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Graham Mertz ‘in the flow’ as he leads SEC in completion percentage

On3 imageby:Zach Abolverdi•09/26/23•

ZachAbolverdi

Graham-Mertz-Florida-Gators
Florida quarterback Graham Mertz. (Maddie Washburn/UAA Photo)

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida quarterback Graham Mertz thought of the movie Elf during his Monday press conference. He reminded himself of the holiday comedy.

“I don’t know why I got a flash of the Elf movie,” Mertz said, reciting some lines about being in the flow. “I don’t know why that popped in my head. I think it’s a flow thing.”

Mertz is in the flow right now, and unlike the mailroom employee from Elf, he doesn’t want to get out of it. The redshirt junior leads the SEC with a 77.8 percent completion rate, which leads the SEC and fourth in the FBS.

Mertz is currently completing passes at 20 percent higher clip than he did at Wisconsin last year (57.3 percent). He had his best game of the 2023 season last week against Charlotte, connecting on 87 percent of his pass attempts (20 of 23) for 259 yards and a touchdown.

“I always talk about like getting in the flow,” Mertz said. “Every week, but it’s doing my job and getting the ball to our playmakers. When a team zones us out, taking what they give you. It’s easy to want to force the ball down the field into double coverage, but it’s not smart. For me, it just goes back to doing my job and doing it on a consistent basis.

“From the start, my thing has been I want to be a consistent player here. I want to do that every week. I do get frustrated when I don’t make that play, and there’s definitely three or four plays in the game last week that I want back, and I want to execute those. I think that brings you back every week.”

Mertz’s 87.0% completion percentage in Week 4 marked the ninth-best of any FBS quarterback this season. Among FBS QBs with 100-plus pass attempts, Mertz ranks third nationally in completion percentage.

Mertz has completed over 70 percent of his passes in all four games this season (70.5%, 82.4%, 79.2%, 87.0%), which ties the longest streak by a Florida QB over the last 20 years. He’s shown incredible efficiency to open his UF career.

“We’re pleased with Graham,” Gators coach Billy Napier said Monday. “Graham’s made our team better. His work habits, his attitude, his practice approach, the way he prepares, his leadership. I think this guy has done a really good job for our team. He’s playing at a high level. We need to keep him cleaner.

“He got hit a few too many times on Saturday, but the ball’s going where it’s supposed to go. The guy’s been really accurate. If you charted the incompletions, some of those are bad design and some of those are drops, or maybe he’s throwing it away because of the rush. So, he’s playing really efficient for us right now.”

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