Your luck will eventually run out. Florida Gators’ Billy Napier is getting a lesson in this. Last season, his $3.7 million quarterback, DJ Lagway, was his savior. But walking into this season, Lagway’s unavailability is raising alarms all over Florida. Greg McElroy stirred some more fear when he stated, “The worst-case scenario is that he’s [Lagway] not at 100%. The worst-case scenario is that he’s not available every single week throughout the season.” And as per the latest scrimmage updates, he is not the only one echoing this sentiment. 

On the August 21st episode of the Another Dooley Noted Podcast, analyst Cole Cubelic dished out a bitter pill for Napier to swallow. He said, “I love DJ. I think he’s a great kid. I think he’s a great football player. But it is a 100% fair in my opinion to say, ‘Okay, now we’re developing a little bit of a track record of inavailability.’ Be it a practice, a week, half a season, whatever it is, we need more consistency of availability because, as we know, specifically at that position, I’ve got to have you out there all the time, not some of the time.”

In college football, a quarterback, unlike other positions, being consistently available is non-negotiable. However, things are different when it comes to Lagway. After their August 16 scrimmage, it was reported that Lagway once again did not participate in the scrimmage after sitting out the earlier practice. Napier’s quarterback went missing from the 7v7 drills. Turns out that his calf injury is still not ready to part ways with him. He did eventually participate in future drills. But it’s high time that Napier holds the reins tightly.

Cubelic further stressed his point, clarifying that they are not seeing Lagway as injury-prone, but the pattern of missing the practices can add to becoming a major liability. He said, “I don’t think it’s something that I look at and say, ‘Oh, he’s got injury issues.’ But there are some trends developing in availability, and that can’t happen if Florida’s going to exceed expectations this year.” 

Florida fans must have thought Napier would get a solution to the Lagway question after he was extremely limited during spring practice. But coach Napier looks to be far away from any decision. And for now, he has hit the ‘delay’ button.  

Billy Napier stands on loose ground that stops him from making the big call

Napier is yet not over the trauma of Lagway falling prey to injury against Georgia in November 2024. The head coach can’t take a risk with Lagway, who gifted them a completion rate of a solid 59.9% and 1915 yards, and 12 touchdowns by inviting the injury gods. So, he is now playing safe as Napier addressed the media. “Yeah, it’s still very much a battle. You know, I wish I had more clarity, but I don’t. So, we’ll continue to work with that group this week. And hopefully, the closer we get to game week, the more clarity we’ll have. So, still nothing clear-cut,” confessed the head coach.

Napier has got his backup options ready. Louisville graduate transfer Harrison Bailey. His lone start since the 2020 season at Tennessee came in the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl. He completed 16 of 25 passes for 164 yards and three touchdowns in the 35-34 win. However, Napier’s practice gifted fans a totally different reality. As Zach Abolverdi reported on August 16, “Redshirt sophomore Aidan Warner had the best day among the quarterbacks and got more snaps in this scrimmage than Louisville grad transfer Harrison Bailey, which wasn’t the case last week.”

But deep down, Billy Napier knows that he can’t settle for anyone for the QB1 spot other than DJ Lagway. As SEC Mike further stressed upon how if anyone steers them through the tunnel of success, it’s going to be Lagway. He shared, “So, I just hate this for Florida fans. And again, hopefully, fingers crossed, this is nothing to be too concerned about, but I am officially not hitting the panic button, but I got my hand hovering over it, if that makes sense. Because this guy can’t stay healthy.” Is Napier already hearing his last bell ringing without the Lagway lucky charm?