{"id":751203,"date":"2026-07-08T20:48:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T20:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/751203\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T20:48:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T20:48:21","slug":"the-other-side-of-dj-lagway-the-moment-dave-aranda-found-real-hope-in-his-new-quarterback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/751203\/","title":{"rendered":"The other side of DJ Lagway: The moment Dave Aranda found real hope in his new quarterback"},"content":{"rendered":"

FRISCO, Texas \u2014 DJ Lagway<\/a> had been at Baylor for three weeks, but on this particular afternoon, after a team run, the quarterback walked into head coach Dave Aranda<\/a>\u2018s office and revealed a new side of himself. <\/p>\n

It came pouring out of Lagway. The frustration, the anger, the places where things went wrong. F-bombs were flying as the normally buttoned-up quarterback finally revealed to his new head coach that he isn\u2019t a robot, unaffected by his fairly traumatic recent past. <\/p>\n

Aranda was relieved to see that passion flying out of the quarterback who\u2019s supposed to guide Baylor back into the Big 12 conversation. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s energy,\u201d Aranda told On3 on Tuesday. \u201cNow it\u2019s about channeling it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lagway arrived at Big 12 Media Days on Tuesday wearing Baylor\u2019s green home uniform, marking one of the first times the world saw the freak athlete in the full getup. Lagway, mild-mannered and poised, answered tough questions about what went wrong at Florida, how good it felt to be back in his home state and what turning over a new leaf in Waco could look like.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s likable. He\u2019s sincere. He doesn\u2019t duck questions, even the ones that force him to confront the recent past, which many would regard as a failure. But unlike that day in Aranda\u2019s office earlier in the offseason, there\u2019s a noticeable lack of emotion. There are many wonderful-sounding clich\u00e9s about proving himself right, about how he was blessed to have the opportunity he was given at Florida, and so on. That\u2019s Lagway being both gracious and cautious, which can come across as robotic. It feels like he\u2019s trying to be who he thinks people think he should be. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Aranda was over the moon to see this raw side of Lagway, the one who was skeptical of everything Baylor was selling during his official visit, the one who was guarded in what he said and how he presented himself, the mild-mannered one.<\/p>\n

To Aranda, Lagway illustrated a certain comfort in his new setting. The willingness to reveal how he was feeling to his new coach was touching; it conveyed the kind of trust a head coach would want to share with the quarterback on whom he relies.<\/p>\n

The truth is, Lagway hasn\u2019t had an easy path. Though things have changed in college football \u2014 and the former five-star prospect was paid handsomely to perform at Florida \u2014 he was viewed as the savior of the Gators football program from the moment he set foot on campus. When those crippling expectations are coupled with an inability to stay healthy, his isolation on campus, and the fact that former Florida coach Billy Napier<\/a>\u2018s job security rested on his shoulders, it\u2019s no wonder things didn\u2019t go as planned.<\/p>\n

Lagway was being compensated to make plays. He was being compensated to put people\u2019s jaws on the floor. It was his duty \u2014 no, his obligation \u2014 to do things on the field last fall that turned the Gators into a national power again.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t do it for reasons that may sound like excuses now. He never had a full, healthy offseason with his teammates. When he got onto the field, he lacked enough reps and chemistry with them to perform at the expected level. And when things started to fall apart, Lagway felt pressured to deliver what his NIL contract promised \u2014 greatness. Instead, it manifested in careless turnovers, sloppy play, and an incredibly gifted athlete looking rather meek. Wondering why Lagway kept throwing into traffic? Maybe it was because he felt he had to make a play, that he had to win.<\/p>\n

Yes, those are excuses. <\/p>\n

But what if they\u2019re true? What if those excuses are also explanations?<\/p>\n

Maybe. <\/p>\n

Or maybe not. Maybe Lagway, the 6-foot-3, 245-pound freak of nature with a rocket arm, was just misevaluated during his high school recruiting. Maybe the glimpses of greatness we saw at Florida were just another freak athlete who can do amazing things, but isn\u2019t a great quarterback. Maybe he is just another Anthony Richardson<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But what\u2019s clear now? Lagway seems at ease in a way that was never possible in Gainesville, given the circumstances. You could sense it at The Star on Tuesday. When his teammates asked questions about Lagway, they pointed to him as their leader. When Lagway was asked about his transition to Baylor \u2014 where his father played \u2014 he said it was important to be welcomed onto the team wholeheartedly by people who believe in him. <\/p>\n

Lagway took receivers to Miami to work out in the offseason. He seems truly motivated by improving the things he perceived went wrong in Gainesville. <\/p>\n

Perhaps the best part? Lagway is under the radar for the first time since he was a high-profile prospect. Yes, Aranda is seen as someone who could be on the hot seat heading into 2026, but Lagway didn\u2019t arrive in Waco as the savior. The weight of Baylor\u2019s fate isn\u2019t squarely on his shoulders. He does have a chip on his shoulders, though. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about proving myself right,\u201d Lagway told On3. \u201cBecause I know who I am as a player. I know what I can do, and I know the adversity I went through last year, on and off the field. I\u2019m just excited to put it all together and let the world see who I am.\u201d <\/p>\n

That isn\u2019t the Lagway Aranda saw in his office. It\u2019s the one who shows up when the cameras are rolling. That\u2019s the Lagway, calculated from his words, keen to present himself in a favorable light publicly. Just know \u2014 the raw, emotional Lagway exists, and he now feels comfortable enough in his environment to show it to those close to him.<\/p>\n

Will we see Lagway hit his ceiling because of that? You can decide what you want to believe. <\/p>\n

One thing that\u2019s not up for debate is the talent. That\u2019s undeniable.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s now about whether his new environment can help him unlock it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRISCO, Texas \u2014 DJ Lagway had been at Baylor for three weeks, but on this particular afternoon, after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[32687,7311,399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-751203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-dave-aranda-94-redlands","tag-dj-lagway-24-willis","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}