DJ Lagway felt isolated, depressed at Florida. He's rewriting his story at Baylor

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DJ Lagway felt isolated, depressed at Florida. He's rewriting his story at Baylor | Exclusive

Matt Hayes, USA TODAY · USA TODAY Sports

Wed, Mar 25, 2026 ·

17 min read

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WACO, TX – We begin in a lecture hall on the campus of Baylor University, where the new quarterback found himself in a strange environment not long ago. In a class, with other students. And no one knew or cared who he was.

They only saw DJ Lagway , only noticed his 6-4, 235-pound frame, because he was the late guy pushing through creaky doors announcing his arrival.

Not the former 5-star, can't-miss prospect trying to find the magic again. Not the budding superstar turned public face of the failure at Florida , unfairly burdened by injury circumstances out of his control.

So he shuffled to the only row with an available seat, in the middle of all that humanity, and squeezed into his new reality. His new life. All arms and legs and shoe-horned in with every other student, knees pressing against the row in front of him. Elbows tight to his side, chin to his chest.

And about as far away from an insular and depressing time in Gainesville, Fla. — geographically and metaphorically — as he could possibly be. Two years where he admits he made mistakes as the Gators ' high-priced quarterback and program savior, where the Florida staff made mistakes, too, and where significant injuries lobbed on top of it all quickly derailed development at a position where day-to-day growth is vital to survival.

"It was crazy," Lagway said of his first class at Baylor , his first in a real classroom since high school. "But it was also kind of like, OK, this is how it's supposed to be."

How it's supposed be .

A fortunate choice of words, a fitting explanation of his time at Florida that began with carrying the weight of the one player who would — in no certain order — save the program and embattled coach Bill Napier's job, win a Heisman Trophy or two, and win a championship at the school for the first time since 2008.

That and the pressure of earning one of the first multi-million dollar contracts that birthed NIL financial insanity, and/or the pending death of the sport. Depending on whom you ask.

So yeah, walking 15 minutes across the Baylor campus to get to class without being stopped was different, maybe even how it was supposed to be. It sure as all get out wasn't like his first class two years earlier at Florida, where they tried to avoid the inevitable crush of student interaction by starting with a Zoom course. You know, manage the situation.

Florida quarterback DJ Lagway (2) leaves the field after beating Florida State 40-21 during an NCAA football game at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL.

Lagway told USA TODAY Sports after the first Zoom lecture, after that Hail Mary of a decision on Day 1 to avoid the rush and crush of fans, he never stepped in a classroom at Florida. The remainder of his academic time on campus, he says, was limited to online work at home.

Never mind that Tim Tebow , the biggest personality in the history of college sports, somehow figured out a way to go to class in Gainesville every day while thriving in unmatched attention. So did world-renowned basketball star Joakim Noah.

Shoot, current basketball player Olivier Rioux — all 7-9 of him — figures out how to study among the 62,000 students at Florida, and get his 93-inch body into those tiny lecture hall seats.

That's where this story begins, where self-induced isolation later collided with an unthinkable run of injuries in the offseason of his sophomore year, leaving Lagway staring at a debilitating cycle of online classes at home, rehabbing at the football facility and returning to the exile of his off-campus apartment.

Repeating that cycle day after day, knowing he wasn't practicing and getting better because of the injuries, and knowing the potential destruction that lie ahead. Knowing he was the same savior ― now on a larger scale after a breakout freshman season ― that everyone witnessed on those Gatorade and Nike commercials. Even one with Pat Mahomes.

There he was, sitting and stewing and full of anxiety ― and unable to work through it all with the one answer that always came easy. Football.

"I was in a bubble down there, I didn't feel like a normal person," Lagway said. "I didn't even know what the campus looked like. I was really closed off. I didn't really hang out with my teammates. Yeah, I was depressed. I just stayed in my own lane. Stayed out of the way."

Lagway knows what question is coming next, can see the blindside blitz before it hits. He was the young star driving around Gainesville in his Lamborghini SUV and Mercedes.

He was the player at the center of advertising campaigns, and his number was plastered all over jerseys in the bookstores. They chanted his name at basketball games, instead of a Gators team in the middle of a national championship run.

