Florida football: Graham Mertz graded among best QBs in the country despite loss

Florida football didn’t have a whole lot go their way this past Saturday in Lexington in their game against the Kentucky Wildcats.

It was rocky from the start and turned into an avalanche that the Gators simply couldn’t get out of the way of.

While there generally aren’t a whole lot of positives to take away from a 33-14 loss in your conference, there is one bright spot coming out of this game.

Graham Mertz played at a high level yet again and was graded as the second-best quarterback in the country last week per PFF.

Florida football: Mr. Reliable

When Graham came into Gainesville, we all knew he would just have to make the easy passes, run the offense, and be consistent.

Well, he’s done a great job of that through five weeks, even though the Gators haven’t looked so great overall in some of those games.

Mertz earned a 91.7 for his effort against Kentucky, behind only Taulia Tagovailoa of Maryland, and ahead of guys like Bo Nix and Jayden Daniels.

Mertz was 25/30 in the air against Kentucky for 244 yards and two touchdowns, along with an interception that probably should have been caught by Arlis Boardingham.

This was his third game of the season where he had a completion percentage of over 80% and is at 79% for the whole season.

After an offseason where lots of people thought that Mertz would drag this offense down, it’s becoming clear he’s one of the few guys that we can rely on week in and week out.

Now, are there still a lot of red flags on this Gators team? Absolutely. But it’s not a good idea to act like the whole program is on fire after a tough loss.

There are always positives to look at in college football. And while there are a lot of problems that need to be addressed, there are still a lot of questions that the Gators have already answered.