Billy Napier Shares His QB Plan With Graham Mertz & DJ Lagway Moving Forward

Florida bounced back from their embarrassing season-opening loss to Miami with a dominant win over Samford on Saturday, led by freshman quarterback DJ Lagway.

Lagway replaced starter Graham Mertz, who was injured in the opener and missed practice last week.

On Monday, Gators head coach Billy Napier said he plans on playing both quarterbacks moving forward. Per ESPN:

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Florida coach Billy Napier plans to use both Graham Mertz and DJ Lagway at quarterback, saying during his Monday news conference, "these guys will make us harder to defend."

Lagway started against Samford last week in place of Mertz, out with a concussion, and set a school record for true freshmen with 456 yards passing in a 45-7 victory. Napier said Mertz has one more step to go through to clear concussion protocols. If he does that this week, as expected, Napier plans to play both quarterbacks Saturday against Texas A&M. How that will look -- and who will start -- Napier was not ready to divulge all that.

"That's where the gamesmanship is," Napier said. "I don't want to put the playbook on the streets here. Ultimately [Lagway's] one of our better players. We're going to give him an opportunity to impact the game and contribute to the team. That's our intention."

"Our intention the entire time has been to play DJ in every game," Napier said. "Obviously, he gets a little bit more experienced each week. For him to have the opportunity to be the starter, prepare with the 1s and then go play and the way he did that, the poise, the composure, it shows he's ready to do what we intend to do with him going forward. There's no doubt both these guys will make us harder to defend."

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