He was also the teammate that needed work, needed structure. Had to get better at recognizing fronts, pressures and coverages. Was desperate for offseason repetitions to get up to speed and live up to the hype.

He was winging it as a freshman, and every defensive coordinator on the toughest schedule in college football was game-planning for him — while he was injured and wasn't working. The anxiety was overwhelming.

"I blame myself for not doing more to build that brotherhood with my teammates," Lagway said. "But I felt like I was put on a pedestal. I was handcuffed, and couldn't do nothing about my (injury) situation."

Everyone has a story

Dave Aranda is a deep end thinker in a fraternity where X and O shallow pools are the norm. A philosopher who just so happens to be the Baylor coach, and one of the sport's elite defensive minds.

Everyone has a story, he says. Everyone can rewrite it any time.

DJ Lagway sits with Baylor Bears football coach Dave Aranda, left, during the first half of a game between the Baylor Bears and Iowa State Cyclones at Paul and Alejandra Foster Pavilion.

He saw Lagway a few months ago — two years after pushing late in the recruiting process and trying to get the nation's No. 1 high school quarterback to flip from Florida — and thought of Miyamoto Musashi , the 17th Century Japanese swordsman and philosopher, and history's greatest duelist.

Two long years at Florida that felt like 10 had forced Lagway into Musashi's fighting stance of protecting every day life while constantly exuding combat readiness. After two years as the managed and protected big man on campus, two years of the million-dollar savior, two years of too many missteps and not enough do-overs, Lagway was standing in front of Aranda. Fully combat ready.

He's uber-talented, for sure. His ability to play the most important position in all of sports has never been questioned.

But it's so much more than that, reaching beyond his successful first season in Gainesville — one he tells USA TODAY Sports he never should've played because of multiple injuries — that only masked problems and exacerbated expectations. Those issues moved deep into the offseason prior to his second season, where more problems kept Lagway from the field and all but assured final failure.

A shoulder injury that nearly needed surgery, a move that would've ended his sophomore season before it began. A core injury that needed surgery. A lat strain, a calf strain. Each injury pushing him further away from the only thing he could control.

All of it, every last bad decision and all of that bad luck over the past two seasons, was standing there, staring at Aranda. In his stance, combat ready.

"He's worn from the Florida experience," Aranda said. "It's going to be a lot of work. All of the comments and critiques really hurt him. It's about being able to have hard conversations, real conversations. We've been very intentional with that from the beginning."

Aranda stops in the moment, and stares out of his office window overlooking the Brazos River. He knows the score and knows the truncated timeline. He needs to win this season with this rebuilt roster — while tearing down a once can't-miss prospect and building him back again in all of eight months before jumping back into the fire — or he's out of a job. But more important, there's a 20-year-old young man trying to find who he is.

"He has this glass around him, and we have to be able to break that glass so he can be free," Aranda said. "The best thing for him is to break all that [expletive] up, and emerge in the face of it. No one can be in that perfect combat stance — perfect this, perfect that — forever. Can it be done? I don't know. There's a lot of fight in him, so we've just got to get it where it's a healthy fight, and pointed in the right direction."

Safe space no more

Spring practice began this week at Baylor, the first step to reshaping the former No.1 quarterback prospect of the 2024 high school recruiting class and bringing the Bears closer to the 2021 product that won the Big 12.

But there's still scar tissue from his last season at Florida that needs to be addressed. Or as former Florida coach Billy Napier flatly puts it: "DJ had a season of anticipation and hype without an offseason of diligence and work."

Florida transfer DJ Lagway began spring practice at Baylor this week.

Lagaway has always been a grinder in the weight room, and on the field. It's his safe space, the one area he can control, and where he has the advantage. So when the injuries began piling up, so did the frustration and anxiety. And the depression.

Lagway threw his first pass in competitive 11-on-11 drills during game week of the season opener against FCS Long Island. More than nine months from when he walked off the field in mid-December after Florida's bowl win over Tulane.

After a freshman season he says he never should have played because of shoulder soreness since he stepped on campus, and a debilitating hamstring injury sustained the first week of November 2024 — but played because he wanted to, because he needed to. Florida wasn't paying millions to see him hold a clipboard.

"By the grace of God that I got through those games," he says. "I don't know how else to explain it."

