Florida Football: Five things that have gone right during the first month

Florida Football Things Have Gone Right: Graham Mertz

We are not afraid to admit that when Graham Mertz committed to Florida football, we were as skeptical as they came.

His numbers at Wisconsin were pedestrian, and Badger fans didn’t seem super sad to see him go.

But all offseason, as people analyzed his film at Wisconsin and began to think about the offense Billy Napier likes to run, we slowly started to convince ourselves that he could be a serviceable QB.

Then the Spring Game happened, and that hope went away again.

As the first four games have played out, though, Graham Mertz has come in and done his job. Florida’s offense has flaws; don’t get it twisted. The offensive line is still a question mark, and Napier’s play design often has two receivers hanging out in the same throwing window.

He has been solid when Mertz has had the opportunity to throw downfield. But the real reason why he is finding success is that his completion percentage and overall accuracy have been a massive upgrade compared to Anthony Richardson.

Mertz has completed 78% of his passes, fourth best in all of college football.

And while, yes, a lot of these are short passes near the line of scrimmage, there were the passes that Richardson couldn’t hit with any consistency.