Florida football quarterback DJ Lagway established himself as one of the top young quarterbacks in the country during his breakout freshman season.

Lagway went 6-1 as a starter and led the Florida Gators on a four-game win streak to close the 2024 season after incumbent starter Graham Mertz went down with a torn ACL last October against Tennessee.

Appearing on the Outta Pocket podcast with Robert Griffin III , Lagway said the hot seat talk surrounding Florida coach Billy Napier fueled UF's late-season surge. Florida was 4-5 with losses to Miami, Texas A&M, Tennessee, Texas and Georgia before winning four in a row to post its first winning record (8-5) since 2020.

"They were disrespecting our coach and disrespecting us generally," Lagway said on the podcast. "So, we had to go out there and show them what we had ...

"Obviously it took some bumps in the road, lotta ups and downs this year, but I feel like in the end, we kinda pulled it all together and figured it out. And hopefully we’ll build that momentum in the 2025 season.”

Lagway enters spring practice this week entrenched as UF's starting quarterback and could emerge as a potential Heisman Candidate as a sophomore in 2025 after throwing for 1,915 yards with 12 TDs to nine interceptions. He's still confident in the direction of the program and the offense under Napier, who plans to call the plays for UF again this season.

“Florida is a place that they’re going to build around me, like let me get out there and learn ―and develop me," Lagway said. "I feel like that’s the biggest thing, especially being a young quarterback these days. You’ve gotta go somewhere you can get developed and I feel like Florida was the place for me and I feel like it’s definitely happening. I’m getting better each and every day on different things like coverage recognition, protections and all good stuff like that.”