Lagway says he couldn't throw the ball "more than 10 yards" during game week preparation for his first career start Week 2 against Samford — and then threw for a school freshman record 456 yards in an easy win. The shoulder soreness never got better, he says, only the degree to which he could handle pain.

He says he "barely practiced" later in the year before a critical game against LSU — a month removed from starter Graham Mertz 's season-ending knee injury — after a significant hamstring injury two weeks earlier in a loss to Georgia. He then threw for 226 yards in the upset of LSU, and a week later, led the Gators to a win over No. 9 Ole Miss despite throwing only 17 passes.

DJ Lagway #2 of the Florida Gators is tackled by Phillip Wright III #15 of the LSU Tigers at Tiger Stadium on September 13, 2025 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

That two-game stretch, as much as anything, ramped expectations to unreasonable proportions — despite the unknown reality he was playing injured.

Napier admitted Florida "managed" Lagway's freshman season with intent, eliminating Sunday and Monday work, and at times limiting beyond that depending on Lagway's recovery timeline.

"The hamstring was a lot worse than we let on," Lagway said. "And my arm was a problem all season."

But what was obvious against Tulane — Lagway looked physically depleted despite throwing for 300 yards — wasn't addressed until March of the offseason when Lagway told Florida officials he felt like he had a core injury. So when Napier announced Lagway wouldn't participate in spring drills, and when some of his teammates heard that news for the first time, it led to cacophony of rumor and innuendo that was never fully explained until now.

Three injuries in the first five months of the year (shoulder, core, lat strain) and another in camp (calf strain), forced him to miss an entire offseason of work. Month after month peeled off the calendar, and Napier continued to proclaim Lagway was right on schedule. What else was he going to do?

Napier and Lagway furthered the narrative in July, when Lagway represented the team at the annual SEC Media Days, and both he and Napier proclaimed he was 100% healthy and ready to go. The school's social media accounts even posted video of Lagway throwing.

But he wasn't close to being ready to play.

"There's a big difference between throwing, and throwing in live 11-on-11," Lagway said. "That didn't happen until game week of the first game of the season."

Let's stop here, and make something clear: Lagway says he was completely healthy during last season. There were no lingering affects from the injuries. No excuses.

But there absolutely were residual, off-the-field, affects. You don't miss an entire offseason of working out with teammates, of throwing with receivers and sharpening timing and accuracy, of building critical chemistry and camaraderie — while living on your own in an off-campus apartment — and not feel it throughout the season.

"Those games we lost late, that's where that stuff really is important," Lagway said. "You go through an entire offseason, and you know your guys, you know what they're going to do in specific situations before they do it. That was missing."

Exhibit A: the LSU game. Florida trailed 13-10 at halftime, and only because a long touchdown pass from Lagway was negated by a holding call. The Gators' six drives in the second half then looked like this: punt, interception returned for a touchdown, punt, punt, interception, interception.

Florida trailed Miami 13-7 with 10 minutes to play in the fourth quarter, and lost 26-7. The Gators led Georgia 20-17 late in the fourth quarter, and lost 24-20. They led Ole Miss 24-20 in the fourth quarter, and lost 34-24.

All four games away from Gainesville, all four winnable games. The mismanaged offseason playing out for all to see.

"He needed every single rep in the offseason to clean up fundamentals and footwork, to increase processing," Napier said. "But he's on a bike the whole time. A tough, selfless guy isn't working and investing. It's not his fault, but he took the blame. And we protected him, we didn't throw him under the bus. There was worry there, you could see it on his face. He knew what he was getting into last season."

The bond that ties

A few months after signing with Baylor, after Lagway and new Florida coach Jon Sumrall agreed it was best for both parties to move on without the other, the first big change arrived for Lagway.

Spring break at Baylor.

But instead of driving home two short hours to Willis, Texas and holing up with the known, Lagway forced uncomfortable and reached into the unknown. He paid for 15 teammates — 12 wide receivers, a tight end and two running backs — to fly to Miami and spend spring break throwing and getting to know each other on a granular, personal level.

Paid for housing and meals and a private chef. Paid for a professional masseuse for recovery. A six-bedroom Airbnb with 20 beds in Ventura, a swanky suburb north of Miami — but far enough away from the draw of electric South Beach.

