Graham Mertz, Jack Miller evaluates their performances in Florida's spring game

The Florida Gators capped off their spring with the Orange and Blue spring game. There, the team’s quarterback battle between Graham Mertz and Jack Miller was on full display.

After the game, Mertz evaluated his performance in the spring game.

“It was definitely different, looking out here seeing all the orange, all the blue, man. It was a different experience,” Mertz said about the Swamp.

“But I mean, I’m more than blessed to have this opportunity. Great team, great coaches. It’s been a blast so far. It was really good to end the spring like this. Low scoring game, not really how the offense wants this, but I was proud of how about the guys came out and executed.”

Mertz also spoke about his own personal performance and battling adversity throughout the game.

“In the game of football, it’s never going to be completely clean. I mean, you’ve got to be able to learn to play with that. … The two minutes before the end of the half the first half was solid, but there’s always room for improvement,” Mertz said.

“I know I’m definitely not satisfied with it. That’s what we’re doing right now is striving for perfection. We might not get there right now. We got summer and we got fall camp to get there. So I’m excited for the work.”

Jack Miller on his own performance

Graham Mertz is currently competing with Jack Miller for that starting job. It was Miller who started for Florida in the Las Vegas Bowl and he also broke down his performance after the game.

“I feel like this year, I felt a lot more prepared for,” Miller said. “I felt a lot more comfortable out there and I feel like I played a little bit better than I did last year, still not as good as I would have liked, but definitely see improvement.”

Miller pointed toward his intangible growth in the game as well.

“I feel like sitting in the pocket and kind of getting through reads faster, knowing what route is good against what coverage, and what play is not good against what coverage. So, I feel like that was the biggest step I’ve taken in the past year.”

Miller was then asked about the pressure that he was under during the game, how it impact him and if he thinks it’ll be cleaned up.

“Yeah, I mean, I think the defense did a really good job tonight playing. I mean, I think they showed tonight, the new DC really showed that they’re a legit defense. I mean, we see it every day in practice. So, we weren’t really too surprised, but they played a really good game and we’ll get it cleaned up. I mean, have to get the protections cleaned up and we’ll be alright.”

Billy Napier, Anthony Richardson on the quarterbacks

After the game, Billy Napier spoke about how the quarterbacks looked early in the spring game.

“Early, there were some really dirty pockets, right?” Napier said of Mertz.

“The defensive front did a nice job winning some individual matchups, some pressure. But it’s good to see him kind of settle in here and get a clean pocket, the ball, worked his way through a couple of progressions here. Good to see him settling in here and the offensive line adjusting a little bit.”

Mertz and Miller are battling to replace Anthony Richardson, who was in the Swamp for the game and added his thoughts to the game.

“I love Jack. I was in the room with him last year. He’s a dawg, he’s going to work,” Richardson said.

“And Graham, I just recently met him a couple months ago. He’s a dawg, as well. Just watching those two guys compete and just play ball and be QBs, I got love from them. I’m just ready to see who’s going to be the starter.”

On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this article.