Gators Gameday Live: Samford Postgame

welcome to Gator game day live Seth Wonder here with Bud Davis for a Samford postgame show uh second half uh better than the first half would you agree bud I think generally like you know we had the we still had issues but overall that game we checked all the boxes I wanted to see which is get out healthy dominate um win convincingly and give me some things to be excited about the rest of the season and we got a win which like we haven't gotten that since October last year so let's celebrate that there's going to be plenty of things to stress and have anxiety about what Will Billy do and all that but at the end of the day the Gators won let's enjoy it we don't know how many more of those we're going to get this season and you don't get to celebrate those every day so it was fun yeah that's where we are just let's enjoy the wins as they come uh there are some positive things to build on some some good stuff uh some stuff that's still like these are issues that are going to creep up later but let's go ahead and look at some of the advanced stats from our friends at game on paper Bud walk us through this what's kind of um you know what's kind of the most impressive thing to you on here and what's maybe is there anything that's a little concerning okay so there's not that to me honestly there's not that much concerning here you know you're you're getting 10 yards of play and holding them under three that's a that's a great game every time um 10 yards of play is insane um it was nice to see the offensive humming offense humming you maybe you get some more points we had a drive stall or two had a fumble um you know that stuff isn't great but defense created a lot of Havoc you know I thought we were really aggressive um offense was really explosive you know maybe we would have liked to have SE seen a little bit more balanc some efficient passing game but at the end of the day we just dominated you know we rushed really well we passed really well um yeah I don't think there's there's too much more you can you can ask for there's a lot of green on the gator side a lot of purple on the Stanford side um anything for you Seth uh Red Zone success rate but that's that was more of a first half issue if I remember correctly um and then just the the DJ lagway number so I want to scroll down because he's got his person his kind of personal EPA numbers and I want you to try to put at one point he was at 2.01 I think before they kind of cycled down a little bit late but put this number can you put this number in perspective first of all yards per play 17.542 50% success rate can you put that in context a little bit like how insane is that it's really high um I mean I think especially when you consider the number of plays like get get into 20 some people end Seasons like you know in in the red in EPA and he is at 20 in a single game you know top 10 Gator passing record um but I think it's it's not like he went out there and threw 35 passes you know he he put up some pretty gouty numbers gy gouty goty I'm a math man not a not an English major um some pretty impressive numbers on you know just not that many attempts but it you know this is essentially saying DJ lagu on his own had three TDS um you know and he had three TDS and that's he was worth three TDS and that's when you account for every that went bad tooo with him which is not much I mean that's about as impressive a first start as I think you can have and yeah the and and we'll watch some film in a second the one thing that is interesting in watching him play and just okay this is a little different the dude is not afraid to push the ball down the field no there's even one where you get looks like usf's about to come down and score in Alabama uh that's an interesting one right there there there's a uh there is a um the throw that you know adio is kind of like hey this you know that's not a great decision the throw was unbelievably good it was it was still a dot it just missed I don't even I look like Trey may have even tripped a little bit but let's watch some of these throws I think the biggest takeaway is that like regardless of competition some of the throws lagway was making were just you know next level BigTime stuff so I I think to me that's really the takeway from this game like I said at halftime this was not an unbelievable Samford team I didn't think so stopping their offense is not you know like oh what a great defense I think that's kind of an expected defensive performance but let's watch some DJ lagu here so even this one like is it ill advised yeah probably yeah but look when he throws this thing he throws it really early Wilson's not behind him yet but look at the spot he throws it to there's only one person if anybody catches that ball it's only gon to be one person and I think he kind of trips here I don't know if it's just outre but that is an unbeliev like in terms of anticipation throws you talked last week we were kind of joking a little bit and I can make the screen a little bit bigger here we were kind of joking a little bit like does lagway at half time you know does lagway hit the post against Miami last week were open I mean look how early he's throwing this thing and that's a great spot I mean it looks like he even it even kind of gets Gator armed a little bit here so I mean just an unbelievable throw so even that one where the announcers kind of saying pretty ill advised the anticipation on that throw was insane and the fact that it was in a pretty good spot was also unbelievable let's look when he throws this thing he lets it go now because I think he anticipates this guy playing down on the tight end now gets a better team that could burn you but it's in a pretty good spot so that's just like not you know the ideal throw there but an unbelievable throw and then so inter in play here so they go uh tight end so you got four to a side so the tight ends one you got two three four here four to a side and then you pull the guard right pull a guard the back fits here to get some play out of the corner do the left side the safety comes down low for the hard play action right when you pull a guard you're going to get more play action from the safety and you've got tank Hawkins running just a deep over with his speed he's so fast and again this was one where it's like okay this wasn't a perfect throw because the guy did have to slow down but still drops it right over the defender great catch and a great play so a little