Mertz for Heisman? Not quite, but Florida's quarterback is stiff-arming critics | Whitley

Graham Mertz would never say this publicly, so please allow me to do it for him.

“Hah-hah-hah!”

Those words would be directed at everyone who was laughing at him not too long ago. There were reasons to be skeptical when Mertz transferred to Florida from Wisconsin, but you’d have thought he arrived with a clown nose and rainbow wig.

The snickering has disappeared after Mertz’s performance against South Carolina. It wasn’t just that he passed for 423 yards and three TDs in the 41-39 win. Mertz was battered all day but rallied the Gators against a roaring crowd for a long-awaited road win.

If it had been a Western, Mertz would have played the wounded sheriff who managed to gun down the bad guys and save the town. Even before Saturday, Mertz was nothing like the Barney Fife people expected going into the season.

Athlon, USA Today, 247Sports rated him the worst quarterback in the SEC. Wisconsin fans were still toasting his departure after three uneven seasons up there.

UF fans weren’t all that sold on the damaged goods they were getting. It seems the problems were more Wisconsin’s Cro-Magnon offensive philosophy than anything Mertz was doing.

“I couldn’t be more impressed with the kid,” Billy Napier said. “I think we’re starting to play better around him.”

I’m not saying Taylor Swift is going to dump Travis Kelce for Mertz. He and the Gators are in for some mighty struggles in the next six weeks. But Mertz has already proven he’s not the clown act so many people thought they’d see…

Ouch: Anthony Richardson shoulder: Colts contemplate season-ending surgery for ex-Florida QB

UF outlook: More deep shots among questions for Florida football following South Carolina win

Stud of the Week: Iowa women’s basketball fans

A record 55,646 showed up at Kinnick Stadium to watch the Hawkeyes beat DePaul 94-72. That was approximately 69 more points than Iowa’s football team has scored in the past four seasons.

Stud II: The 1972 Miami Dolphins

With San Francisco losing Sunday, another year will pass with Don Shula’s gang being the only unbeaten team in NFL history.

Stud III: Canadian Mike Jack, who set a Guinness World Record for eating 50 Carolina reapers in 6 minutes 49 seconds. Carolina reapers average 1.64 million Scoville Heat Units, which means they are hundreds of times hotter than jalapeno peppers. Despite that, Jack said it was less painful than watching the Patriots’ offense…

Dud of the Week: Colorado for blowing a 29-0 lead and losing to lowly Stanford 46-43. If this keeps up, Coach Prime’s sideline celebrity entourage is going to dwindle to Pauly Shore and the Aflac duck…

Principle over Profit? - Rod Stewart turned down a multi-million dollar offer to perform in Saudi Arabia because of the country’s human rights abuses. “So many citizens there have extremely limited choices… women, the LGBTQ community, the press,” he said.

Welp, so much for Sir Rod joining the LIV Tour…

San Francisco QB Brock Purdy said he drives a Toyota Sequoia and rents a house with offensive lineman Nick Zakelj. In related news, ESPN reported that Deshaun Watson takes a limo to Browns’ practices and shares a house with 17 massage therapists…

The ’72 Dolphins have scored only 20 fewer points in the past three weeks than the New England Patriots…

Taylor-Travis Weekly Update: Travis Kelce appeared on “Saturday Night Live” and mocked the NFL’s obsession with his dalliance with Taylor Swift. An NFL spokesperson denied it is over-publicizing the romance, and announced that Super Bowl LVII has been moved from Las Vegas to the polo grounds at Swift’s Beverly Hills mansion…

NBA officials say the science backing “load management” is flawed, and they will encourage players to stop sitting out games. “Every player should want to play 82 games,” said Joe Dumars, NBA’s executive V.P. of basketball operations.

Kawhi Leonard promptly vowed to play 82 games before his contract expires in 2027...

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says the league might one day play a Super Bowl in London. That makes about as much sense as playing the Wimbledon finals in New Orleans…

A four-bedroom house in Lexington, Ky., went on the market last week and the ad reads, “This house is close enough for Coach (John) Calipari to borrow your weed-eater but apparently too far for him to return it.”

It reminds me of when Jeremy Pruitt borrowed $5,000 in small bills from neighbors before a big recruiting weekend at Tennessee. He never returned it, either…

ESPN reports the back of Lincoln Riley’s neck routinely reaches 18.7 million Scoville Heat Units whenever USC’s defense is on the field…

Lost in the hype over Tay-Tay and Travis, Madonna opened her Celebration World Tour Saturday night in London. The reviews were so good the NFL is reportedly negotiating with Madonna to start dating Bill Belichick…

Wilt Chamberlain played almost every second of the 1961-62 season. He missed only the last eight minutes of a game he was tossed out of and averaged 48.5 minutes a game.

Anthony Davis strained three muscles just reading that stat…

That’s about all the space we have for this week’s Whitley’s Believe It or Not. Until next time, ask for some collateral if John Calipari shows up wanting to borrow your hedge trimmer.

David Whitley is The Gainesville Sun's sports columnist. Contact him at dwhitley@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidEWhitley

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Florida football QB Graham Mertz has revived career