{"id":1629495,"date":"2025-10-04T19:22:42","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T23:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/?p=1629495"},"modified":"2025-10-04T19:22:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T23:22:48","slug":"lagway-improves-wilson-shines-in-his-debut-and-gators-upset-no-9-texas-29-21-in-the-swamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/sports\/college\/florida-gators\/lagway-improves-wilson-shines-in-his-debut-and-gators-upset-no-9-texas-29-21-in-the-swamp\/","title":{"rendered":"Lagway improves, Wilson shines in his debut and Gators upset No. 9 Texas 29-21 in the Swamp"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 DJ Lagway threw for a season-high 289 yards and two touchdowns, both to a true freshman making his college debut, and Florida upset No. 9 Texas 29-21 on Saturday to end a three-game skid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arch Manning and the Longhorns (3-2, 0-1 Southeastern Conference) had a chance in the final minute thanks partly to a defensive penalty, but he threw incomplete deep and was sacked twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida (2-3, 1-1) enjoyed its first victory since beating Long Island in the season opener.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lagway looked better than he had in four previous starts this season, and Dallas Wilson had a lot to do with it. The Tampa native showed speed, hands and arguably the most physicality of any Florida receiver in years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilson\u2019s\u00a055-yard TD catch late in the third quarter<\/a>\u00a0was one of the most impressive plays in the Swamp since Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin dominated opponents regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilson\u00a0tossed aside cornerback Kobe Black at the line of scrimmage<\/a>, spun out of the grasp of safety Jelani McDonald, tiptoed the sideline, ran through McDonald\u2019s second attempt at a tackle and then powered through safety Michael Taaffe at the goal line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilson finished with six catches for 111 yards. It was the best debut for a freshman receiver at Florida in program history. Wilson was the star of Florida\u2019s spring game in April but injured his left foot early in fall camp and spent weeks in a walking boot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He finally returned to practice during Florida\u2019s off week and provided the jolt the Gators needed to end a three-game slide in which they scored 16, 10 and 7 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Texas struggled to find consistency in front of a hostile crowd of 90,714. Manning was hurried and harassed all afternoon. He threw for 263 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manning was sacked seven times behind a line that got bullied without blitzes in Texas\u2019 first visit to Gainesville since 1940.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poll implications<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Texas will surely tumble out of the top 10 in the next\u00a0AP Top 25 College Football Poll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The takeaway<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Texas: The Longhorns have been one of the most disappointing teams in college football. The preseason No. 1 lost at Ohio State to open the season, wasn’t sharp in wins against San Jose State and Sam Houston State, and now this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida: The Gators may have found something during their off week. Lagway showed significant improvement, and Florida’s pass rush was dominant for the first time this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Up next<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Texas faces nemesis and fifth-ranked Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry in Dallas next Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida goes on the road to face No. 6 Texas A&M next Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 DJ Lagway threw for a season-high 289 yards and two touchdowns, both to a true freshman making his college debut, andRead More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104619688,"featured_media":287069,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-10-04T23:22:47Z","apple_news_api_id":"8944b8b7-6583-41e4-af67-e4ddd9b97b7d","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-10-04T23:22:48Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AiUS4t2WDQeSvZ-Td2bl7fQ","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_speedyseo_primary_category":"","_sunbeam_story_id":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1396],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1600],"class_list":["post-1629495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-florida-gators","sunbeam-copyright-the-associated-press"],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/gators.jpg?quality=60&strip=color","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104619688"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1629495"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1629496,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629495\/revisions\/1629496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1629495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1629495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1629495"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1629495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}