I already knew the night was going to be success for him just by the way he works and the way he carries himself. He carries himself like a starting quarterback. Honestly, I wasn’t even surprised.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.