Billy Gonzales praises DJ Lagway response after benching: 'He's been fantastic'

Florida benched starting quarterback DJ Lagway in a lopsided loss to Kentucky on Saturday and the remain questions about how the starter fits in going forward. Backup Tramell Jones didn’t fare a ton better.

And by the sound of things, the Gators appear ready to turn the ball back over to Lagway for this weekend’s game at Ole Miss. Interim coach Billy Gonzales raved about the way Lagway has responded to his benching in practice this week.

“He’s been fantastic. He was awesome,” Gonzales said. “He’s done a great job. Went out there yesterday. First two days, really, really good. I’ll talk about yesterday’s practice, but he had a really good practice. He understands. I’ve had a chance to talk to him a couple times, and we just talked about what does he like, and some of the things we can do to help him. It’s a learning process, and again, I talked to him, for me it was all about refocus. Just refocus.”

DJ Lagway has been lights out at times. He was one of the best deep-ball throwers in the country a year ago, but that hasn’t materialized in his game in 2025.

Turnovers have been a major issue. Lagway has thrown 12 interceptions already this season and has thrown multiple interceptions in a game three times.

Gonzales thought perhaps DJ Lagway is trying to do a little too much. That was the No. 1 thing he tried to stress to his young quarterback after Saturday’s benching.

“He understood that it was a performance-driven game and that’s, again, it all starts with him,” Gonzales said. “And that’s where I said the other day, I said listen, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no. It does not all begin with you, and I want you to take the pressure off you. I don’t want that at all. I want you to be able to go relax, go be a great player. You do what you do and you’re a great player because you can make plays and you can extend plays.’ But the pressure is on the coaching staff. I want him to always remember that. That’s how it should always be.

“It should never be on the player. We’re going to put you in position to make those plays. You’re time tested and you’ve got those reps over and over in practice. Your skin is leather because you’ve had the confidence of going through that in practice to overcome any issues. It’s all about learning. It’s all about refocusing. He understood. We’ve moved on. We’re getting ready to go, refocused and get ready for this Ole Miss team that we’re preparing for this weekend.”

The ongoing mantra for DJ Lagway this week is to simply have a short-term memory. The staff wants him flushing any mistakes quickly. Good plays too, though.

“Any great player has to have short-term memory, and to be a football player is no different,” Gonzales said. “If you’ve got the ball in your hands on every play, and again I’ll go back to the pitching aspect, if you have the ball in your hands every play you’ve got to have a short-term memory. There’s going to be some plays you make that are outstanding. There are going to to be some plays that don’t necessarily go your way.

“You’ve got to have a short-term memory, forget the last one, it’s all about the next one. No matter what. Even if it’s good. If it’s a great play, if it’s a bad play. You’ve got to have a short-term memory, forget about the last one, move on to the next one, because the next play is what’s going to help you and your team be successful.”

Gonzales has been around some terrific quarterbacks over the years. Alex Smith at Utah. Tim Tebow at Florida. Dak Prescott at Mississippi State.

One thing they all had in common? They let things go quickly when they’re going poorly. That’s where DJ Lagway must make strides.

“They’ve all had that stage when they were in college, probably when they were in the NFL too,” Gonzales said. “But every great athlete I’ve ever been around wants to compete at a high level and they want to make the play. DJ’s the same way. He wants to make the play.

“Kind of what we talked about the other day, listen, ‘The weight of the world is off you, man. I want you to relax, I want you to just go play. I know you want to. I know you want to make the play, you’ve just got to hone in, make great decisions.’ He’s made great decisions before, but again, when you start to try to press and try to do everything and put it all on you, that’s when the mistakes come. That’s when the errors will come.

“So just trust in the confidence of your other players, put them in a position to be successful too. But I love the competitive spirit that he has that he wants to make the play. But again, we’ve just got to refocus, hone in, do what we do, forget the last play, continue to move forward, like I said.”