By Mark Pszonak
When Deshawn Purdie entered the transfer portal in December after one season with Charlotte, he quickly picked up serious interest. After eventually committing and signing with Florida on the 22nd, he has already decided that Gainesville isn’t right for him. And the reasoning is amazing:
Sounds like CLT transfer QB DeShawn Purdie is leaving Florida.
Apparently, he thought he’d start over DJ Lagway at Florida. I don’t know where in the world he got that idea but that’s not happening. If that’s really why he came to Florida, well, there’s the door.
See ya. ✌🏼 pic.twitter.com/kNl3hfRxVY
— InAllKindsOfWeather.com (@AllKindsWeather) January 11, 2025
Florida added Purdie for depth, with everyone knowing that DJ Lagway would be the starter in 2025. Everyone seemed to know this besides Purdie. It is hard to imagine that head coach Billy Napier told Purdie that he would start (because he didn’t), so how the transfer suddenly realized that he wasn’t happy with being a backup is one of the odder transfer situations of this cycle.
Both Lagway and Purdie were true freshmen in 2024. Lagway passed for 1,915 yards, 12 touchdowns and nine interceptions while completing 59.9% of his passes. Purdie passed for 1,802 yards, 10 touchdowns and six interceptions while completing 50.0% of his passes. Neither set the world on fire statistically, but both showed potential. However, Lagway showed his potential against SEC competition, while Purdie went a combined 10 of 26 against Tulane and Memphis.
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Since Purdie already signed, he will need to request to get out of his financial aid to be able to transfer to yet another program. Look for this to happen relatively soon.
Billy Napier will likely get blamed by some Florida fans for this, because that seems to be the popular thing to do in Gainesville, but none of this is on him. This is another example of a recruit receiving horrible advice by someone in his camp.
The season may be over in a little more than a week, but the drama never stops.
