Graham Mertz excited about young Florida Gators playmakers

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – When Graham Mertz picked the Florida Gators as his new home the redshirt junior didn’t know what to expect. He was promised the starting quarterback job but wanted to earn it, which he did.

Mertz arrived at Florida after serving as the Wisconsin Badgers starter for the past three seasons. He made 32 total starts for the Badgers before taking over at Florida. Prior to the season, Mertz wasn’t sure if his time in Gainesville would be one-and-done, or if he would exhaust his college eligibility with the Orange and Blue.

“At that time, you never really know. And there was a lot of uncertainty at that time, and I just knew I had to go in every day and work, so I didn’t really have that timeline in my head what I wanted to do,” Mertz said. “It was more kind of go through the season and approach every day with an open mind, and it’s been awesome for me so far.” 

Mertz put together the season of his life for Florida in 2023. He set career-highs in completions (261), passing yards (2,903), touchdown passes (20), completion percentage (72.9), passing yards per game (263.9), and efficiency (157.8) while only throwing three interceptions, marking a career-low and tied his career-best with four rushing scores. If there were a time to leave and head to the NFL it could be after that kind of season.

Mertz ultimately chose to return to Florida. He described that decision as the feeling of having unfinished business. For all of the personal accolades that Mertz achieved, the Gators failed to meet their team goals in 2023.

“I’ve never been around a leader that’s so focused and so dialed into the daily process of how to grow, how to improve. I owe this whole place and especially (Billy Napier), I owe this place and him my best,
” Mertz said. “I think this next year will be good to just keep growing that and keep doing it every single day and do it for another year, so I’m definitely looking forward to that.”

Graham Mertz looking forward to his young skill position players

The Gators were young in 2023. Florida had 14 touchdowns scored by freshmen in 2023 (34.2%), the sixth-highest total in the FBS. Of those to catch multiple touchdown passes for Florida this season, three of four were freshmen: receiver Eugene Wilson III (6), tight end Arlis Boardingham (4) and tight end Hayden Hansen (2).

“If you look across our whole team, I think I can talk about all the young guys. I mean, the amount of people, the amount of freshmen, true freshmen, who played this year, I mean, I’ve never seen that,” Mertz said. “That is so, so valuable, that we always talk about, you have to kind of, you have to go through that to grow. And that’s one thing that I think across the board, all the freshmen that played this year and took reps in practice with the ones, and all the ones and twos, they grew a ton.”

Wison, in particular, was spectacular and named to the All-Freshman SEC team.

Wilson played in 10 games in 2023, including seven starts. He finished his freshman campaign ranking second in multiple receiving categories for Florida, including receptions (61) and yards (538), while also leading Florida’s offense in receiving touchdowns (six).

Wilson III also ranked highly nationally among freshmen, leading all FBS true freshmen in receptions per game (6.1) while ranking second in receptions, tied for second in receiving TDs, fourth in receiving yards per game (53.8) and fourth in receiving yards. Wilson became the first Florida true freshman to eclipse 500 receiving yards since Antonio Callaway in 2015

“I think everybody goes through this when you first get into college. You come from high school and you go into college and you start learning it. You got a fire hose just spraying you in the face but then there’s a point where it just clicks,” Mertz said. “I think the thing for Tre is he came in in the summer and for him, it was how fast he could take that and learn it really quick and then go out there and play fast. The big thing for him is how quickly he translated it. It really freed him up to just go play his ball. He’s only going to get better.”