Flow State: Behind DJ Lagway's game day personality change

Florida head coach Billy Napier described it as a different look in his eyes. Gators senior center Jake Slaughter can hear it in his voice.

DJ Lagway calls it his “flow state” – when the mild-mannered Florida quarterback is so in the zone on game days that he acts like a completely different person. Think Clark Kent becoming Superman, without the need for those nerdy glasses.

“My biggest thing last year, I always wanted to get into some kind of flow state,” Lagway said Wednesday during an appearance at 2025 SEC Media Days inside the Atlanta Omni Hotel. “Flow state is where you’re just moving, it’s just natural, everything happens naturally. That’s where I wanted to be at every game.”

The first time Slaughter saw Lagway in his “flow state” was prior to his first career start last year, when the then-true freshman replaced an injured Graham Mertz as the Gators’ QB1 vs. Samford on Sept 7, 2024.

“I think it was the first game he was going to start, and he gave us a little pregame talk that I don’t think we can put on camera, but he got us all pretty fired up,” Slaughter recalled with a laugh.

“He goes in and is about his business (during the week). He works his tail off. He treats everything like it’s the last thing he’s ever going to do,” Slaughter continued. “But then on game day, he’s got a different type of swag to him. He’s getting everybody fired up. You don’t see that from Sunday through Friday, just Saturday.”

DJ Lagway explains his ‘flow state’ on game days: ‘It kind of oozes out of me’

The result was Lagway’s best collegiate performance to date, as the 2024 No. 1 overall recruit threw for a career-high 456 yards on 72% (18-of-25) passing and three touchdowns with no interceptions in a 45-7 rout.

“My best attribute as a quarterback is really just — I’d say just my, as people would say, I guess my aura, confidence, and just the way I portray myself on game day,” Lagway said. “My teammates always joke around about, like, they say that I’m a totally different person on game day. It kind of oozes out of me. And it’s just great to be able to be that for my guys.”

Lagway would return to his backup role the next week as Mertz cleared concussion protocol ahead of the SEC opener vs. Texas A&M, but game day mentality didn’t disappear. It just went into hibernation until Lagway was called on to close out the back-half of the regular season as the Gators’ starting QB once Mertz was lost for the year with a season-ending ACL tear vs. Tennessee.

The rest is history, as Lagway directed Florida to a 5-1 record over his final six starts of the season, only sitting out a 49-17 loss at No. 4 Texas due to a left hamstring injury suffered early in a 34-20 loss vs. rival Georgia the week prior.

Billy Napier on DJ Lagway’s flow state: ‘Just a little different look in his eyes’

Following his absence vs. the Longhorns, Lagway was electric down the stretch, throwing for 844 yards and six touchdowns to four interceptions on 59% passing as the Gators closed out the 2024 season on a four-game winning streak.

“I think he’s got a really unique ability to eliminate the external. I think he can be present. I think he’s consumed with playing winning football and doing what he needs to do to help the team win,” Napier said of Lagway.

“(It’s) just a little different look in his eyes. … I think that’s one of the best attributes about him: he’s a great gameday competitor, and I think the team feeds off of that.”

After nursing nagging injuries throughout the offseason, a healthy Lagway enters 2025 as the Gators’ unquestioned leader and established QB1, eager and ready to enter his “flow state” every Saturday this Fall.

“When I’m out there playing, I’m just thinking about playing ball,” Lagway said. “[…] Every time I step on the field, that’s when life just kind of stopped for me. It’s like playing ball and just being just in the moment.”

If Florida is finally going to take the next step as a program under Napier, it’ll require Lagway shedding his Clark Kent glasses and being “in the moment” each and every game day. And if the end of last season is any indication, the sky is the limit for the second-year Gators quarterback.