Big 12 Football Coach Shares Opinion on QB DJ Lagway

No pressure, DJ Lagway, but all eyes are on you this season for Baylor’s football team. The former five star recruit is being asked to be Baylor’s answer to what plagued them in a 5-7 effort a season ago.

What are the Bears getting with their new signal caller?

ESPN recently conducted a survey where they asked opposing coaches what they think of different quarterbacks around the country.

Lagway was one of the players who was discussed in the story with reviews that matched what his career has been to this point.

His coaches, however, are confident that Lagway is going to be up to the task.

“He's played a lot of football, so he doesn't get fazed easily," Baylor head coach Dave Aranda said to ESPN. "There is a great scramble ability, and so a lot of the plays in the spring, the biggest ones were off of scrambles for runs or passes, especially passes. He's got a strong arm, and so if you're on a hash, those field [side] throws are live.

"A lot of times in our league, the RPOs are so rampant here that people are lining up close to people and tight to not give them an advantage throw. ... But you can't really do that versus DJ, because he can make those throws, and so that'll give us the ability for deeper, bigger plays."

Of course, Aranda is going to say something like that. Baylor recruited him and paid a hefty salary to get Lagway to transfer to Baylor from Florida. They’re going to be confident in him.

What do others think? That’s always an interesting glimpse into what an unbiased opinion could be toward an opposing player.

"From a schematic standpoint, it's going to be glaringly different for him," a Big 12 defensive coordinator said to ESPN. "What they do is so system-oriented. He may be a perfect fit, for all I know, so it'll be interesting because he's really talented."

Development Required

The defensive coordinators comments are interesting because of the potential fit between Jake Spavital and Lagway. That relationship is one that could make or break Baylor’s season. Spavital is tasked with getting Lagway’s career to live up to the five-star potential that he had when he was recruited out of high school.

Furthermore, Lagway is tasked with making Spavital look good. Every play is designed to score a touchdown on paper, but ultimately it is players who make the stuff on paper happen on the field.

To date, however, Lagway has not lived up to his billing. He has plenty of potential, but needs to get better. He had 16 touchdowns and 14 interceptions a season ago.

That’s not going to win a lot of Big 12 games. It did not win a lot of SEC games a season ago.

Could Spavital’s system align perfectly with Lagway’s dual-threat skill set? That remains to be seen. It is one of the great unknowns for the Bears, and college football as a whole.

Joe Klanderman spoke with the media on Friday and he had a wide range of topics to discuss. A lot of positive signs are coming from the new-look D-line.

Here are the four most interesting things #Baylor's DC had to say.

STORY: https://t.co/UjyL5qkh4T pic.twitter.com/p8PzrwLdTn
— Baylor Bears On SI (@BaylorBearsOnSI) August 10, 2026

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