WHAT HAPPENED: Freshman quarterback from Florida DJ Lagway In his collegiate debut Saturday night, he threw for 456 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Gators to a 45-7 victory over FCS-ranked Samford at Spurrier/Florida Field. Senior Tailback Montrell Johnson, Jr. ran for two touchdowns in the first half, while wideouts Eugene Wilson III And Elijah Badger every had 100-yard receiving games, but it was Lagway’s big arm – and the energy he sparked in “The Swamp” – that got the Gators off the mat after their lopsided season-opening loss to cross-state rival Miami. Lagway, who was named to the starting lineup after his sixth year as a senior, Graham Mertz suffered a concussion against the Hurricanes, hitting 18 of 25 attempts and scoring touchdowns of 36, 41 and 85. When he was done, the 6’3″, 235-pound player from Willis, Texas, had broken the record for most yards in a game by a true UF freshman, edging out the 268 yards of Chris Leak (September 27, 2003 in Kentucky) in the dust. The 456 yards were the ninth-highest total in a game in Florida football history. After UF’s first possession ended with Samford stuffing the tailback Treyann Webb On a fourth and one at the 17, the Gators (and Lagway) made amends on their second turn. On the second attempt from his own 20, Lagway dropped a bomb for Badger and threw it up the right sideline, which led 77 yards to the Bulldogs’ 4, where Johnson finished things off with a couple of runs for a 7-0 lead with three minutes left in the opening period. On the third drive, Lagway started with a 40-yard pass to the tight end Hayden Hansen deep into Samford territory. A 22-yard pass-and-run to Badger set up Johnson’s second TD run, a 7-yard run that gave him a 14-0 lead. At that point in the game, Lagway had completed 6 of 6 passes for 193 yards. After a rocky end to the first half, Lagway was back on track at the start of the second half, this time scoring the first touchdown of his career, a 36-yard run to Tank Hawkins for a 21-0 lead. The Bulldogs shortened the gap with a 12-play, 75-yard run (with only a third down along the way), capped by a 1-yard run by Damon Witherspoon Mid-period. No problem. Lagway’s 44-yard rocket to Aidan Mizell Just four snaps later, the score was 28-7, and Lagway set the freshman record. A 25-yard field goal by Trey Smack early in the fourth quarter put the Gators ahead 31-7. Five minutes later, after the UF defense forced a punt, the Gators offense took possession at their 15-yard line. Wilson got moving, took a two-handed forward throw from Lagway (technically a pass), turned around in the middle of the field and outran the Samford defense 85 yards for the score. By the end of the night, the Gators had 632 total yards of offense to the Bulldogs’ just 205. Wilson caught six passes for 141 yards, Badger caught three for 123. Yale transfer Aidan Warner replaced Lagway late in the fourth quarter and capped off his scoring with a 9-yard touchdown run.

WHAT IT MEANS: A win, of course, but also the first step towards overcoming the ugly season-opening loss against Miami. Maybe even the beginning of a new era among quarterbacks (read on).

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Of course. If Mertz is released from concussion protocol next week, Florida coach Billy Napier has to make an interesting decision at the start of the Southeastern Conference season.

AMAZING STATISTICS: In the 2023 season, the Gators completed 39 passes of at least 20 yards (so-called “explosive plays”) in 12 games. Lagway had four of them in the first half of his debut and nine in the entire game (with completions of 77, 44, 40, 22, 22, 36, 41, 24 and 85 yards).

NEXT: The Gators (1-1, 0-0) open their SEC season with a third straight home game, this time against Texas A&M (1-1, 0-0), which rebounded from a tough Week 1 home loss to No. 7 Notre Dame to beat McNeese State 52-10 on Saturday. The Aggies under new coach Michael Elko (via Duke) are in Gainesville for only the second time since joining the conference in 2012 (compared to UF’s three trips to College Station during A&M’s first 11 seasons in the league).