Five Picks, One Nightmare: Inside DJ Lagway’s LSU Meltdown
This time a week ago, the last time a Florida quarterback threw five interceptions in one game came in 1992. That was until Saturday night, when sophomore DJ Lagway hit that mark.
LSU defensive backs saw right through the young quarterback all night in Baton Rouge. Whether the cause was mechanics, play-calling or protection, the only thing Lagway delivered was gift-wrapped picks, sometimes into triple coverage, including one that LSU safety Dashawn Spears returned for a 58-yard touchdown. His performance tied Gators quarterback Shane Matthews in 1992 for most interceptions in a game in Florida history.
“I’ve never had a performance like that in my life, so it’s kind of just hard to process it,” said Lagway, who now has 17 passing touchdowns and 15 interceptions through two seasons. “But at the end of the day, it’s all about how do you bounce back and how do you respond, and I’m planning on doing so.”
The first of Lagway’s five interceptions came with six minutes left in the first quarter. On third-and-10 at the Tigers’ 43-yard-line, wide receiver J. Michael Sturdivant was the target, but the ball landed in the arms of Spears. Facing pressure, Lagway threw a dart toward his man with uneven footwork, but LSU’s SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week knew exactly where the ball was headed and snatched up the opportunity.
Fortunately, the defense held LSU’s offense to force a three-and-out to get the ball back in Lagway’s hands.
“So you got to always remember that the mental contributes to the physical,” Gators coach Billy Napier said Monday. “You got to be airtight from a progression standpoint. Typically, that allows you to anticipate better to be a little bit sharper with your feet and the ball ends up going to the right spot.”
One of Lagway’s lone bright spots was his fifth passing touchdown of the season – a 10-yard throw to redshirt sophomore Aidan Mizell to knot the score with over three minutes left in the half. But the good times didn’t last.
With 28 seconds left in the first half, disaster struck again. On third-and-7, senior safety A.J. Haulcy read the ball perfectly and took the interception for a 10-yard gain. This one led to a field goal to put the Tigers up 13-10 at the half. For his second pick Lagway had a nice pocket with time to throw. His eyes were set on his target, freshman receiver Vernell Brown III, and the defense took notice.
In the second half, Spears came back to cause Lagway headaches, this time with a 58-yard Pick-6 to score the final points of the game and seal the game for LSU. Sturdivant standing as the target once again, Lagway had good protection, the result remained the same.
The fourth interception of the night also came from a pressure situation that was flat-out overthrown into triple coverage downfield. Safety Tamarcus Cooley caught the pass running into the end zone, looking as if he was the intended target.
However, the Tigers had Gators wide receiver Eugene Wilson III covered well, and Lagway failed to connect. Napier and Lagway had a long conversation on the sidelines following the drive about needing to play smarter football in that situation.
“Just bad ball placement on a lot of things,” Lagway said. “Just bad misread throws, and I got to play better. And like Coach Napier always says, this is a practice sport.”
The last of the chaos came on the Gators’ next drive, when Lagway laid the ball up like he was throwing it away in Mizell’s direction. Instead, cornerback DJ Pickett jumped up to make the grab, while Lagway was made uncomfortable amid the scramble. One could point to both the offensive line and the quarterback on the final pick, as Lagway had no protection and did not throw the ball far enough.
One question fans asked during the debacle was why true freshman quarterback Tramell Jones Jr. remained sidelined. Napier said leading up to LSU that Lagway was their guy, and they were going to stick with him through it all.
“I’m just excited to get back to work, man, it’s just I gotta get this taste out of my mouth,” Lagway said. “I played horrible football today, and I got to do better.”
The squad has a quick turnaround to recover ahead of a night game at Miami. Live coverage of that game is at 7:30 p.m. on ABC and 98.1-FM/AM-850 WRUF.
Category: College Football, Feature Sports News, Football, Gators Football, NCAA, SEC
