Tears Gator Tears

I haven’t really mentioned him de-committing for football purposes, but there’s always that possibility. Especially when the Texas schools come calling; let’s be honest here: both Miami and UF (more so UF at this point due to Napier’s lack of recruiting success compared to Mario) are in that second tier where even when we have big dogs commit, we have to fend off the UGA’s/Bama’s/Texas’s/A&M/OSU’s of the college football world. Those schools have the luxury of sitting back and waiting, ready to cherry pick whomever they choose. And why shouldn’t they feel this way?

Now where I’m leaning pretty heavily (and have said this before), is that I think he goes pro in baseball. MLB organizations have placed a premium on talented and projectable high school athletes because they’re cheaper to sign. They love stockpiling talent on fresh and raw guys rather than grabbing college players that despite more proven, have a bit more wear and tear and usually demand more money.

Lagway was throwing mid 80’s as a 14-year old, and while I haven’t seen too much recent film on him, he’s definitely a guy that could go high enough to warrant a serious discussion as to whether he wants to even entertain college. He’s got plenty of tools from a baseball perspective - speed, a live arm, great fielding, hits gap-to-gap and displays a little bit of pop. If he can add some muscle to his frame, obviously that power aspect increases.

As of now, I’d say he goes pro out of high school.

Where do you think he could be drafted? UF could probably match it in NIL (they are desperate to hold on to him) leaving a first baseball contract in the future still available to him. I'm less optimistic he skips football for MLB than most.
 
Advertisement
Where do you think he could be drafted? UF could probably match it in NIL (they are desperate to hold on to him) leaving a first baseball contract in the future still available to him. I'm less optimistic he skips football for MLB than most.
Even if he makes it on campus, with what Florida has in the qb room, it’s almost assured that he would be a true freshman starter. The fans looking at that like he’s a sure fire can’t miss prospect is where the real tears will happen. I would have zero faith in napier developing him, which means he’d have to be the rare 4 star qb who is ready to Play immediately, and he’d have to overcome a vanilla, basic offense with no creativity. If he was smart, he’d entertain kiffin
 
Where do you think he could be drafted? UF could probably match it in NIL (they are desperate to hold on to him) leaving a first baseball contract in the future still available to him. I'm less optimistic he skips football for MLB than most.
He’d probably have to go within the first 10 rounds in order to consider forgoing college. Even round 10 is roughly a 150k slot and they normally overpay for high schoolers (and not just a couple grand overpay, a decent chunk of money at that) while underpaying college guys desperate to just get into a farm system (so they’ll settle for less money to do so). There’s also the possibility that Napier doesn’t let him play baseball since it obviously conflicts with Spring football. Ultimately it’ll be up to the kid which sport he pursues and how he wants to, but it could get dicey if Napier tries to get him to drop baseball and other programs like Arkansas, LSU, Texas, A&M, etc. tell him he can do both. Honestly I think he’ll need a season of redshirting anyways so being thrust into the fire at UF as the 2024 starting QB could be a disaster in itself.

Gator fans are trying to spin it like he won’t be successful at baseball and should solely commit to football like Tebow did, and then try baseball after. Obviously that’s a selfish take on their part. Maybe that happens, maybe it doesn’t. Curious to see what he ultimately decides, but Gator fans are delusional if they think he’s some ambassador that isn’t looking around at all his options.
 
Is Lagway even playing baseball this year?
Not sure actually. Good point - I haven't really looked for stats recently. Just in the past.

USC is interested in Lagway btw. Article came out today on them beginning to up the pressure on him. Like I said, UF is delusional if they think he's 1000% sticking. UF will undoubtedly have to keep upping the bag, and they already paid a pretty penny to get him onboard early after the whole Rashada fiasco. Just wait til this season gets underway.

There are far better programs with more money and a better track record of developing QBs that want his services.
 
Not sure actually. Good point - I haven't really looked for stats recently. Just in the past.

