Graham Mertz: Florida's daunting 2024 schedule providing 'urgency'
Graham Mertz quipped he decided on a sixth season of college football so he could make 1 more appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show.
Florida’s starting quarterback went on the SEC Network host’s show Wednesday afternoon to discuss the Gators as they prepare for a crucial new season under coach Billy Napier. Florida has suffered through 3 consecutive losing seasons and putting an end to that slide in 2024 would mean Napier’s program took a massive step forward.
The Gators will face what many believe will be the hardest schedule in the country. Strength-of-schedule metrics aren’t available yet, but Florida could be looking at an all-timer when it’s all said and done.
Florida will face each of the other 3 top in-state programs — season-opener vs. Miami on Aug. 31, UCF on Oct. 5, at Florida State on Nov. 30. The Gators have road SEC games against Tennessee and Texas.
In the month of November, they play 5 straight weeks against Georgia, Texas, LSU, Ole Miss, and Florida State. In Bill Connelly’s preseason SP+ rankings for 2024, those teams rank No. 1, No. 4, No. 10, No. 8, and No. 12, respectively.
Napier finds himself in a make-or-break year; the program hasn’t seen 4 consecutive losing seasons since 1935-38.
But his team’s on-field leader is pushing confidence ahead of the campaign.
“This is why you come to the SEC, this is why you play at Florida, for these matchups,” Mertz said. “You want to play at the highest level against the greatest competition. We know what’s ahead of us, we see it every day when we walk in the locker room, and that excites us. We feel the urgency every day when we come in here, knowing we’ve got to work, especially in this league.
“It all comes down to execution and what you do in the offseason. For us, we know what people are saying but what happens in these walls, we know what we’re striving for and we know it takes consistency and attention to detail every day. We’re excited. We see that and we see it as opportunity.”
The value of a sixth-year quarterback can’t be understated. Mertz was a blue-chip recruit as a high schooler. He sat his first year at Wisconsin before taking over as the team’s starter for 3 years. He played in 11 more games last fall before an injury.
Mertz enters the new year with 45 career appearances, 43 career starts, and more than 1,100 career pass attempts. That kind of experience is invaluable for a team. Mertz was also better last fall than he ever was in Madison, posting a career-low interception rate as a starter (just 3 in 358 attempts) alongside a career-best completion rate (72.9%) and per-pass clip (8.1 yards).
But he and the Gators still face their share of detractors. Mertz was seventh among SEC passers with a pedestrian 68.5 QBR. And Florida was average on offense, posting 6.1 yards per play. The defense was a disaster.
Florida is a long, long, longshot to win the national title (+30000) and a bet for Florida to win fewer than 5.5 games is currently priced at -194 (implied odds of 66%).
“Nowadays, everybody always says prove the haters wrong. The theme for this team is prove each other right,” Mertz said. “We know what we’ve got to do. We all want to win. Everybody in this building wants to win. So, for us, we know what people are saying but we’re here to prove each other right and we’re here to strive together to go win.”
Mertz has spoken. Love to see a leader who embraces challenges and doesn’t set low expectations and mumble a lot of goofy nonsense about the wonderful life lessons that come from losing. Meeeeertz!
It seems the players have turned their backs on Napier and his complacency. They have learned an important life lesson– don’t follow the wrong people.
Well, I will put you down as a Gaga disciple. Seriously, you have already given up on the season?
Not giving up on the Gators per se just Napier. He’s out of his league, once Florida hires a real coach maybe our ship can be righted. Miami will be Florida so be prepared.
Well at least you did not insult Mertz as in the past post fake life ..
You also said the gators would win 2 games last year ..
I am encouraged to see the players rejecting the mantra of loserism preached by Coach Complacency and openly stating their dedication to winning. Following Napier got them a losing record and a lost season. Ignoring him may just be the solution.
Let Napier mumble and jive about how losing is just as good as winning. Mertz is delivering a much better message.
So what you saying, truth? Is Lawd of the Mertzy lying when he said “everyone in the building wants to win”…or was Billy not in the building at the time…
Bumper—
Napier has not, to my knowledge, publicly committed to winning. In fact, when he was hired he promised to lose. He made some vague suggestion that at some future date, he would suddenly start trying to win, but he hasn’t yet announced that time has come. It looks to me like Mertz and company have decided for him.
So, the answer is Napier wasn’t in the building.
Mr BS, that’s beyond ridiculous. No Gator is happy with our record during the last three years. But, to say CBN doesn’t want to win or portrays a losing mentality to the team is hogwash. He definitely has to have a winning season or he’s done and everyone knows it. If you want to join Gaga and the negative Nancy group then that’s your choice. Just don’t make ridiculous generalizations and pass them off as truth.
