Former Florida football coach Steve Spurrier often referred to the summer as "talking season," a chance for players and coaches to share their thoughts before the fall grind.

This week, former quarterback DJ Lagway and former coach Billy Napier came clean on why things didn't work out with the Florida Gators.

Lagway and Napier went a combined 10-8 together, which wasn't good enough for Napier to hold onto his job at UF coach.

In an On3 article published on July 7, Napier referred to himself as being "stubborn" for not hiring an offensive coordinator and said that himself and his staff were overwhelmed by the responsibilities that came with roster building during the Name, Image and Likeness era.

"We really struggled to manage the workload that came with NIL, that came with the portal,” Napier told On3's Wilson Alexander. “I think in general there, the work continued to be loaded up in terms of my responsibility to our team and to our entire organization. So, for me, in general, if I can sum it up, I would say the ability to delegate and hire exceptional people in certain areas and hand over more responsibility to those guys and empower them to do their job at a high level."

Representing Baylor at Big 12 Media Days on July 7, Lagway cited health issues as affecting his confidence last season, when he went 4-8 as a starter for UF. That included a five-interception game against LSU, passing for just 61 yards against Miami and a three-interception game against Kentucky, which resulted in him being benched at halftime.

Lagway didn't throw during the spring of 2025 due to shoulder and groin issues and suffered a calf injury during the summer that kept him from taking live reps until the final week of fall camp. He finished the season passing for 2,264 yards with 16 TDs to 14 interceptions before transferring to Baylor last December.

"Yeah, I say really, the cultivation of both (health and mental),” Lagway said at Big 12 media day. “Being able to, while I wasn’t healthy, really not know the mental side of it, and then being able, when I was healthy, fighting the mental battles of not having the amount of reps that I needed to do to go out there and perform on the field, so being able to battle both, that was a tremendous (battle).”

Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Billy Napier, DJ Lagway reflect on shortcomings with Florida football