Gators' DJ Lagway Named Honorable Mention for Player of the Week

DJ Lagway's debut as a starting quarterback for the Florida Gators could not have gone much better.

Florida Gators quarterback DJ Lagway (2) celebrates with teammates at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium / Doug Engle/Gainesville Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Fresh off a record-breaking performance in his first start, Florida Gators’ freshman quarterback DJ Lagway is continuing to earn national attention. 

On Tuesday, Lagway was named as an Honorable Mention for the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award Player of the Week, the award’s committee announced. The Willis, Texas native was one of nine honorable mentions named this week. 

The Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award, named after former Texas running back Earl Campbell, honors players that display “characteristics that define Earl Campbell including integrity, performance, teamwork, sportsmanship, drive, community, and tenacity; specifically, tenacity - specifically tenacity to persist and determination to overcome adversity and injury in pursuit of reaching goals,” according to the award’s website.

Players must also have either played football at and graduated from a high school in Texas or play at a division-one program based in Texas. As a graduate of Willis High School, where he was named the Gatorade National Player of the Year among other awards, Lagway is an automatic qualifier. 

In his starting debut in place of the injured Graham Mertz, Lagway broke Chris Leak’s long-standing program record for passing yards in a game by a freshman with 456 yards against Samford. 

He also threw for three touchdowns, all of which came from at least 35 yards. His yardage was the most by an FBS quarterback last week and ranks ninth all-time in UF history. 

“I was just locked into the task at hand,” Lagway said after the win. “My coach is telling me one play at a time. That's what it is, just executing one play at a time. Just getting my guys involved, just getting everybody involved with the ball, that's the biggest thing.”

However, with Mertz on track to return, Napier did not explicitly say Lagway would remain the team’s starter. However, he did say the true freshman would have a role in the offense moving forward, which was the expectation anyways. 

“I think our intention the entire time has been to play DJ in every game,” Napier said Monday. “He gets a little bit more experienced each week, and certainly for him to have the opportunity to be the starter, prepare with the ones and then go play, and the way he did that, the poise, composure, it shows that he's ready to do what we intended to with him going forward.” 

Texas-native Lagway will have an opportunity to add to his Texas-based accolade in a matchup on Saturday against lone star state-SEC foe Texas A&M, a program less than two hours away from where Lagway played his high school ball.

“It's going to be fun. It's going to be a surreal moment,” Lagway said. “I'm just excited for that moment. It's going to be fun to put them in The Swamp.”