After just one week being sidelined with an injury, Florida true freshman quarterback DJ Lagway is now expected to make his return to the field this Saturday vs. LSU football.
Florida freshman quarterback DJ Lagway expected to make return from injury vs. LSU football on Saturday
Coming out of high school, quarterback DJ Lagway was often looked at as the future of not only the Florida Gators, but all of college football.
Rated as the No. 3 overall recruit in the class of 2024, according to 247Sports, the 6-foot-3, 241-pound signal caller out of Willis, TX, was almost assumed to be a future starter in Gainesville. If anything, it was just a matter of how long returning starter Graham Mertz would be able to hold onto the job this season.
As it would turn out, it didn’t take long, as an injury took the 6th-year senior out for the season mid-October, ultimately opening the door for Lagway to take over. With that said, injury luck clearly hasn’t been on the Gators’ side this season, as Lagway would then go down with his own leg injury in week 10, just three weeks later vs. Georgia.
Fortunately for Billy Napier and his program, it’s become abundantly apparent that Lagway’s injury wasn’t nearly as bad as it appeared initially. Earlier this week on Thursday, the Florida head coach announced that the star true freshman will return to the field Saturday against LSU football.
While the Tigers are still the narrow favorites (-3.5) to come away with a victory in Gainesville, news of DJ Lagway returning isn’t something that will make their job any easier.
As a true freshman in 2024, the former five-star quarterback has thrown the ball 92 times for 1,071 yards, six touchdowns and five interceptions. While those kinds of numbers alone won’t exactly scare an SEC defense, his running ability is more than capable of keeping the Gators in this matchup until the clock hits zero Saturday evening, as he’s carried the ball 37 times for 114 yards in eight appearances.
The LSU football defense is no stranger to giving up big plays to athletic quarterbacks. As a matter of fact, in their last two matchups alone, the Tigers have allowed opposing signal callers to carry the ball 21 times for 247 yards and seven touchdowns. At the end of the day, that’s just not winning football.
If Brian Kelly and his squad have any hopes of heading back to Baton Rouge with their seventh victory of the 2024 season this weekend, they’ll need to make at least some adjustments. Otherwise, DJ Lagway has the ability and the potential to cause some serious issues for the purple and gold.
LSU football will take on the Florida Gators this Saturday, November 16, 2024, at 2:30 p.m. CT in what will be their 10th game of the 2024 season. The matchup is set to take place in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Gainesville, FL, and will be available to watch live on ABC and ESPN+.
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