Graham Mertz, Jack Miller discuss how they've pushed each other during Florida QB battle

Florida has one of the most interesting quarterback battles in the country this year with Wisconsin transfer Graham Mertz and Ohio State transfer Jack Miller both battling it out for the top spot.

A big checkpoint in the race came this week with the team’s Orange-Blue spring game. Both players praised each other’s performance in the scrimmage.

Mertz, in particular, highlighted Miller’s game-winning drive at the end of the game to give the Orange team a 10-7 victory.

“Heck of an end to the game,” Mertz said. “We talked about that in meetings. If you get this pressure, this coverage, you gotta get down the back because no one’s gonna have them. I was really excited to see that at the end the game. Even though the blue team lost — I was on the blue team — but I was very excited to see that because that fires me up. Seeing a guy out there that we’ve spent time on that. We’ve seen it during practice and correction was made and we hit it. That’s one thing as a competitor you love to see and that’s what pushes you.”

Miller finished going 10-for-20 for 144 yards while Mertz was 18 of 29 for 244 yards.

“It was a really good opportunity for us to compete out there,” Miller said. “We both push each other every single day. It was really cool just to see him playing good and really just trying to answer every single time they would go down for a drive. We compete every single day so it’s nothing new.”

Miller has been in quarterback battles like this before, including one with the Buckeyes against C.J. Stroud. He said he has learned from the experience about the importance of the quarterbacks supporting one another.

“I’ve been in this situation before with CJ when I was younger so I understand how it goes me,” Miller said. “We both want the same thing. We both want to be successful and we both want to win games.”

Mertz’s situation was a little different at Wisconsin as he took over for Jack Coan when he was injured and held the starting job over the next three years.

He added after the game that he thinks there’s going to be plays both players look at the tape and think they could have done better.

“I was proud of how we took care of the ball tonight,” Mertz said. “But I think that we’re both gonna look back at it and be like, Oh, I could have made that play. I could have made that play. But I think that’s what we’re excited for.”