Graham Mertz and Shemar James addressed the media on Thursday night after Florida’s season opening 24-11 loss at No. 14 Utah.

On Utah’s first play of the game, quarterback Bryson Barnes connected with wide receiver Money Parks for a 70-yard touchdown.

Florida’s offense floundered all night, finishing 1 of 13 on 3rd downs along with just 13 rushing yards. In the second quarter, Florida produced only 8 yards.

Mertz, Florida’s new quarterback, is disappointed in the result but optimistic improvements will be made across the board.

“When you don’t get it done and you want to get it done, it hurts. I think that’s where we’re at right now. The only thing we can do now is just learn from it and move forward,” Mertz said. “We’ve got a long season. There’s a lot of tape on there that’s controllable stuff that I’m going to put an emphasis on every day. I know that our team will do that across the board…”

The Wisconsin transfer passed for 333 yards, a touchdown and an interception in his debut. Mertz takes accountability for Florida’s stagnant offense.

“I hold myself to a standard where it’s my job to help the offense move the ball. I try to simplify things. That’s just how my brain works. That’s me doing my job,” Mertz said. “So I’m just holding myself accountable to that. Obviously, the interception hurts that.”

The sophomore linebacker James led the Gators with 13 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss. James was encouraged by the defense holding Utah to 7 points after halftime.

“Just everybody doing their job. Great play calling from Coach Armstrong,” James said. “Just guys that kept fighting until the whistle, which I appreciate from our defense.”

That being said, James echoes Mertz’s sentiments about digging into the tape and emerging stronger heading into Week 2 vs. visiting McNeese.

“After the loss, I feel like the mood in the locker room is not very cheerful,” James said. “Like Graham mentioned, we’re going to learn from it…I just feel like there’s a lot of things and a lot of plays that we made that we can correct to get better at.”