How Does Florida Use DJ Lagway In 2024? | Florida Gators Football 2024

welcome back to another episode of rock boys football one of the more fascinating storylines for this Florida Gator program heading into 2024 is how do you use five-star quarterback DJ lagway in the 2024 season where heading into 2024 I don't think there's any question marks about who's going to be quarterback one deal we've been very vocal we think Graham Merz one of the better quarterbacks in the SEC but on kind of the flip side you look at DJ lague and it's hard to argue against that he's a guy that can help Florida win in the 2024 season want to get into I have a couple of different conversations that have been highly contested on Florida Gator message boards and that is how much do you use DJ lagway but I think more importantly how do you use DJ lagway in this 2024 season really excited to get into this conversation before we doing as always one to the Florida Gator fans would love to hear from you guys in the comments section there are lot of different opinions and takes that we see on the Florida Gator message boards would love to hear how you guys are feeling in the comment section no really right answer to this just a lot of different opinions we'll see how it plays out so would love to hear from you guys if yall do enjoy the content consider subscribing to the channel and D without further Ado I'll give you the T boox we've seen these kind of situations in the past in fact as Michigan fans you know we're pretty familiar with this kind of situation with Kade mcnamer and JJ McCarthy in the 2021 season I'll give you the tbox here let's start with how much do we think DJ lague gets used in the 2024 season and that question is always kind of interesting because you've seen that balancing act as you kind of said you've seen it work like Chris leak and Tim TBO obviously they wion a national championship in Florida Michigan with JJ McCarthy and Kade mcir very successful season and then you've seen some situations like let's say Spencer Rattler and Caleb Williams where it just clearly didn't work and you could even go to Notre aame Malik Zer and Deshawn Kaiser so I think you to me the the key is is to try to find a way to balance the skill sets not necessarily just try to work two quarterbacks in so if you can use DJ lague as more of a compliment to gram Merz I think that allows you to be much more successful than just trying to essentially run a two quarterback system with both guys doing the exact 100% agree with that if you all have listened to the boys for the last couple years the the two quarterback system at least in my opinion it is very rare to see the two quarterback system work when it's not implemented the right way where you're just kind of purely splitting time I think what's fascinating about this conversation is DJ lagway adds elements to this Florida Gator offense that grah merch doesn't have and so it makes it a little bit easier to incorporate DJ lagua into this offense and I would probably Envision it kind of similar to how JJ and Kade were balanced in that 2021 season where Kade mcnamer was the quarterback one he started the games played most of the snaps but Michigan would routinely throw in JJ McCarthy as a kind of quarterback that if you're a defensive coordinator you have to spend some of your time during the week preparing for what your defense is going to do when JJ McCarthy's on the football field it's a very similar situation right when you put DJ lagway into the game if you're Florida you're putting a lot of stress on the opposing defense because there are things that you have to account for with DJ lagua that you know quite frankly you don't have to account for with gr Merz primarily athleticism but I think the conversation that a lot of people not Florida fans but National media fans are just treating DJ lagway like you're gonna bring him in and just run the football with him D I think that's the wrong way to do it like DJ lagway has a very good arm he 73% completion percentage his senior year he's also extremely accurate I wouldn't treat DJ lagway just as a wildcat quarterback in the 2024 season no and you want to use his legs as a weapon when he in I think that should be part of the package essentially you're using but I think you're right to say that he isn't just coming in to be a wildcat quarterback where the throw is a gimmick I mean it's coming in to be able to put teams in Conflict off in the RPO where some sort of run fake or or threat that that DJ lagway can offer but also the fact that he can very clearly spin it at an extremely high level you got to use that fact too and I think again you've seen teams just throw in a running quarterback and that's okay but I do think that can add or DJ lag's ability to throw it and run it at a really really high level both ways I think can add just kind of what you said that ability to test defenses and make them prepare for something they really won't see and I think the conversation next to get into is all right I think we're all in agreement I I think most of the Florida fans and if you're not I would love to hear it in the comments section I think we're all in agreement that DJ lagu is gonna play in 20124 right now I think the question is not as much how much I'm a little less concerned with how much he plays and more importantly how does Florida decide to use DJ lagua and I think what's so fascinating is you go back to the spring game we're going to pull up a couple of reps and say there are certain packages that you can use DJ laguin this is kind of how I Envision it where what's kind of keeps freshman quarterbacks off the field year one is just the understanding of the Playbook and so what you could do if you're Billy apier the Florida Gator hey shorten the playbook for DJ lag say hey we're not going to make you responsible to run 100% of the offense we're going to give you a couple looks a couple packages that you can really develop a strong understanding of in practice and then we're going to throw you out there and the plays that you're running you have full confidence that you know what you're looking at and you know what your reads are I think the first thing you want to talk about D is how DJ lagwa can impact the Run game not only running the football himself which we all know he can do ran for over 950 yards during his senior year of high school but when you have a quarterback that is a legitimate threat to be dangerous with his legs that quite frankly just gr Merz isn't it impacts how your defense is fitting runs you take a look at this play in the spring game Dy it's gonna be hand off to Jaden ball we've looked at this play for Jaden ball dog running back think he's gonna have a great year but you start running this play and you kind of freeze frame it here with this essentially what is a read option Dill you look at this Edge Defender he can't crash down I mean if that's grah merch in the back that edge rusher is crashing down on the running back because we're not afraid of gram Merz keeping the ball because he's not a threat with his run W with with his legs you look at this offall linebacker he's also reading DJ lagway you look at this safety coming in the fif the Run he's also looking at DJ lagua so you roll this play and say look how much space this linebacker gets lost in the wash this safety's coming down not really looking at the running back look how much space is created for jayen B to get get going in the Run game and so that's one of the things that DJ lague gives is not necessarily himself keeping the football but making an opposing defense respect what he can do running with the football it's