bit of a different wrinkle here Crosser post big see yeah so it just what a difference Crosser post dig and so you get a nice shot play here and a really good throw not perfect throw but pretty good there and here's a little back view of it so there there's I mean that's the to me the whole that that's the whole game is just how good were how good was he taking the explosives yeah and and that's I guess that's the other question right is okay because we talked at halftime a little bit about you know a lot of this stuff is base concepts for runs a lot so it's not yeah the question then is okay so is it just a willingness issue right okay so I think I think this is the big point is we saw Anthony Richardson running biling aier scheme and it was only explosives yeah and then we saw grah Merz running it and it was a lot of efficiency stuff a lot of checkdowns and now we're seeing a third QB running it and the explosives are crushing and you know I think this is where you start to lean into not just because DJ L is the highly rated crw or he's done all these things uh set all these records in one game against a bad FCF FCS team it's you know we've seen a lot of Graham Merz and he might just not fit this offense that well and he looked really bad against Miami yeah I thought he had his worst game since that's what we were been talking like is he was he was there something going on before that here you get nice hitch and go I think down here you're hitch seam trying to get a shot over the top here on second and short great job navigating the pocket and letting it rip and then this is another one where this is crazy I mean that's an unbelievable spot and then it's good to see myel out there taking the top off the defense because you think that could be a role for him as the season progresses just having guys like Hawkins run the crossers instead of you know Jackson it's so much it's so much more powerful so much more effective yeah now I think we can get a little too excited because maybe a better corner it's a tougher but just I think the willingness in the ball placement on the receiver uh is good to see and then I think we got do we have one more we might have one more pretty good one here yeah I think it was this uh maybe the next one a little different concept coming up here I believe next it's the uh yes this one so you get this is something they've done uh before you get to go right we talked about like for the quarterback and this is the one thing the offense does that is my this is my favorite thing the offense does is they give the quarterback a bunch of similar reads but it's the same it's different kind of looks at it so this is a similar read to flood we talked about two different things but it's just we're going to bring a crossing here the flat here but you still got deep intermediate shallow so for the quarterback same processing same play Same look uh but for their defense is something totally different and then you also have some H you probably have a hitch over here I'm guessing you have some answers if you get man coverage right so good job first of all good job moving in the pocket like and this is the one thing that I think is interesting yeah I think this is kind of where I was about to go Jeremy goes there oine needs Improvement lagway Mobility gives us a better chance just kind of watching how he can throw off this platform here like just watch these throws there's not a lot of pressure but just the ability to kind of I can just kind of go back flick moving away from it and still put that ball on the money right that's something that if your offensive line is struggling maybe you need some more of that guys that can make the throw off platform and that's what the big time guys are doing now so uh I thought they gave him some stuff that was easy in terms of I can process these like so a lot of the shot plays he could process the same way each time which I think is makes it easy and that's the best stuff about the offense when it's going well is that they give the quarterback certain reads and he doesn't have to you know we can get to it 15 different ways but it's still the same read for the quarterback right that's the best parts of the offense the bad parts are we've seen we understand all the bad parts right so yeah and people complain because like oh there's only five or six plays in the Navy playb or whatever but I mean at the you can't have your QB completely overwhelmed but you want to have a lot of diversity in what what defensives have to prepare for and we do pretty good at that yeah I think at times there's there's situational things where they go to some crutches which they've got to get it's got to get better and I don't know at this point if it will because it's you know you you keep kind of thinking uh you know and I I give passes because it's okay first year quarterback okay second all right first year quarterback again all right where's the expansion on it and we saw against Miami now it's game one but a lot of the concepts like the third down crutches were a lot of the same stuff so yeah and good teams are going to be pretty prepared for that now they did have some things that they changed off of it but you know that's that was last week this week I thought they did a good job giving him you know a variety of the same read uh yeah I Jeremy I would think so uh like especially early we talked about it at halftime like I don't I don't I think they maybe that's why you saw the Wildcat early like no reason to run him but yeah um you know cuz when he came in against Miami he had he he ran like some Gap R read stuff which was probably part of his package in that game uh but this week they probably took that out just because no unnecessary hits but if he's going to be playing going forward and I think that's where we need to go next is what do you do going forward right because I I think the joke kind of before the game was that oh we could have a quarterback controversy but I mean the dude played really well and did some high level stuff obviously the opponent was not great but do you just bet on the ceiling and if he meets the ceiling in a couple games maybe pull off some upsets and you could do a little bit more or maybe the floor is a little bit lower but you know with the way Merz played in game one you know I thought his floor would be a lot higher than we saw against Miami so that's I guess that's the other side of it right I I agree like from only what we've seen this season I think the