The Florida Gators opened spring practice on Thursday afternoon with a Billy Napier press conference and it started with some tough news.

Starting quarterback and emerging superstar DJ Lagway will be limited in spring practice due to his shoulder and lower body.

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DJ Lagway to be limited in spring practice

This is concerning. Right before Christmas, Lagway played in the Gasparilla Bowl and was the game's Most Valuable Player. Lagway missed a total of six quarters with his hamstring injury and then played in the bowl game. Napier addressed it in his press conference, raising multiple questions.

“I think some lower body, some shoulder,” the coach said of Lagway’s issues. “I think our intentions here are to be very smart. I do think he’ll be limited in throwing activities, but he’ll participate in all practices otherwise. We’ve done a lot of homework here relative to the things he went through as a player. He was an absolute warrior. And a great competitor that showed toughness. And we’ve consulted with quite a few experts here from UF Health, from a national perspective. … I think in general, he’ll be able to do quite a bit. But there will be some limitations.”

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That is a very loaded quote. First, Lagway was never reported to have a shoulder injury, which is concerning in itself. Second, the amount of "experts" they consulted with regarding Lagway is a major red flag. What kind of issue are we talking about? Zach Abolverdi of Gators Online referenced that Lagway dealt with a shoulder injury, but Mark Long of the Associated Press wasn't buying it.

"There's something going on over there," said Long during an appearance on 1010XL radio. "They said he's going to be limited in throwing activity. He never had a shoulder injury last year, right? He had a hamstring injury. The hamstring was in November, and it's March, right? You're talking about the hamstring was four months ago. And now, why would the hamstring affect the shoulder? I asked Billy specifically, did he have any off-season surgery? 'No.' I'm not sure I'm buying it. Something is fishy.

"And then here's the thing you if you dig into the quote, he said, we've consulted with quite a few experts here at UF Health from a national perspective. And we do, we, as we do with a lot of our players, in terms of second opinion in general. So it's like, now he's talking about second opinion experts look at DJ Lagway, and they had second opinions about DJ Lagway, and now he's not throwing. I don't know what it is."

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It's March 6th, so there shouldn't be any panic, as opening day is just under six months away. However, these comments raise some real red flags about Lagway's health.

This is an evolving story that we will update throughout all of spring practice.