How Graham Mertz has evolved to lead the Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — When Wisconsin fired Paul Chryst, Graham Mertz had to make the best decision for himself. The veteran quarterback gathered a few of his closest friends at a local lunch spot in Madison, Wisconsin to break the news to them. Former Wisconsin receiver Chimere Dike still remembers every detail.

“We went to Café Hollander at Hilldale,” Dike recalled. “I kept up with him. Obviously, we stayed in touch. But I would even just look to see how he’s doing on Twitter or whatever. Every single game that we didn’t play, we’d be in my living room with my roommates, and we were watching it. I remember watching the Tennessee game, and being like, ‘Let’s go.’ That’s my guy. I’ve supported him all the way through.”

Mertz got to Wisconsin a year before Dike but the two came up through the program together. Both of them thought that lunch at Café Hollander would be the last time they’d see each other, at least for the foreseeable future.

Fast forward a year, Mertz and Dike are playing a round of golf at Hawkstone Country Club in Gainesville this past January. In their past life, January would have meant trudging through snow on the way to class or practice during a brutal Wisconsin winter.

The quarterback looked at his receiver who he views as a brother and laughed.

“I never thought I would be on a team with him again,” Mertz said of Dike. “I remember we were golfing one time this offseason. We just looked at each other and I’m like, ‘What are we doing? Like, how do we end up here?’ We’re on a golf course in January in Florida.

The relationship that Mertz has with Dike is a bond the two will have for the rest of their lives. It’s not uncommon though. Mertz has a way about him that helps him connect with his teammates. He earned their respect even before he plowed into and through two Missouri defenders to pick up first down, breaking his collarbone in the process.

He’s been in college a long time. This will be his sixth season and now that he’s been in Billy Napier’s system for two years, he has it down. He knows what he needs to do and what the offense is trying to accomplish. He’s spent a lot of the offseason getting to know his teammates on a deeper level. What is their why? Why are they playing football? What makes them tick?

“This is the closest team I’ve ever been on in college. I think that the guys genuinely love each other, they care about each other. They want to get to know each other. They’ve done that work already because they want to, not just because they have to,” Mertz said. “You see that transfer to the field because you don’t want to let that guy down that you know. You’ve gotten to the point where I know this guy. I know why he does this and I’m not going to let him down.”

Graham Mertz should help Florida’s offense take the next step

Perhaps that was a little too much kumbaya for your liking. The game is a bottom-line business. Mertz has already experienced that at Wisconsin. The Badgers didn’t win enough games and the administration moved on from a coach after nine years.

The Gators didn’t win enough in 2023. Mertz knows that. He walked to the podium to answer questions at least twice a week, win or loss. He often shouldered the blame for losses even if he wasn’t on a defense that gave up 701 yards to LSU. That’s what leaders do and it’s part of the reason why he’s garnered the respect and admiration of his teammates.

He knows they have to win games. All offseason Mertz and the Gators have been doubted. They’re not good enough. The schedule is too tough. Some players have cataloged it and used it as fuel. Mertz has mostly ignored it. To him, it’s about the Gators and what he can do in order to make the guys around him play to their potential and if the guys around him are elevated, he’s ready to lead them.

“At this point last year I was still trying to figure out small details and small checks, alerts, stuff like that,” Mertz said. “With all these new things you think about the coach to player, all the different aspects of that. Now you’re going to work on those extra details and stuff like that that’s going to come up in games. Instead of focusing on what’s my job on this play. It’s already second nature at that point. Now, it’s spreading it to everyone else.”

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