DJ Lagway first visited Florida as a high school quarterback and sat in the quarterbacks meeting room with Anthony Richardson, coach Billy Napier and assistant Ryan O'Hara. He heard detailed concept explanations, observed coaching methods and player relationships, and decided he needed that environment to become elite. Lagway committed to Florida in 2022, signed in 2023, and played impressively as a true freshman. He grew up in Willis, Texas, idolized the Gators' colors and swagger, remembered playing with a fake controller and Tim Tebow on a cover, and accepted the pressure of following a program with three Heisman-winning quarterbacks.
He heard them going over concepts in intricate detail, but he also saw the way the coaches taught, the way the players learned and the relationship they all had with one another. The more he listened, the more he realized how badly he needed to be in this room himself, believing he could become elite with this type of coaching. "They were just talking and I'm like, 'I don't know what that is, but I've got to learn that,'" Lagway says.
He committed to Florida in 2022, at a time when Napier needed a big recruiting win. Though he was a toddler in Willis, Texas, when Florida had won its last national championship in 2008, Lagway grew up on stories about the Gators. He loved the colors. He loved the swagger the team played with. His cousins used to play college football video games, and as a way to appease him, they gave him a fake controller so he could feel like he was playing with them.
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