What mantra of “loserism?” This has become an urban myth.
The only three mentions of winning or losing, from the transcript of Billy Napier’s introductory press conference, appear below:
“We’re going to build the best football team in the SEC conference. We’re going to build the best football program in the SEC conference. We must have a championship approach in everything that we do to accomplish this goal.”
“Every choice, every decision, every habit that we build along the way, we’re going to begin with the ending in mind, and that is to be a champion.”
“I’m well aware the expectations that we have here. Trust me, no one’s got higher expectations for what we want to do and what we want to accomplish than myself. We’re going to line up and kick this thing off next year in the opener. And everybody is going to want to win.”
Nash, and that’s the real Truth.
Very leaderly, he’ll make a great coach one day if he chooses. The emphasis on winning for the man next to you is needed up and down the roster. Good luck this year young man and go Gators!
Young man? Lawd have Mertzy is considered an old man in college roster terms. He’s eligible for all the senior discounts afforded SB4 a couple years ago…
He certainly is a standout leader and such a well mannered classy individual, I wish him the the best in every game not named the WLOCP…
How’s the mailman’s health? He better now?
I think the Rams are gonna give him another shot and rumor has it even the Falcons may give him a shot to make the team, so hopefully he has turned things around…hope so. Hasn’t handled his fame so well but he’s a good kid.
Good to hear that he’s getting better and it would be nice to play for the falcons.
humper…The Vols hold the record for “senior aged” QB’s at 26 years old.
Stinky Weinke at FSU? Wasn’t he like 28?
Weinke won a Heisman at FSU.
Yes, oldest player ever to win it, at 28.
Nash…The problem is that Billy thinks he has Five(5) years to accomplish all of those things. It’s 2024 and Billy’s clock is ticking ever faster. If they lose to Miami Billy’s epitaph will read as follows: “Too little & too Late”. But anyway Go Gators !
Baby Woke and all its various play personages at the playground love the positive attitude they see in Mertz. They are all working on a compost/ burlap/ landfill processed Gator Jersey that they can present to him.
Should lady woke and her nonjudgmental nonbinary playground pals be exposed to attitudes exhibited by straight, white, heterose xual men, dman? I’ve called social services, I’m worried you and husband bill are spending too much time watching drag queen parades and not enough time giving lady woke the lg btq friendly indoctrination she so desperately needs. This is obvious by your poor choice of playground locations…stay away from playgrounds in white urban maga areas please…
What happened to all the Mertzinator, MetrzTheGreat, get Mertzified, Mertzraculous , MertzTheMagnificant etc etc etc comments?
I thought the comments and plays on “Mertz” were cute, it was like going into a Zaxby’s restaurant and all the products, adjectives about the products etc. started with a “Z”
I know, right? Someone needs to wake up palley and Leland, they’re slacking! We need our Mertztacular fix…
Don’t forget, Graham the Mertziless more than carried his own weight and that of much of the Gator offense last year. Too bad that “loser of a HC” the Gators have couldn’t figure out how Mertz could QB the defense as well.
We’ll just have to wait and see if all the changes made to the defense will lead to better play on that side of the ball this season. If it does, a few SEC bergs may want to hide their women and children before the Mertzinator rains fire and brimstone on them.
There! Will that do?
C- stl…that “loser of a HC” comment cost you valuable attaboi points…if only you had saved it by saying something cute and cliche’ish like “figure out how Matzertron of the Mertzyverse could QB the defense as well”, I’da givin’ it a A-/B+
For what it’s worth, I enclosed the CBN comment in quotes to imply those are not my words. However, Truth or gaga will happily own up to it.
Fair enough stl…I‘ll bump that C- up to a B+
TDOW…Mertz actually played much better in 2023 than anyone ever expected, so I gotta give him kudos for transferring to Florida and performing well. Go Gators !
Florida does have a difficult schedule this upcoming season and from what I can tell, Samford is the only game where you could go ahead and pencil in a win. Florida doesn’t even get the benefit of having Vandy on their In-Conference schedule this season. Closest you get to that is maybe MS State.
I can say this for certain, no matter how good or bad Florida may potentially be this upcoming season, they will take TN to the wire. Never fails.
How the G8rs play their easier front loaded schedule with 4 of 5 home games is critical. That back end of the schedule, oh my. Almost as bad as ours overall…
Florida could get to the TN game either undefeated or somewhere around 3-2 or 2-3. TN could also be at that 3-2 mark by the Florida game if they aren’t careful. That RB room better be rocking or TN is done.
