Why Graham Mertz will (probably) be The Man for Florida football | Whitley

If ever there was the sound of one hand clapping, it accompanied the news that Florida’s football team had settled on a starting quarterback.

Graham Mertz, come on down!

The big news would have been if Mertz hadn’t gotten the job. That made last Friday’s announcement a bit odd.

Mertz had long looked like the slam-dunk starter, but Billy Napier wanted to let things play out in fall camp. The first scrimmage of what would be the final QB audition.

It came Thursday afternoon. When Napier took the podium at 12:30 p.m. the next day, he got right to the point.

“I know we all want to talk about quarterback,” he said. “We’ll have that decision for you.”

Just not at that moment. It came in a press release a couple of hours later.

I’m sure Napier had his reasons, but the whole thing felt like a Friday afternoon news dump. Like when the Pentagon releases a report on faulty $983 ashtrays and hopes it will be lost in the slumbering weekend news cycle.

Frankly, I think Mertz will perform much better than a faulty ashtray this season. In fact, I predict he’ll resurrect his career in Gainesville and have Badgers fans asking, “Who is that guy?”

Of course, I also predicted Urban Meyer would be a good NFL coach. So, what do I know?

When it comes to Mertz and the Gators, what does anybody really know?

All we have to go by is a spotty resume and the usual “new lease on life” spin. That hasn’t exactly impressed media observers.

In SEC quarterback ratings, Mertz is rated 11^th by Athlon, 13^th by Sports Illustrated and USA Today, and 14th by 247Sports.

That is the sound of one hand clapping.

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The media have their reasons. Mertz was billed as a program savior at Wisconsin. He left as the favorite punching bag of every chat room from Washburn to Sheboygan.

It was hardly all the bag’s fault.

Mertz was a bad fit in Madison. ESPN rated him the No. 1 pocket passer in the 2019 recruiting class. For some reason, he went where plays were still being drawn up on cave walls.

Paul Chryst wanted to introduce the forward pass to Wisconsin’s grind-it-out attack. But the Badgers didn’t even operate out of the shotgun, which messed with Mertz’s mechanics.

His supporting cast was suspect. Mertz went through three offensive coordinators. Footballs don’t spiral in Arctic air.

I know. Excuses, excuses.

Mertz contributed to his demise. For every three touchdown passes (38) he had two interceptions (26).

Chryst was fired five games into the season. The Fred and Ethel Mertz jokes got old long before that. Wisconsin and Mertz both needed a change of scenery, so the not-so-Golden Boy headed South.

Down here, Mertz doesn’t have to be a savior. He just needs to be efficient and stop completing so many passes to defenders.

The first glimpse of Mertz came in the spring game. Forget about that 10-7 stinker. Mertz was playing behind a makeshift line and the play calling was painfully vanilla.

I know, excuses, excuses.

Florida’s real offense is far more tailored to Mertz’s skills than what he’s used to. There will be a lot of shorter, move-the-chains passes. He’ll have more playmakers to rely on.

Mertz won’t be nearly as spectacular as Anthony Richardson, but he also won’t miss nearly as many reads. That should allow Napier to open up his playbook more than last season.

And the “new lease on life” talk should be more than spin.

“You come in, you're experienced, you've got a chip on your shoulder, you're there with purpose,” Napier said. “He's been really professional in his approach. I've been very impressed."

Mertz also has 31 starts for a Power Five team. That’s 30 more than Jack Miller and Max Brown combined.

Given Mertz’s experience and the positive buzz out of camp, it makes you wonder why there was such lingering suspense over who would start.

Whatever the reason, a Friday afternoon news dump fit the prevailing narrative.

Almost nobody expects Mertz to make a lot of noise this season. I suspect he's ready to have people start clapping with both hands.

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 will be fine for the Gators