DJ Lagway's first game as Baylor's starter was supposed to be a redemption story, not a medical drama. Instead, the Florida transfer spent Week 1 against Auburn doing both at once — flashing the arm talent that made him a five-star recruit while hurting badly enough to need two teammates just to get off the field.
The rough patch started well before the injury. Lagway opened the game turning the ball over on back-to-back-ish possessions — a fumble on one snap, an interception on the next — the kind of ugly stretch that got him run out of Gainesville in the first place. Chris Vannini summed it up as a QB capable of both a perfect sideline strike and a brutal turnover on consecutive plays.
Lagway delivers a perfect throw to the sideline. Then throws a bad INT on the next play. In conclusion, a land of contrasts.
Then came the injury. According to reporting on the game, Lagway hurt his right ankle in the first half attempting to hurdle an Auburn defender, a play that also cost Baylor the ball. He kept playing anyway, and kept delivering — Vannini noted he was throwing dimes while hobbling on one leg, including a back-shoulder touchdown, even as the mistakes piled up alongside the highlights.
DJ Lagway is gutting it out, man. He's delivered some DIMES while hobbling on one leg. A great back-shoulder TD now. A couple horrible mistakes, but the upside is still there.
By halftime it was clear this wasn't a tweak he could just play off. Lagway needed two teammates to help him limp to the tunnel, and Pete Nakos reported he was dealing with an ankle injury Baylor head coach Dave Aranda described simply as him "fighting through it."
DJ Lagway limps off the field with the help of two teammates, heading into halftime. Dealing with an ankle injury. Baylor head coach Dave Aranda says he is "fighting through it." t.co/F6J6HR2BQj
He didn't stay in the locker room. Lagway jogged back out with the Baylor offense to start the second half, ankle heavily taped, Auburn ahead 10-7 at the break according to Nakos. It's the kind of moment that either becomes a gutty origin story or a cautionary tale about pushing a first-year starter too hard in Week 1 — and right now nobody watching knows which.
The stakes here go beyond one game. Lagway arrived at Baylor this offseason as a fresh start after a brutal first full season at Florida, where he threw 28 touchdowns against 23 interceptions and went 4-8 as a starter while reportedly battling depression amid the pressure and a coaching change. Baylor was personal for him — his father played running back there in the late 1990s, and Lagway grew up less than an hour away in Willis, Texas. An ankle injury in his very first start wearing green and gold, in the Aflac Kickoff Game no less, is not the clean reset he was hoping for.
For now, all anyone in Waco can do is watch how the ankle holds up as the game wears on. Aranda's "fighting through it" is the kind of vague coach-speak that could mean anything from a sprain to something that lingers into next week, and Baylor's season opener may end up being remembered more for how Lagway finished it than for the score.