Is Billy Napier and the Florida Gators going to rise from their ashes like a phoenix? The 2024 season showed the Gators the darkest shades of the game. They rounded off the season with an 8-5 overall record. There was a time when Napier was almost being pushed out of the exit door. That’s when his buyout figures worth a whopping $26.7 million started to do rounds.
But looks like in the 2025 season, Napier’s seat will cool down and rather will be all cozy. Florida insider is confident about the Gators’ CFP fate. However, they will be finding one thorn in their race to the playoffs. That’s the injury gods pouring their blessings on their QB DJ Lagway.
Analyst predicts a turnaround for Billy Napier’s Gators
Yes, the 2024 season has been mostly about misses as compared to hits for Napier’s boys. Entering their road matchup against Texas Longhorns, they were left to pieces in a 49-17 loss. Steve Sarkisian’s boys came up with a 35-0 lead by halftime. The Gators allowed the Longhorns to record 562 total yards. But this season is going to be a totally new picture for Florida. That’s what On3 host Josh Newberg believes.
NCAA, College League, USA Football: Florida at Tennessee, Sep 24, 2022 Knoxville, Tennessee, USA Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier during the first quarter against the Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports, 24.09.2022 16:15:08, 19107825, Billy Napier, Tennessee Volunteers, NCAA Football, Florida, Florida Gators, Tennessee, Neyland Stadium PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xRandyxSartinx 19107825
On the March 19 episode of the On3 podcast, he had Zach Abolverdi, the senior writer for Gatorsonline.com as his guest. Now who is going to be the flagbearer in the Gators’ race to the CFP? Napier’s QB Lagway, who is “one of the best quarterbacks to come out of the class.” As he steps into his second year, Newberg stated, “It kind of feels like there’s a win now mentality around this program.” He topped up with a question for the Florida insider. “Do you get that sense?” To which Abolverdi replied, “100%.”
Personnel wise the Florida fam is all sorted. While fans were worried whether Napier would be hiring an offensive coordinator for the 2025 season, he did not go looking for the OC outside. Rather, he promoted Florida’s co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach, Russ Callaway. Plus, QB Lagway now has the luxury of breaking in with the nation’s top OL Jake Slaughter. On that note, the insider stated, “Knowing that all the pieces that Florida has coming back on offense, they feel like they’ve got the talent to win.” He topped it up with, “They feel like they’ve got the talent to go make a college football playoff, to compete for the SEC championship.”
The analyst believes that their act of redemption will start with Lagway. The stars have aligned in favor of Napier’s squad. After all, when schools have lost their goodnight’s sleep over the starting quarterback dilemma, the Gators are all sorted. Some more praise for Lagway? Why not. Abolverdi stated, “Even though he is limited this spring, he’s still out there on the practice field. He’s a presence in the building. He’s a guy that’s kind of taken that leadership role ever since Graham Mertz went down last year.” So where does the QB stand in terms of his injury updates?
Billy Napier’s is riding with caution when it comes to DJ Lagway
First, it was On3 analyst Andy Staples who predicted the spring future for DJ Lagway stating that it would be no surprise to not see the QB throwing for the remainder of the spring. Going by the updates from Napier, Lagway will be “limited in throwing activities” during spring practice. After all, the QB has been dealing with a lower-body injury. Now the QB has caught the bad juju for quite some time. Last November too, he missed a game while recovering from a strained left hamstring he suffered against Georgia.
However, Napier’s QB did not take much rest and started every game after, including Florida’s bowl victory against Tulane in December. So will Lagway be in complete hibernation mode? Definitely not. As Napier assured, “I think our intentions here are to be very smart. I do think he’ll be limited in throwing activities. But he’ll participate in all practices otherwise.”
Turns out that Billy Napier is not going to take any risk about DJ Lagway. After all, he is the biggest weapon that will be turning their CFP fate. He went 6-1 as a starter, completing 60% of his passes for 1,915 yards, with 12 touchdowns and nine interceptions. So his Florida fam is making sure he’s fully healthy by August for their season opener against LIU Sharks.
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