Billy Napier praises Graham Mertz’s impact on quarterback room

The utility that Graham Mertz provides for Florida football goes far beyond what he can do on the field. As head coach Billy Napier explained amid spring practice, Mertz has hit the ground running and forced the other quarterbacks to raise their level.

While Mertz might be the presumed Week 1 starter, Napier isn’t ready to — or really concerned about — making a decision on that yet. For now, he’s happy to watch Mertz bring the room along.

“But what I would say is that Graham Mertz has been impressive to watch. Just his maturity, his ability to learn a new system in a very quick manner. He did two-a-days basically since the day he got here. He’s been grinding away behind the scenes. And he’s hit the ground running. He operates like a guy who’s been around here. So, the most important thing here is he has forced the other players to rise to the occasion,” Napier said.

Mertz started three years at Wisconsin and struggled to recapture the form he showed as a sophomore during the Covid-19 shortened 2020 season. His first year at the helm of the Badgers offense, Mertz looked like a promising quarterback, throwing 1238 yards and nine touchdowns to five interceptions in seven games. He completed 61.1% of his passes that season.

But Mertz never really improved on his first season of starting. In 2021, he averaged just 151 yards per game passing and threw 11 interceptions to 10 touchdowns. He brought his yards per game up to 178 in 2022 — a yard more than his sophomore mark — and had 19 touchdowns to 10 interceptions. But the Wisconsin offense just never clicked.

Now Mertz is apparently clicking along at Florida and, as a result, Napier has seen the play of fellow quarterback Jack Miller — an Ohio State transfer — and Max Brown be elevated.

“Jack Miller has really made drastic improvement. I haven’t watched Jack, he was out basically the entire season and then we throw him to the wolves in the bowl game. He has really impressed me with his response to the competition. And then Max, obviously, is a young player who flashes and does a lot of things well, is still learning and can be more consistent,” Napier said.

And with no games for months still, Napier is happy to let the competition push the room to higher heights.

“So, we don’t play a game any time soon. And I think one thing that competition has done for both players is it’s made them be on top of their game. So, I like that variable. We’re going to try to keep that variable where it’s at,” Napier said.