Florida football head coach Billy Napier and his Gators will be looking to get over the .500 mark for the first time this season on Saturday with a home game vs the Texas A&M Aggies. Napier’s squad opened this season with a dismal home loss to the Miami Hurricanes, but Florida bounced back last week with a comfortable victory over Samford.
One key storyline in that game was the fact that starting quarterback Graham Mertz missed the contest with a concussion, paving the way for backup DJ Lagway to start, and Lagway responded by playing well.
Recently, during an SEC teleconference, Napier declined to say whether or not Mertz had been medically cleared to return this Saturday, instead choosing to wait on the student-athlete availability reports which will be released later in the day on Wednesday, per TexAgs on X, formerly Twitter.
Napier also said that when both Mertz and Lagway are healthy, he plans to play both of them.
“Both of these guys have high character, unbelievable work ethic and are great leaders. We’re hopeful it will help our team continue to improve and win games,” said Napier.
What should Florida football do?
There’s an old saying that if a football team has two quarterbacks, then it really has none, which is a predicament that even NFL teams like the Pittsburgh Steelers are currently finding themselves in.
However, evidently that message has not been relayed to Billy Napier, per Andrea Adelson of ESPN.
“That’s where the gamesmanship is,” Napier said when asked how he would use both quarterbacks. “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.”
