GAINESVILLE, Fla. — He played well enough in his first season to earn Freshman All-American honors, rejuvenated the Gators and their hungry fan base by winning six of his seven starts, and enters his sophomore season as one of college football’s marquee players.

No disrespect to 7-foot-9 Gators center and O’Dome favorite Olivier Rioux – a marketing standout on the rise in his own right – but UF sophomore quarterback DJ Lagway is currently the undisputed big man on campus.

“He is QB1 at a top-five brand in college football,” said Ben Chase, Florida’s director of name, image and likeness (NIL) strategy. “When you come to play at a place like Florida, and you attach your brand to the Gators’ brand, this is what happens in the NIL era.”

 

Lagway, much to the relief of Florida fans, is back on the field after an offseason hampered by injuries. He will make his first career start in a season opener on Saturday night when the Gators host Long Island University.

 

While much of the football-centric news over the past eight months centered on Lagway’s aches and pains, the 20-year-old Lagway’s business profile has thrived, much like Apple stock in the late 1990s, when Steve Jobs returned to the company. Lagway’s latest deal was announced on Friday, when Jordan Brand revealed an NIL partnership with Lagway, who joins a select roster of handpicked talent, including NFL quarterbacks Jalen Hurts and Bryce Young, on Jumpman’s roster of football players.

 

The Jordan Brand deal is just one of a string of Lagway endorsements that have made him a national figure – 192 passes into his college career. Lagway’s agreements stretch far and wide.

On the national level, Lagway has partnered with headphone company Beats by Dre, shot a T-Mobile commercial with Patrick Mahomes and Rob Gronkowski, signed an NIL deal with Gatorade, and appeared on the cover of the EA Sports College Football 26 Deluxe Edition video game.

Lagway also has a strong local portfolio.

DJ’s Cast Iron Burgers, a food truck located off West Newberry Road in Gainesville, features The Lagway Burger. Lagway has a NIL deal with Lamborghini Orlando and an equity partnership with NIL Launchpoint, a mobile and web platform designed to connect college athletes with brands for NIL deals.

Lagway has also demonstrated a philanthropic spirit, partnering with UF Health for a $50,000 donation through the DJ Lagway Foundation. In March, he reportedly donated $100,000 to Florida Victorious to support the NIL efforts of the UF women’s athletic programs.

 

“Football has given me so much, and NIL has opened doors I could never have imagined,” Lagway said when his foundation announced the UF Health partnership. “Now, I want to use those opportunities to pay it forward.”

Napier discussed the potential of such opportunities with Lagway and his family long before the Texas native made his collegiate debut in last season’s opener against Miami. Napier understood the changing landscape of college athletics in the NIL era and, as of July 1, the revenue-share era.

 

Lagway, the No. 1-rated dual-threat quarterback in the nation coming out of Willis (Texas) High, was going to have opportunities at UF that might not exist at places without such national recognition.

 

“You see NFL quarterbacks that are literally two and three years older than him. His level of contribution here is the same, what he does for our football team, what he does for our athletic department, and in reality, what he does for our university,” Napier said. “Sports are the front porch, right? Think about what our basketball team accomplished this past spring. There is no bigger spotlight on the University of Florida than your team in the Final Four, in the SEC Tournament, and winning the national championship, and not only doing it on the court, but the way they did it and the type of team they had.

“DJ is no different. I think he’s representing the university in a first-class manner, the way he has given back. He’s not showing up with an attitude of ‘I’m here to be served,’ he’s showing up with an attitude of ‘I’m here to serve.’ He’s using his platform and being a good example for others in the future.”

As Lagway’s personal brand has grown, so have expectations. He has become more ubiquitous in the psyche of Gator Nation than any player since Tim Tebow.

So much of the buzz surrounding Saturday night’s opener revolves around Lagway’s presence and what that could mean for a program that opens the season ranked No. 15 in the AP Top 25, marking the first time since 2021 that Florida has started a season ranked.

The man ultimately responsible for Lagway being at Florida is confident in his star prospect.

“He made a name for himself last year with the way he competed as a freshman,” Napier said. “You saw the talent; you saw the ability was there. Now is the fun part. He knows what it’s like. We’ve built the team around him.

 

“The most important thing here is that he has consistently been consumed by improvement. This is a guy, regardless of his status, whether he’s been successful or struggled at times, he has shown up with an attitude of ‘I want to get better.’ He wants to be at his best for his team.”

Those who spend the most time around Lagway – his teammates – say that whatever star power he owns outside the Heavener Football Training Center is turned off inside the building. Lagway strives to be one of the guys, a young player who is willing to work to fulfill all that untapped promise in his 6-foot-3, 247-pound frame.

Running back Ja’Kobi Jackson’s journey is apples to oranges when compared to Lagway’s. He missed out on opportunities after graduating from high school due to the COVID-19 pandemic, eventually spending parts of three seasons at a junior college in Mississippi.

 

Jackson sits across from Lagway in Florida’s locker room and applauds how Lagway has responded to his high-profile position.

 

“He has handled it very well,” Jackson said. “You wouldn’t notice that he has been on all those commercials. He’s the same way every day when I talk to him. He is a really cool guy.”

That is what Napier wants to hear – not that he ever had any doubts.

 

“He’s built for it,” Napier said. “The key is that he has the levelheadedness to not let it change who he is, his perspective, his non-negotiables on life. I think that’s where he is a little bit different. He wants to be his best, and then he wants to be the best, and he’s willing to work for that.”

He has also worked on fitting in away from the football team.

Lagway struck up a relationship with Gators softball player Ava Brown after enrolling at UF in January 2024, welcomed to town by none other than Gators legend Emmitt Smith. The two have shared photos on social media, and Lagway is a regular at Seashole Pressly Stadium during softball season.
 
Chase, who works closely with UF athletes in the NIL space, said Lagway’s engagement with Gators fans and the student body has shown there is a person behind the brand.
 
“He cares more about what’s on the field than all these other opportunities,” Chase said. “I remember seeing him at softball in the spring. It was a doubleheader against Texas, and we lost both games. He stayed the whole time, something like six hours. That level of loyalty to the university and his girlfriend shows you who he is.”

Lagway will make his eighth career start on Saturday night. We know a great deal about him as a campus celebrity and the face of the NIL era in college athletics. There is much we don’t know about him as a player.

Napier has a good idea of what type of player Lagway can be. And like the rest of us, he is eager to see what that means on the field.

“There is even more out there for DJ to accomplish,” Napier said. “He’s just getting started.”