Is DJ Lagway the best quarterback in the Southeastern Conference?

Andy Staples of On3 ranks DJ Lagway (2) the top quarterback in the SEC (Photo by Chris Spears)

A few thoughts for late Monday evening:

Andy Staples of On3, who has covered college football for The Athletic and Sports Illustrated prior to his current gig, has rated the top 10 quarterbacks in the Southeastern Conference. While he ranks Arch Manning of Texas in his top five, he doesn’t have the latest member of the Manning legacy at the top of his list unlike most publications. At No. 1 he has Florida’s DJ Lagway.

Here are Staples’ top ten followed by my comments.

1. DJ Lagway, Florida: From a pure talent perspective, he is capable of being the No. 1 QB in the league and perhaps the country.

2. Garrett Nussmeier, LSU: He turned the ball over a lot last year but there is no denying he has a big league arm and some of the fastest receivers in the country to heave it to.

3. LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina: He can run and he has a seriously strong arm but he isn’t the most decisive passer you’ll see. Even though he is a powerful runner, he was sacked 41 times last year.

4. Arch Manning, Texas: The jury is out. Talent is unquestioned, but last year all his big numbers were against teams with lousy defenses like Mississippi State and Louisiana-Monroe.

5. John Mateer, Oklahoma: He would be either No. 1 or No. 2 for me. He can light it up with his arm or his legs.

6. Austin Simmons, Ole Miss: Sophomore who has already graduated. Lefty with a big arm and better legs than Jaxson Dart had.

7. Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt: Reminds me of Joe Kapp. Not very pretty but the end result is winning.

8. Gunner Stockton, Georgia: His numbers will be deceiving. He’s not that good.

9. Ty Simpson, Alabama: See Gunner Stockton.

10. Marcel Reed, Texas A&M: He plays behind a great offensive line and could produce spectacular numbers.

Didn’t make Staples cut: Joey Aguilar, Tennessee; Taylon Green, Arkansas; Jackson Arnold, Auburn; Beau Pribula, Missouri; Zach Calzada, Kentucky; Blake Shapen, Mississippi State

SEC MEDIA DAYS: THEY SAID IT

Brian Kelly, LSU coach: "I know we haven't played the kind of defense necessary to win a national championship. We've given Blake, now, the tools, to play championship-level defense. Clearly, the 2023 offensive football team we had was good enough to win the national championship, but we weren't good enough as a team. A lot of that was addressing the shortcoming we had on defense. I love our seriousness and focus and intent. Anytime you go on the road and play a team like Clemson [in the opener], you better bring a defense with you."

Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss coach: “When we got here at Ole Miss, we had to sell to recruits, hey, when you come here this is what's it's going to look like. We're going to win. We are going to have first round picks. We are going to have the most players drafted in school history. We're going to win 11 games in a season, win 21 in the last two seasons. So now that we've done that, we've seen the impact, whether that's transfers coming in or high school kids that have been able to see that. Especially with Mississippi kids to stay home knowing they can achieve and get all these things that maybe previously they needed to look to leave for.”

Clark Lea, Vanderbilt coach: Vanderbilt football is a chip-on-the-shoulder operation. It's young. It's home to a young, hungry, scrappy team that begins each day with something to prove. We want to make life miserable for the teams we play against because of how we play the game, the energy we bring every time we step on the field. This is what makes us special. Not our buildings or banners. It's our people. Our collective heartbeat relatedness is our edge. We must pay attention to the attitude of the team. We must cultivate the right mindset, and we've got to silence any narrative that suggests an arrival or assurance of progress. Anything that steals our attention from the present will keep us from playing to our identity and executing our strategy every time out. When we fail to do those things we leave the mission to chance. Chasing progress extends to measurable ways we can play better football. We're a team that cannot afford to beat ourselves. We have to take pride in our performance in the areas that we control. This includes pre-snatch and post-whistle penalties, errors of execution. These self-imposed negatives combined with possession of the ball to be the foundation of winning football at Vanderbilt.”

Shane Beamer, South Carolina coach: “When you look at our team offensively, have a new offensive coordinator in Mike Shula. That was an easy decision for me to promote Mike to be the coordinator. He was a part ever our program last year. He's literally been in the shoes that LaNorris (Sellers) is in as he was a starting quarterback in this conference, and he's been in the shoes I'm in as a head football coach in this conference as well. He's already made us better as an offense on and off the field. When you look at us, we got to replace the interior of our offensive line and a lot of playmakers at the running back and tight end position. I'm excited about the potential of the guys roughening and how we take the next step as a offense under Coach Shula.”

Garrett Nussmeier, LSU QB: “One, there's no hiding from the turnovers. I think it's more of an understanding of, you know, the way I am as a player, as an anticipation player, there's going to be some interceptions. The ones I need to eliminate are the ones that don't need to happen, the ones where I'm trying to do too much, the ones I'm trying to make a play when I don't need to. I think it ties into my growth as well, and I've really bought into trying to change my body makeup and being able to be more durable, to be able to run, to be able to make plays with my feet as well. I think there are times last year where I may have made a mistake, that if I would have put my head down, gone and got back to the line of scrimmage, or went ran for three yards and slid, would have been a different outcome. All tied in together.”

Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt QB: “I think the win over Alabama was big from a Vanderbilt standpoint of just allowing us to go get talent. And it eventually helped us go to a bowl game. Each one of those six wins was important. But that one, obviously they're the No. 1-ranked team in the country. But when it comes down to it, every win was important. And I think that one was because we finally got people to believe kind of in Vanderbilt football. So from here on out, obviously we've got to win more games to get the things done that we want. Winning solves everything.”

Cayden Lee, Ole Miss WR: “We lost a lot of people after last season. Just being able to bring a lot of new faces in and being able to just preach that model. Going 1-0 is all that matters, because everybody wants to talk about the national championship, the SEC Championship, but nothing else matters but just going 1-0 every day and winning the first game, winning the second game. That's the message we have for our team.”

LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina QB: “Everything I needed was in South Carolina, like I grew up there. My family's there. Anything I needed was an hour and five up the road for me. School pretty much take care of rent and all that. So it's not like you really need too much. You know what I'm saying? So everything I need is (indiscernible), so there's no point in me starting over.”

On deck for Tuesday: Georgia coach Kirby Smart; Auburn coach Hugh Freeze; Tennessee coach Josh Heupel; Texas coach Steve Sarkisian

On deck for Wednesday: Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer; Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby; Florida coach Billy Napier; Oklahoma coach Brent Venables

On deck for Thursday: Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz; Kentucky coach Mark Stoops; Arkansas coach Mike Pittman; Texas A&M coach Mike Elko

UF BASKETBALL: GATORS ADD TRANSFER FROM SACRAMENTO STATE

Alex Kovatchev, a 6-5, 190-pound perimeter guard from western Australia, has transferred to Florida from Sacramento State. Kovatchev averaged 8.5 points and 5.0 rebounds in a season limited to four games due to injury. As a freshman at Sacramento State, Kovatchev averaged 5.0 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game.

Kovatchev isn’t a complete stranger to the Gators. Two years ago Kovatchev and Alex Condon teamed up on Western Australia’s under-20 team.

Here is a look at the Florida basketball roster for the 2025-26 season.

BIG GUYS: Micah Handlogten (7-1, 255, SR); Alex Condon (6-11, 232, JR); Tommy Haugh (6-9, 215, JR); Rueben Chinyelu (6-10, 260, JR); Viktor Mikic (6-11, 250, RFR); Olivier Rioux (7-9, 305, RFR)

PERIMETER: Xaivian Lee (6-4, 180, SR/TR); AJ Brown (6-4, 200, RJR/TR); Alex Kovatchev (6-5, 190, JR/TR); Cooper Josefsberg (6-4, 195, JR); Urban Klavzar (6-1, 190, SO); Isaiah Brown (6-4, 200, SO); Boogie Fland (6-2, 175, SO/TR); Alex Lloyd (6-4, 180, FR); CJ Ingram (6-6, 190, FR)

UF BASEBALL: GATORS IN THE MLB DRAFT

Six Gators and two recruits were taken in the Major League Baseball Draft. All but Bobby Boser have at least one year of eligibility so technically speaking they could come back to UF if they don’t get a contract they like.

It’s hard to imagine Jordan Yost turning down first round money, particularly with Detroit, which has more wins at the All-Star break than any other in the Major Leagues.  Aaron Watson is a different story. The Cincinnati Reds are notorious for low-balling draftees and they are middle of the pack in the National League. He may choose college baseball with the hope of being drafted by a better team in three years.

Gators taken in the draft

SS Colby Shelton: 6^th round/No. 166 Chicago White Sox

RHP Jake Clemente: 7/198 Miami Marlins

LHP Pierce Coppola: 7/211 Chicago Cubs

3B Bobby Boser: 11/320 Athletics

C Luke Heyman: 14/422 Seattle Mariners

C Brody Donay: 17/507 Tampa Bay

Recruits drafted

SS Jordan Yost (Tampa, FL Sickles): 1/24 Detroit Tigers

RHP Aaron Watson (Jacksonville, FL Trinity Christian): 2/51 Cincinnati Reds

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT

The Tampa Bay Rays, who are playing in a spring training stadium for the foreseeable future, are being sold to Jacksonville developer Patrick Zapulski for $1.7 billion. Supposedly, Zapulski is committed to keeping the team in the Tampa Bay area, but there is no stadium and so far no plan to build one.

There is also the issue of which side of Tampa Bay does Zapulski intend to keep the Rays? The team played in St. Petersburg until the hurricane all but destroyed Tropicana Field. St. Pete is a lousy location to begin with and it’s a trek across a long bridge to get from Tampa to the other side of the bay. For the Rays to stay in the area, they need to play in Tampa, but no one has come up with a plan to build a stadium. The Tampa waterfront would be an ideal but extremely expensive proposition. Another outstanding possibility would be at the crossroads of I-4 and I-75 near the state fairgrounds. That would give easy access to Polk County, Sarasota and even Orange/Osceola county fans. 

Can Zapulski get a stadium deal done? For the Rays to be successful they need a stadium with a retractable roof and it needs to be in a place where the folks on the east side of Tampa Bay find easily accessible. The Bucs sell out RayJay and Lightning tickets are a hot sell. Baseball hasn’t done well at the box office in St. Pete and so far nobody has a plan for a baseball stadium in Tampa.

Stay tuned on this one. It’s going to be very interesting what happens next.