going to create a lot of space for your running backs in this run game as well and I think that kind of gets important especially on the heels of the Montell Johnson injury and as you try to work him back I do think he's a guy who can come up and and chew some of those rushing attack or chew some of those R runs up ball carries whatever you want to call it chew that up a little bit and allow them to kind of like kind of kind of deal with that injury at the end of the day because obviously you got big games kind of early in that schedule led by Miami and I think if you can come in and give DJ lagway maybe 10 to 15 play and then that might be too high I don't know exactly I'd have to like shake it out but I think he's a guy who can come in and again kind of do what you said and give them a rushing threat give them a better rushing attack to kind of spell what they're like we talk about replacing all that rushing production specifically week one against the Miami Hurricanes right you're not only replacing Montreal Johnson Jr but you're also replacing Trevor etn I mean that's a lot of rushing production that Florida's going to have to replace I think DJ lagway is certainly an option to look to replace some of that running production now again I think the the biggest fallacy and the biggest thing a lot of the national media analysts are missing with DJ lague is they think that he's only a runner I mean there was a reason this kid was the number three Prospect in the entire country coming out of the 2024 class he can spin it he threw for over 4,000 yards a 73% completion percentage during his senior year of high school deal this throw just to kind of highlight What DJ lague can do and again another fallacy is he only has that fast ball we know he has a fast ball he can really rip it in there d DJ lagway especially in this spring game showed that he can make some high level throws with some touch as well and you look at this rout there's quite frankly just not many quarterbacks in the country that can make this kind of throw where you're going opposite hash to the boundary you have to layer it over a Defender this ball doesn't get better I mean you talk about DJ lagway in the talent in the talent in the arm I mean stepping up a muddy pocket too Standing Tall in the pocket and delivering just a ridiculous dime to the opposite boundary this idea that DJ lagway cannot give you production through the air is completely wrong very talented arm and I think the last thing you might be looking for with DJ lagways in the Red Zone again Tim TBO kind of specialized that during his freshman year when you get get into the Red Zone it's really hard to manufacture space especially in the passing attack you can bring in DJ lagn you kind of roll this clip right here another RPO here where you're getting all these linebackers sucking up because again we got to respect What DJ lagway can do with his legs and DJ lague this is one of those packages that you can tell DJ lague we gotta have you master right if you see these Zone Defenders really suck up hey you're keeping the ball lot of space gets created and just delivering a strike this is type of stuff that you can use DJ lagu with because it's not too complicated right we're not going to ask him to run the whole entire offense for this Florida Gator program we're going to give him specific looks and packages and plays to really Master during his freshman year and that's what we're going to use him for Saturdays in the fall and his ability to actually play quarterback unlike some of those other situations you'll see where it is pure wild cat and it's all gimmick it allows I think him to again be success successfulness it's not just bringing it in for a change of pace and it feels to kind of waste the downs I do feel like a lot of teams do that at the end of the day where okay we have this athletic guy we don't know exactly what to do with him we'll stick him in that quarterback and let him run a wildcat situation like I don't know does that really ever work at the end of the day you need a guy who can do both who can again create those conflicts for Defenders and you just can't do that when you can't throw the ball at a really high level so I do think that his ability to actually just be a straight up really really good quarterback will or should allow him to be more successful in some of those like very specifically designed packages because he can just do more and put I think the worst thing to do with DJ lagu as a freshman is just treat him like a wild Cai quarterback because again if you consistently do that you're gonna bring him in you're gonna see seven eight man boxes you're just not going to have that much success running the football if DJ lagway turns this offense into a one-dimensional offense when he's on the football field gonna be really hard because I know we were hyping up Michigan prow they did it with JJ McCarthy and you saw last year they try to do the same thing with Alex orgy and JJ and it again they just they never threw Alex orgy so it's like oh Alex orgy in the game they're going to run the ball it was never wildly successful and they hit some decent plays off of it but it wasn't something they could really go to and and depend on at a really high level I think if you can come in in what JJ McCarthy was doing where he was throwing the ball he was playing quarterback but he was working in some of using his his legs in the rushing attack too just to add additional wrinkles into the plays I think that was far more successful and I think DJ lag yeah what I what I think really hurt Alex orgy's kind of Wildcat package is they didn't throw the football once with him and I think you saw some success early on in the season Once defens is new when Alex orgies in where you don't need to worry about them pushing the ball down the field then you started to see the seven eight man boxes and again it's really hard to run the football when you are onedimensional when the defense essentially knows what you're going to do on the offensive side of the ball DJ lagway again you got to let him throw the ball down the field we know he can do it there's a difference between him and Alex orgy we know DJ lagway a much more polished improving passor of the football that's kind of how I Envision it but again if I were to kind of sum it up one college football is a simple game get your best players on the football field DJ lagu is one of your best football players he's one of your best weapons on offense you got to let him impact the football game but I think more importantly you got to be intentional like give him a couple of different looks that he going to master and be very comfortable with and then go let him run it Saturdays in the fall it's not only going to impact this offense but also when your defense and you have to think about the different ways that DJ lagway can hurt you on the offensive side of the football it gets a lot easier to manufacture some of those explosive plays I'm really excited again it's going to be hard to balance because Graham MERS is a quarterback that you don't want to take off the football field that consistently that being said you want to get DJ lagu touches because you know he can help this offense we'll cut it there again would love to hear from you guys in the comments section A lot of different ways that you could view this situation and I think it's gonna be really important for Billy Napier in his job in 2025 to manage this quarterback room the right way appreciate you guys rocking with it again if y'all do enjoy the content consider subscribing to the channel appreciate you guys and we'll talk to y'all later