USC is interested in Lagway btw. Article came out today on them beginning to up the pressure on him. Like I said, UF is delusional if they think he's 1000% sticking. UF will undoubtedly have to keep upping the bag, and they already paid a pretty penny to get him onboard early after the whole Rashada fiasco. Just wait til this season gets underway.

There are far better programs with more money and a better track record of developing QBs that want his services.

If he sticks with football he’d be an idiot to pass up Riley for Gapeier.
 
If he sticks with football he’d be an idiot to pass up Riley for Gapeier.
Yeah, disdain for UF aside, it's just a logical choice. USC can match and greatly exceed whatever UF offers anyways. The only thing UF has on any of these programs is the ability to offer immediate playing time as a true freshman.

Money, skill players surrounding him, coaching, development, surrounding city (don't give me the "USC is in the hood" crap, kids can easily circumvent that by going downtown + the campus is beautiful), quality of education + value of a degree....all advantage USC.
 
Advertisement
Updated portal rankings:

Screenshot 2023-05-12 at 1.30.18 PM.png


UM and UF have the same number of commits, too. Apples to apples. And Miami has the #4 portal class by quality, while UF's would be #13, just behind Maryland. :)
 
Very silly of you to talk in absolutes like that. You know better. UF is going to have a rough year, you're going to have to ride that out with your recruits, people are projecting you to regress which is a bad look for a new coach. Wheels could easily come flying off.

while that may be true, y'all are in here talking like it's a guarantee that's not going to sign with UF as well. Keeping it a buck, i'm pretty sure it just stems from y'all having trouble locking down a top rated QB so some UM fans doing some projecting.

If/when he starts visiting other school(s), then i'll begin to worry but buddy has done everything to this point to show that UF is where he wants to be
 
Pressure bursts pipes… let’s see what happens when the big boys come hard after him. Especially the teams built to win and need a quarterback like him

Unless you guys are actually gonna back the brinks truck up for him just to prove a point
They have no issue backing up the brinks truck……



Under the condition he doesn’t open it until after he’s enrolled
 
Even if he makes it on campus, with what Florida has in the qb room, it’s almost assured that he would be a true freshman starter. The fans looking at that like he’s a sure fire can’t miss prospect is where the real tears will happen. I would have zero faith in napier developing him, which means he’d have to be the rare 4 star qb who is ready to Play immediately, and he’d have to overcome a vanilla, basic offense with no creativity. If he was smart, he’d entertain kiffin
If he makes it to campus, he’s the guaranteed starter day 1. Their QB room is so bad they’re trying to get a 2025 to reclassify and enroll NOW for next season.
 
Advertisement
while that may be true, y'all are in here talking like it's a guarantee that's not going to sign with UF as well. Keeping it a buck, i'm pretty sure it just stems from y'all having trouble locking down a top rated QB so some UM fans doing some projecting.

If/when he starts visiting other school(s), then i'll begin to worry but buddy has done everything to this point to show that UF is where he wants to be

UM's failure to sign top QBs aside, FU's starting QB this season is Mertz. AR underperformed all season, Gapier couldn't get Rashada enrolled due to a potential breach of contract by FU's collective (now defunct?), and the best option Gapier could bring in was Mertz.

I won't believe Mario can bring in a top-ranked HS QB until the ink is dry on the NLI, but I won't believe Gapier can bring in a top-ranked HS QB until I see him enrolled and playing/practicing with the team.
 
Last edited:
UM's failure to sign top QBs aside, FU's starting QB this season is Mertz. AR underperformed all season, Gapier couldn't get Rashada enrolled due to a potential breach of contract by FU's collective (now defunct?), and the best option Gapier could bring in was Mertz.

I'll won't believe Mario can bring in a top-ranked HS QB until the ink is dry on the NLI, but I won't believe Gapier can bring in a top-ranked HS QB until I see him enrolled and playing/practicing with the team.

That's fair my friend
6cddec0bfb429f94b518a960fa857f1358cebc52.gif
 
Back
Top