Is there life after DJ Lagway? Florida football is about to find out

JACKSONVILLE — The early diagnosis for DJ Lagway is a “soft tissue” injury. Whatever it is, things are about to get really hard for the Florida football team.

The Gators lost to Georgia Saturday, though by now you know the real story. Lagway damaged his left hamstring in the second quarter and was scootered off the field.

Florida’s hopes of winning went with him, and not just on Saturday. The Gators will likely face Texas, LSU and Ole Miss with their third-string quarterback.

That would be Aidan Warner, a walk-on from Yale. He was elevated to second string when Graham Mertz tore an ACL.

That’s just one of the injuries that have descended upon the Gators. At this point, you wonder if someone has a Billy Napier voodoo doll and is gleefully sticking pins in it.

Why Saturday’s game was a before-and-after story for Florida football

Until Lagway went down, Napier was coaching his finest game at UF. This wasn’t UCF or Kentucky across the field. It was Georgia.

Beat the Dawgs, and the Fire Billy bandwagon would fall apart. That scenario was based largely on Lagway being the program savior he’d been cracked up to be.

He looked the part when he threw a 43-yard TD to Aidan Mizell to give Florida a 7-3 lead. Even more shocking to UGA fans was how Florida’s offensive line was controlling Georgia’s defense.

Now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d write.

Add to that, UF’s defense was going mano-a-mano with the Bulldogs. It looked nothing like the ragtag unit it was at the start of the season.

“The objective today was to come here and to put fanatical effort on the field,” Napier said. “We wanted to ramp up the intensity.”

They did. The Gators had a 10-3 lead. They’d just sacked Carson Beck to force a punt.

The orange-and-blue half of EverBank Stadium was rocking. Then it happened.

What the mood shift says…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/life-dj-lagway-florida-football-012831018.html

Author : The Gainesville Sun

Publish date : 2024-11-03 01:28:31

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