Billy Napier praises Graham Mertz's work ethic, preparation ahead of Florida debut

Thursday night, Graham Mertz will make his Florida debut against Utah. A transfer from Wisconsin, his performance will be a big one for the Gators this season as Billy Napier enters his second year as head coach.

Mertz brings plenty of experience with him to Gainesville, starting 32 games in Madison before entering the transfer portal. Now, he’ll try to use that experience to help Napier’s offense take the next steps after last year’s 6-7 record.

Ahead of Mertz’s debut, Napier raved about how his starting quarterback has worked to win the job this offseason and thinks he’s fully prepared to run the show.

“I think he’s been working on this opportunity since the day he arrived on campus,” Napier told ESPN’s Holly Rowe prior to kickoff. “I can’t compliment the work ethic enough. The professionalism, the way he’s worked on his leadership, the way he’s connected with his teammates. He’s ready. This guy’s started 32 football games, he knows our system, he’s confident. He’s had a great week of preparation.”

Thursday will also mark the Gators’ first non-conference road game outside of Florida since 1991. That’s a stretch of 11,667 days since UF left the state for a game. Napier said the offseason helped the Gators get ready for the trip to Salt Lake City, and he’s confident their hard work will pay off.

“We’ve had a great offseason,” Napier said. “I think we’ve worked hard developing intangibles on our team, and I’ve really been pleased with the accountability of the veteran players. We’ve added some really good, young talent. But it’s been a great offseason. All the way, going back to January, this group has worked extremely hard. I’m very proud of them.”

JD PicKell: A win vs. Utah would be huge for Graham Mertz, Florida

If Florida can pull off a win over Utah for the second straight year on Thursday, it could have a major effect on Mertz and the Gators as a whole. There are questions about how Mertz will do at Florida after completing 59.5% of his passes and threw for 5,405 yards over four years at Wisconsin.

For On3’s J.D. PicKell, he thinks the Florida quarterback could benefit the most from a big victory.

“If Graham Mertz is able to win this game on the road at Utah, it’d be great for this Florida team,” PicKell said on The Hard Count. “Think about how we would talk about him if they beat the back-to-back Pac-12 champs in their crib. Graham Mertz has played a lot of football, a lot of criticism from his time at Wisconsin, it was up, it was down. It is what it is. Fresh start now for him in Gainesville. 

“If they go beat them, I think Graham Mertz has a totally new swagger about himself externally and then I think internally too. It just proves, yeah, I am that guy that I was recruited to be out of high school. Yeah, all the talk about what I was at Wisconsin and what we weren’t able to do there and the offensive struggles and whatnot, like, how do you like me now?”