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Blackmon: DJ Lagway and the young Gators might have just turned the corner. Finally
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GAINESVILLE — Billy Napier and the Florida Gators finally got their moment.
Florida beat LSU 27-16 in the latest instant classic of a series that has become one of the SEC’s most compelling rivalries largely due to its propensity to produce thrilling football games.
Saturday’s slugfest in The Swamp wasn’t always pretty, but as outstanding Florida freshman running back Jadan Baugh burst around left tackle on his way to a 55-yard gallop to glory, maybe Napier’s Florida program turned the corner with him. As 91,000 roaring reptilians who made The Swamp a cauldron of sound and fury all Saturday afternoon shook the building with approval, it was natural to wonder if maybe, just maybe, Florida’s long star-crossed run of bad fortune and mediocrity was finally beginning to melt away.
After all, Florida’s most important win of the Napier era was built on the backs of true freshmen and a group of portal players Napier evaluated, recruited and entrusted with authoring a turnaround, even if that turn has come at a glacial pace.
There was Baugh, of course, who put the nail in the coffin with a powerful run as Florida tried to drain clock clinging to a 4-point lead late in the 4th quarter.
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There was his backfield mate Ja’Kobi Jackson, the lightly-recruited sophomore who gave the Gators the lead a possession earlier and helped Florida’s running back group average 7.7 yards per rush despite the LSU defense knowing Florida was unable to use the quarterback in the run game.
There was Florida’s banged-up, beleaguered secondary, missing 3 starters and playing multiple underclassmen who held up well enough in coverage to limit LSU to just 5.46 yards per attempt, a season low. One defensive back, Trikweze Bridges, was a Napier portal grab from Oregon who has spent much of the season at safety. On Saturday, he played corner, matching up frequently with LSU’s star Kyren Lacy and holding him to just 3 receptions for 43 yards.
The coverage was strong enough to buy additional time for Florida’s ferocious pass rush, which generated 21 pressures, 7 sacks and 6 quarterback hurries against an LSU offensive line that entered the game having allowed the fewest pressures and quarterback sacks in the SEC and fourth fewest in the country. The Gators also forced 2 Garrett Nussmeier fumbles on quarterback hits, one of which led to a turnover.
The onslaught of Florida pressure was led by Cam Banks, a Napier pull from the transfer portal, along with linebacker Shemar James, one of Napier’s first commitments as head coach. Combined, those 2 players alone produced 9 pressures, 4 sacks and 3 quarterback hurries, ratcheting up the pressure the most in the 4th quarter, when the Gators generated 9 pressures with the game hanging in the balance. For perspective, only Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Alabama produced as many as 9 pressures against LSU over the course of a single game.
Florida wasn’t perfect.
LSU ran 92 plays, largely due to Florida’s inability to stop the Tigers on 3rd-and-long. In the 2nd and 3rd quarters, LSU converted 7 consecutive 3rd downs of 6 yards or longer. On LSU’s first touchdown drive alone, the Tigers converted a 3rd-and-10, a 3rd-and-9, and threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Anderson on 3rd-and-12. On the night, LSU converted 15 of their 28 opportunities on 3rd or 4th down. That type of success rate usually portends doom for a defense.
Luckily , the Gators have a budding star at quarterback who can clean up a number of mistakes.
DJ Lagway, Florida’s fantastic true freshman, improved to 3-0 as the starter in games he’s finished, throwing for 226 yards and a touchdown and adding to his nation-high total of explosive passes of 30 yards or more with 3 more explosive passes of that distance on Saturday. Lagway has now connected on 16 passes of 30 yards or more on the season. He’s done so on just 25 attempts at that distance, a staggering 64% success rate on deep throws that also leads the country.
The best play by Lagway came when it mattered most. With the game tied at 13, Lagway saw a single-high safety look pre-snap as LSU cheated a safety to slow a run on 2nd-and-short as the Gators pushed toward field goal range. Lagway knew he had a choice between Chimere Dike and Elijhah Badger, one of whom would command the safety help. Flushed in the pocket, Lagway stepped up and delivered a strike to Badger as the LSU defense collapsed towards Dike.
DJ Lagway
— Steve Palazzolo (@StevePalazzolo_) November 16, 2024
“On that play, they cheated the safety and I thought they might bring Cat pressure, a cornerback run blitz. But they backed out and it vacated that area,” Lagway explained after the game. “I could have hit Chimere (Dike) on a finger route, it’s a little sail route and he was open, but once I stepped up I had Badger and he made a heck of a catch.”
Oh, so it’s that simple.
For a true freshman.
Lagway’s teammates can only marvel at the player who might just be good enough to change the fortunes of a coaching regime and a program that’s spent the decade lost in the college football shadowlands.
“DJ is a dude,” linebacker Shemar James said after the win. “He showed grit tonight, right? Coming back from a tough injury just 2 weeks earlier. He came out in a huge game and played with poise. He showed command of the offense. And he came out and made some pretty good throws.”
James laughed and said, “You know, I am trying to keep him humble, OK. In all seriousness though, we are very fortunate to have DJ on our team.”
Very fortunate isn’t a phrase you’d use to describe a Florida program that has cycled through 5 coaches since their last transcendental quarterback talent, Tim Tebow, left campus after the 2009 Sugar Bowl. It’s not a phrase you’d use to describe Napier, who has dealt with injuries to his starting quarterback in all 3 of his seasons at Florida, including 2 season-ending injuries to Graham Mertz and the aforementioned injury to Lagway, which came with the Gators in command of the Georgia game in Jacksonville. Very fortunate isn’t a phrase you’d use to describe being a Gator fan over the past 10 years, as the losing seasons (4) have piled up almost faster than the dysfunction.
Change doesn’t happen overnight, but a great player can give it a push.
Perhaps that’s why Florida’s fans, who have sold out 11 consecutive games despite defeats and despair, lingered after the final whistle to savor this pitch perfect November Saturday and rivalry win just a moment longer.
Perhaps the long autumns are finally behind them.
Perhaps the great Saturdays will become more frequent soon.
With DJ Lagway, Florida feels like anything is possible.
What a very fortunate place for a fan base to be.
Neil Blackmon covers Florida football and the SEC for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