I’m with Humper here. If the Gators don’t arrive in Knoxville no worse off than 4-1, they may be headed towards another mediocre season and we may be shopping for a new HC before Turkey Day.
On the other hand, both the Gators and Vols have a better than fair shot of arriving at the 2nd Saturday in October no worse off than 4-1. That would make for great drama on Rocky Top… again!
VFL, not like vandy has been a gimmie for the Gators recently anyway!
87g8rb8 gotta point^^^
Don’t talk about my Bulldogs like that, 88. With 3 INT’s, 2 for pick6’s and couple of fumbles deep in our territory to end their 6:50 drives we can be in a position to kick a game-winning FG. (Alumni, 1980).
I hope that Florida has no injuries this year.Also want for my school,Tennessee,to play their best against Fla.With a schedule that Florida has,I do not think they will have a winning season.Especially if we don’t give them another win.
Time for subjective and/or emotional assessments is running out in 5 months, leaving only Gaga. Objectively, the talent is there; logically, coaching lessons have been learned (or not) from previous defeats; and by history, player motivation still comes in many forms despite this mercenary environment CFB is saddled with now.
I’ll simply say that I for one am glad that Mertz is going to be our starting QB – beyond that, I have no idea what the 2024 outcome will actually be once all is said and done. What I do know, however, is that either way the buck always ultimately stops with the head coach…..and that while you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, you can indeed make a sow’s ear out of a silk purse.
Don’t forget about lagway.that Kid will be a baller. Isn’t he like 6’4 258pounds. I’ve gotta feeling he is going to bring you guys a Natty. He may even be the Starter when season gets underway. Last time Fla signed a kid like Lagway was a young man named Tim Tebow. Who brought Gator fans the hardware home. Lagway could have signed any where. He signed with UF even though UF is down. Could have bailed like some of the other recruits stuck with his commitment. Who knows maybe he gets UF back to the top of the mountain. I hope he does not many kids out there like him. Sticking around with all the talk of Napier being on the hot seat.
If (with that schedule more like when) they fire Napier this year Lagway will be portaling out to the highest bidder…just seems to be the way things are going ever since Florida sold its souls and hired Meyer…
doc…One storyline to watch is If Napier plays true freshman QB a lot to give the Gator fans “Hope for the future”. Mertz gives the better % chance to win some games but we’ll see. If Billy’s really feeling the heat my opinion is he’ll do it. Go Gators !
Mertz is a great kid – glad he’s at UF He deserves to have a good season
Don’t but the hardest schedule excuse – many of the opponents will have new starting QBs – Mertz as a 6th QB may have the most experience of any SEC QB, which gives the Gators a big advantage
Dawgtime – No doubt he is a baller and a great kid as well by all reports. I don’t relatively live all that far here in Central Texas from Willis (in fact my Bloodhound is named Willis since he came from there), so keeping up with him is pretty routine – worth mentioning that his entire family is prominent in that area of Texas for good character as well. All that said, his value is in 2025 and I think it would be a disservice to him if he’s pressed into SEC action too soon as a starter in 2024. Mertz will make a great mentor for him, and he’ll certainly see some action while he develops and adjusts to this level of the game.
Humper – I’ve given up predicting what any young man will or will not do in this day and age, but I think at least he has strong character.
If he was to leave .He would have already been gone. I was told by someone who knows his father well that he being DJ wants to be the one to start the turnaround at UF getting high level recruits to come there and join him to make FLa great again weather Napier is there or not.
Lagway turned around his high school team and made them a winning program so he’s up to the challenge of turning the Gators into a winning team. Time will tell but I’m excited to see what this young man can do. Both he and Mertz have good leadership skills and a team first mentality.
Good to know, Dawgtime – sounds like the second coming of Tebow in some ways, at least a similar ethic. The Gators sure need a leader to get us out of the wilderness we’ve been wandering around in for the last decade.
doc…There is only one(1) Tim Tebow. Go Gators !
GFA – You spoke volumes there! Extending it a little bit further, and consistent with StL’s earlier comment, great teams (Georgia and Alabama being prototypes) always seem to have not only strong leaders on the coaching side, but also at least one strong leader at EACH position group on the field. The QB can’t do it all, but when that is in place and consistent up and down the chain suddenly the magic wins seem to appear. Talent is always important, but that type of leadership is what gets players (troops) to do more than they simply have to.
If the Gators break that code in this transition period……..
Very true, Doc! Here’s hoping… :)