"That bonding is everything," Lagway said. "The maturation of growing up and taking over a team as a freshman, and not knowing how to lead while going through my own personal battles. To now seeing it from the outside at 20, and realizing how important it really is."

Suddenly, there's a break in his Musashi stance. The player who had everything set up for him, who had media interviews scheduled with time, place and duration — and not a minute longer — and stood at that podium reciting what he knew he was supposed to say, is opening up on an unseasonably brisk Central Texas day.

His high-profile recruitment and signing. The breakout freshman season. The injuries, and the botched sophomore season with so much hope, yet so many self-inflicted potholes around every corner.

It's all coming out now.

"It was my first time going through something like that," Lagway says. "I'm 19 years old, and the whole team is looking at you like, 'What's going on?' I'm trying to figure it out, we're all trying to figure it out. There's a lot of stuff going on at once. I didn't know how to handle it, and obviously could've handled it much better. It's extremely difficult to fail, and then do it in front of millions of people."

Virtual change

Baylor is one of a handful of schools currently using Cognilize, a German virtual reality software for quarterbacks. The immersive decision-making software allows players to rapidly improve progressions and decisions by generating team- and scheme-specific options without the physical wear and tear of a typical game.

DJ Lagway hopes improved health and a change of scenery will pay off at Baylor.

Jayden Daniels used it at LSU, and quickly developed into a Heisman Trophy winner. So did Fernando Mendoza at Indiana . Now Lagway is deep into it.

When Daniels first started using Cognilize, the time between his first read and second was three seconds. Which meant a majority of the time, there was no second read — he was ditching and running.

By the time he finished working with Cognilize in the 2023 offseason, he had cut the number to .49 seconds. Then came the real returns.

Daniels' completion percentage increased 4% (to 72), his yards per attempt jumped a whopping 4.2 yards (to 11.7), and his touchdown passes from 17 to 40. Mendoza's numbers all spiked, including raising his touchdown passes from 16 to 41.

There is hope, Aranda says, that the Cognilize software will ease some of the stress of the truncated time to get Lagway ready to play. A little more than five months from now, Baylor will travel to Atlanta to play Auburn in Mercedes-Benz Stadium to start the season.

It's a brutally quick turnaround with all the inherent baggage. But here's the key: Baylor offensive coordinator Jake Spavital has a track record. He has seen this show before.

A decade ago, former Florida quarterback Will Grier transferred to West Virginia after a six-game NCAA suspension for performance enhancing supplements. Spavital was the offensive coordinator under then-Mountaineers coach Dana Holgorsen. who signed Grier knowing the baggage of former Florida coach Jim McElwain pushing Grier out the door.

Grier trusted no one, and by the time he left two years later, was rewriting the school record books.

"My job is to figure it out and get DJ to open up," Spavital said. "The talent is there, that's not even a question. But can we reach him beyond that wall he has up?"

'Take care of your body'

Lagway was caught off guard by the question earlier this month, forced to relive those two years at Florida and respond accordingly.

What advice would you give to the next can't-miss high school quarterback?

"That's a great question," Lagway says, and now he's looking straight ahead, dead stare, like he's pushing rewind and play in his mind. Over and over.

Napier says Lagway still is an elite quarterback, still the same player with all that talent who walked on campus at Florida two years ago. Says he didn't do enough offensively last year to help Lagway, to put him in better position when it was obvious the lost offseason had created more problems that just lost repetitions.

But nothing is permanent, nothing unfixable.

"I told every coach that called me about him that they're going to get the best version of DJ," Napier said. "He's going to be on a mission to prove to the world that last year is a fluke."

Maybe that fighting stance isn't so much a defense mechanism for Lagway as it is a battle declaration. He takes a long breath, thinks about the question and continues, still locked on the wall in front of him.

Musashi was history's greatest duelist.

"Find a group of people and trust them," he says. "Take care of your body, and have people around you to educate you on the best ways to take care of your body. Nobody is a finished product, especially at quarterback."

He turns his head, and Musashi has fully taken over.

"That's a deep sea nobody can dive to the bottom of," he says.

Everyone has a story. Everyone can rewrite it any time.

That's how it's supposed to be.

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB .

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DJ Lagway left drama at Florida, transferred to Baylor for fresh start

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