Billy Napier Names Graham Mertz Florida’s Starting QB

To the surprise of few Florida fans, if any, head coach Billy Napier has deemed Graham Mertz the Gators' starting quarterback for the 2023 season.

Photo: Graham Mertz; Credit: Zach Goodall

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The long-anticipated, official conclusion of Billy Napier's first quarterback competition at Florida has been reached.

Fifth-year redshirt junior and Wisconsin transfer Graham Mertz has been named the Gators' starting quarterback for the 2023 season, Napier informed the team and announced in a press release on Friday. 

The decision was reached following Florida's first intrasquad scrimmage of fall camp on Thursday and almost an entire offseason of Napier evaluating the contributors at the position, one in which Mertz's professionalism consistently stood out to the coaching staff. 

"The big thing I've been impressed with is just his ability to come in and learn the system, translate what he knows and apply that to our system. And then just, you know, relentless in approach," Napier said about Mertz on Friday.

"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."

While Napier had previously suggested that the battle for the right to start at quarterback has been fought since offseason workouts began in January, Mertz was always considered the top candidate for the role among the contestants, thanks to his ample experience as a collegiate passer.

A native of Overland Park, Kan., Mertz signed with Wisconsin as a member of the 2019 recruiting class, then a member of the 2018 Elite 11 while being considered a consensus four-star prospect.

Following a redshirt season, Mertz took over as the Badgers' first-team signal-caller in 2020 and maintained the position through the 2022 campaign. 

That stretch came with an imbalanced share of highs and lows. Mertz tossed five touchdowns and completed all but one of his passes in his starting debut vs. Illinois, but across the next and final six games of the shortened season, he threw only four more touchdowns and had five interceptions.

In 2021, taking on a traditional schedule, Mertz posted more interceptions (11) than passing touchdowns (10), and his passing completion declined from 61.1% the year before to 59.5%.

Mertz's production arguably improved in his final season with the Badgers, one that involved head coach Paul Chryst being fired midseason. He compiled nearly a two-to-one touchdown-to-interception ratio with 19 and 10, respectively, completing 57.3% of his passes for a career-high 2,136 passing yards.

Across 32 starts at Wisconsin, Mertz completed 59.1% of his passes with 5,332 passing yards, 38 touchdowns and 26 interceptions in total.

Mertz entered the NCAA transfer portal on Dec. 5, 2022. He committed to Florida two weeks later following a visit to campus.

Napier shared in February that Florida landed on Mertz as its transfer quarterback of choice after evaluating approximately 24 different passers in the portal.

“I think we’re getting an experienced player that’s got arm talent, that can process, and wanted to be at Florida. He has been fantastic," Napier said about Mertz at the time. 

"I think he has proven his work ethic, just observing him and hearing other players talk about him — the work he’s done with our staff, not only strength and conditioning, but also every part of training, nutrition and film study. The guy’s a very experienced player.”

Although Mertz has taken command of Florida's offense, it remains to be seen which passer of fourth-year redshirt sophomore Jack Miller III and redshirt freshman Max Brown will handle the responsibilities of QB2 moving forward. 

RELATED: Projecting Florida's 2023 Quarterback Depth Chart

At SEC Media Days on July 19, Napier laid out what he was looking for from Florida's quarterbacks during his evaluation of the competition.  

“I think you’ve gotta keep it simple from a football standpoint: You want to execute the plan, move the team, score points," Napier remarked.

"Really, a quarterback is about so much more. Their ability to influence the team. There’s a leadership component, a knowledge component, a communication component." 

Just under three weeks before Florida's season-opener at Utah, Mertz has displayed enough of these qualities to Napier to earn the title of Florida's QB1. His backup is likely to be announced via Florida's Week 1 depth chart. 

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