The Florida Gators named redshirt junior Graham Mertz their starting quarterback for the 2023 season, as announced on Friday evening. The announcement comes after Florida’s first scrimmage of fall camp, which took place on Thursday afternoon.
The Wisconsion transfer battled teammates Jack Miller and Max Brown for the position after arriving in Gainesville for spring camp and is named the starter with 20 days before the Gators kick off the season against Utah.
As a three-year starter at Wisconsin, Mertz completed 59.3% of his passes while tossing for 5,405 yards and 38 touchdowns in his four years with the Badgers.
“Probably’s worked as hard as any player on our team. Probably as hard as a lot of players that I’ve been around, you know, in terms of the unseen hours, right? Those are what I’m talking about specifically, and the self-discipline, to have a system, a process, a routine, to work, to connect with players, ask very intelligent questions, and is anticipating problems, right,” Napier said on Mertz earlier this afternoon. “So, Graham’s done a great job and he’s worked from the minute he pulled up in the parking lot until, you know, just a while ago, he’s continued to work to improve, so been very pleased in that regard. The level of professionalism here that I think is respected.”
Over the course of the spring, summer, and the beginning of fall camp, Mertz has gained the respect of his fellow teammates.
“Graham has been doing a good job leading us,” defensive back Jaydon Hill said on the Gators’ quarterback. “Graham is actually on my off-season team, and he’s been doing a good job just making sure everybody is where they’re supposed to be, doing what they’re supposed to do, and then just for the team, Graham has gotten up, he’s spoken to us as far as just being a leader, and everybody, they listen. Graham has a lot of respect from us as players.”
The Gators will look to rally around Graham Mertz with less than three weeks to go until the 2023 Florida football season kicks off.