Steve Spurrier makes stance clear on SEC powerhouse benching lead quarterback

Florida Gators legend Steve Spurrier reacts after his alma mater made a big switch at quarterback and benched DJ Lagway during that ugly loss to Kentucky.

Steve Spurrier reacts to his alma mater benching DJ Lagway amid a football season the Florida Gators wish to forget. | Cyndi Chambers / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Florida was down big and quarterback DJ Lagway was having a bad night when Gators interim head coach Billy Gonzales made a swap for Tramell Jones.

Not that it did much, as Florida lost an ugly 38-7 game against Kentucky, and now heading into another big game against Ole Miss, former UF coach Steve Spurrier doesn’t see much light at the end of the tunnel for whoever goes under center.

“They did finally give Tramell a shot. He didn’t have much protection or not many open guys either. I don’t know what they’ll do this week,” Spurrier said on Another Dooley Noted podcast.

Jones was good for just 9 of his 17 pass attempts for 60 yards and failed to move the Florida offense into the end zone over the weekend.

At least he didn’t have any turnovers, something Lagway had three of before getting pulled.

Where does Florida go now?

Spurrier wondered aloud what the Gators might do at the quarterback position heading into this weekend’s forthcoming game against the one-loss, playoff-bound Rebels.

But more importantly, there’s the long-term question around what Florida will end up doing with quarterback DJ Lagway going forward.

That’s a key question in an era of NIL inducements and fluid transfer portal rules. Is there a future where Lagway is no longer with the Gators program?

That all depends on how long the deal Florida has with the quarterback is.

“You always wonder, does he have a two-year, a three-year deal?” What kind of deals do all these guys have? That’s what you wonder about,” Spurrier said.

Florida's offense hasn't worked at all

Whatever decisions they’ve made so far have failed to result in any consistency on offense.

Florida is averaging just 20.4 points per game this season, ranking 116th among 136 teams in the FBS, and second-worst in the SEC ahead of just South Carolina.

“Long Island, we scored a bunch of points. But since then, I think our high is 29 against Texas. We can’t score 30, 40, or anything like that.”

Florida’s loss to Kentucky last weekend was the program’s worst against its rival since 1950, and was also its biggest margin of defeat to an unranked opponent in decades.

“We got clobbered a few times when I was here, like 45-3 at Tennessee,” Spurrier recalled of the 1990 game.

“But they were ranked then, so I guess that’s not too embarrassing. But after we got clobbered up there, we regrouped and I think we won all of our [SEC] games the rest of the season. I don’t know if we’re going to win the rest of ours this season, but we’ll have to find out.”