Steve Spurrier optimistic about Florida in 2025 despite DJ Lagway injury: 'We got a chance'

Florida QB DJ Lagway has, due to his injury history over less than a year in college, become a cause of concern to an extent in Gainesville. Steve Spurrier, though, still believes in what the Gators can be, pending his status, throughout this season.

Spurrier addresses the worry around Lagway’s most recent injury while again on ‘Another Dooley Noted Podcast’ on Monday. He knows his absence over the offseason, specifically losing key reps early in his career, could be an issue but, all in all, Spurrier does expects Lagway to be okay despite those issues.

“Well, it could be (a worry). I don’t know,” said Spurrier. “But, I think he’ll be fine.”

The latest out of The Swamp is that Lagway did practice over the weekend at the team’s open period on Saturday after having progressed into Friday. That’s after dealing with a calf injury with his left leg coming into fall camp last week, which was on top of a shoulder injury he dealt with in the spring and a hamstring injury late in the season last fall. With that, it’s a matter of how much these limitations will have affected him and his development coming into his sophomore season and first one as Florida’s full-time starting quarterback.

Still, Spurrier sees a team around Lagway that’s good enough to compete this season as they wait on him to take his place. That’s while being fully aware that Florida has work to do in competing in the SEC.

“The team around him, certainly, I think, is really good. And I think our defense is as good as we’ve been since Billy Napier has been here,” said Spurrier. “So, we got a chance.”

“Of course, everybody else is pretty good,” Spurrier said. “It’s always interesting to me to watch who everybody picks. They still got Texas, LSU, and Alabama, and Georgia. Those four right up at the top, and then everybody else is sort of, you know, wadded. But we don’t know how it’s going to come out.”

Lagway looks to be back on the right track coming out of the weekend with less than four weeks until the Gators’ season opener. He’ll just need to stay that way for this upcoming season, especially between now and mid-September when Florida’s season really begins.

“We got a fighting chance so hopefully we can stay healthy, Lagway can stay healthy and get off to a real good start,” said Spurrier. “After Long Island, South Florida comes in and then we hit the real schedule after that.”