clear answer is you play DJ lagway you know I think you're kind of hoping Miami if you're if you want to play Merz you're hoping the Miami game was an anomaly for BTS at UF and that he generally plays above that and he's a second-year QB we see usually these seconde QBs transfer QBs take big steps forward so you're kind of hoping we should see that especially with this you know improved wide receiver core so I'm expecting Merz to play I think he's got a lot of familiarity with the system but I think his you know his leash has got to be short gone you know if he struggles again at all like he did against Miami it needs to be DJ lagway time yeah I don't it's this it's a tough question right because obviously uh you're going to be playing a pretty good defensive line next week so you know do you I I think the uh Dan Mullins last year throwing Richardson out against Georgia do you view it that way or is it just like hey no he's started he's played the talent the ceiling is so high you've got to get him on the field which I think is not an unfair way to look at it um obviously it sucks for merch but you know that that it's it's he's I would imagine he's got to play something cuz he does some things that are just you know like those throws are Next Level throws and I don't know if we've seen merch make some of those throws no so I mean you just bet on do you just if you're I I guess the other part of it is and I think a big part of being a college head coach which I think a lot of coaches that get fired don't don't understand is that Optics and messaging are super important to your fan base and to your team so I mean lague looked merch was you know last week merch was a before the game he was a he was a leader but lagway I thought did looked like he did a really good job stepping up as a leader before the game on the sideline you know what what does it look like to your team I guess maybe that's why you have those leadership councils and things like that to make help you make those kinds of decisions uh but optically to the fan base I think it's going to look rough going back because I think a lot of people I think the initial take from the game is hey just let the young guy roll take his lumps that's your best chance if you're Napier to retain your job right I think so um you and me I think we're on the same page we would play lague like yeah I think if I'm in if I'm in Billy's position yeah and you know I I want to see that I just I don't think it's gonna happen I don't think that's I would be surprised as well I don't think it's Billy Napier style um so then I think once I am like okay that's not gonna happen I kind of Wonder want to understand the thinking a little bit more for like you know what's the rationale for playing Mertz and I think a lot of it is like he has a lot of transfers he has a lot of freshman out there and he needs somebody who really knows the system and I think MZ gives him that a little bit better so but yeah I think lagway ceiling we saw it I mean first game as a freshman he's top 10 single game for Florida yeah and one I mean one of them was a tap pass but you know merch got credit for a lot of tap passes last year too right so that's just part of the that's just part of the gig but yeah I mean the dude pushed it down the field and was pretty accurate now do is it do you think it's at a point where he's got to play a little bit no matter what I think so I think he needs to have you know 10 15 snaps I mean significant roles um and you know hopefully they H they prepare something to take advantage of his you know skills so we'll see though it's it is a conundra I think if you I think he's got to play some if you're gonna you know at from this point because he played so well he did a good job leading the team you don't want to just be like all right great job Merz is back you know I think he kind of earned the chance to play uh a little bit so we'll see what he does going forward but you could you could start running into I think a real like Emory AR type situation where if it gets to the point where every time he comes in he plays really well yeah it's going to be definite and we saw kind of how that really optically turned the fans on Mullen and I think the fans don't need a lot of motivation to turn anymore on the current staff so yeah not at all but I could also you know if Merz goes out there and he's playing really well against Texas him in a tight game I'm fine leaving him in there you know yeah you don't pull the guys when they're doing well but um so just I mean just do you treat it like other positions where they're seemingly rotating the ton and having tight leashes on guys is that you do a tight leash and it as soon as it looks like somebody doesn't have it pull them kind of like how you it's like a pitcher almost yeah and and that's it's it's tough they're they put themselves in a they've got themselves in kind of a tough uh tricky situation here but the dude has got uh he's got it it seems like so he's got a freaking hose he's let he was letting those deep balls go uh so he's a special talent you'd have to imagine he's got to play some so I he played well enough tonight that he's putting Napier in a tough spot I think so agreed we'll see what happens dam is icing this yeah it's bro the dam is broken on that game so the flood's coming the flood waters are coming in now the tide if you will it's just coming unfortunately but all right I mean anything else I we'll we'll be back kind of later in the week to talk Texas A&M a little bit more but for now we haven't really watched much just yeah that's my cat I think we got some some all 22 um for for the Aggies and then there we go we'll uh yeah I think just enjoy the win don't make yourself miserable thinking about you know the the QB controversy have fun enjoy it that was awesome yeah enjoy the lagway go watch lagway highlights on Loop the rest of the week that'll make you feel better so we'll see uh what Napier has to say in his press conference post game and I'm sure he'll get asked about it next week um but it should be be an interesting interesting decision at quarterback when it really didn't seem like uh there would be much of a controversy this year but I don't know you throw you come out and throw for 456 yeah like 75% passing these things seem to happen so yeah can't stir the pot much more than that so all right well we'll be back next week to look at Texas in but for now enjoy the victory all right see you Seth all right see you