Head coach Dave Aranda provided an injury update on quarterback DJ Lagway during his Monday press conference, saying, “We have walk-through today; DJ will participate. We’ll be day-to-day after that. We’ll see after today how Tuesday looks and Wednesday and so forth. Right now, DJ’s a day-to-day guy.”
Aranda reiterated that the plan is for Lagway to play on Saturday in the home opener against Prairie View A&M, if he’s able to get through the week healthy, noting, “If we get through day-to-day this week, we want to play him.”
Lagway suffered an ankle injury on Baylor’s opening drive on Saturday in a 17-16 loss to Auburn. Lagway had an up-and-down debut in the Green and Gold, turning the ball over twice but making several excellent throws while playing through the injury. He ultimately led the Bears on a late touchdown drive that gave them a chance to win in the final seconds.
Lagway finished the contest with 333 yards through the air on 27-of-54 passing to go along with two touchdowns and an interception.
Aranda noted post-game that the playbook was considerably trimmed with Lagway’s inability to run in the contest, saying, “A lot of the fourth downs and short-yardage [situations], we had both packages of DJ runs and really a lot of running in the game. Prior to hurting himself, there were two called runs. … We had to go to another package for the third and fourth and short calls.”
He later added, “I thought that DJ being able to play through pain and fighting through and pushing off and doing all those things, I thought was tremendous and inspiring.”
The Bears (0-1) return to Waco for the home opener this Saturday at 7 p.m. against Prairie View A&M (1-1). The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
If Lagway is unable to play Saturday, Baylor's depth chart lists junior Nate Bennett, sophomore Edward Griffin and four-star freshman Quinn Murphy as backups, with no clear No. 2 quarterback.
