DJ Lagway injury: Chris Doering hammers home pressing concern about QB missing time

Chris Doering finds himself worried with the lack of reps that DJ Lagway has gotten in practice in both the spring and now as fall camp starts. Not just for the sake of the Florida quarterback himself, but also for developing a connection with his receivers.

Lagway did not throw in spring as he recovered from a shoulder injury, though he did take “mental reps” in practice. Now with the Gators starting fall camp this week, the quarterback is still not on the field after suffering a calf injury and being seen in a walking boot. That has Doering understandably concerned.

“I know he’s been around during spring,” The SEC Network analyst said in a recent appearance on Sirius XM radio. “He got mental reps and called some of the plays and signaled things in, but I’m seriously concerned about the lack of time that he’s had with his new weapons. J Michael Sturdivant, the receiver from UCLA, has looked amazing from everybody that I’ve talked to. But how many times have those guys gotten reps together?

“Dallas Wilson was tremendous in the spring. How many times has he gotten to throw with DJ Lagway? Vernell Brown III is another young guy coming in that needs time with his quarterback. Tre Wilson was injured for much of last year. Didn’t necessarily get to play with DJ.”

Lagway was thrown into the limelight as a true freshman last year after starter Graham Mertz went down due to injury. He started seven games to throw for 1,915 yards and 12 touchdowns with nine interceptions and completed 60.0% of his passes.

The former five-star recruit and No. 1 quarterback in the 2024 cycle, he now enters this year with a lot of expectations on his shoulders. But Doering wonders how well he will be able to live up to them given his lack of practice so far.

“There are a lot of things, whether he’s ready to go by Week 1 or not, that you’re playing catch up on and that’s not necessarily a good thing,” he said. “Particularly because we’re ready to talk about DJ Lagway as a Heisman Trophy candidate, but he’s only started seven games last year. It’s not like he’s this third-year veteran. So he’s still figuring it out as well.”

Florida is coming off of an 8-5 finish to last season after closing out the year with four straight wins. They’re now hopeful that Lagway can be the one to get them over the hump to make some nooise in the SEC, but there are at least some skeptics.