Watched some of his highlights which only show the good stuff and based on that I would say he is better than Miller for sure but that isn't saying much. Wisconsin fans say he lets pressure rattle him too much but that he was limited by not having too many playmakers around him and a shaky O line.
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Watched some of his highlights which only show the good stuff and based on that I would say he is better than Miller for sure but that isn't saying much. Wisconsin fans say he lets pressure rattle him too much but that he was limited by not having too many playmakers around him and a shaky O line.
Updates of UF's QB Room
Mertz definitely not a Heisman Candidate but definitely more experienced than Miller & hopefully a better overall QB.
Plus, it looks like he will enroll at UF in January, in time for Spring Practice.
Rashada, hopefully an Early Entry in time for Spring Practice as well.
UF walk-on quarterback Jack Anders, who traveled with the Gators to Las Vegas, also announced his intention to enter the NCAA's transfer portal, while fellow walk-on Kyle Engel's future with the program is uncertain moving forward after Engel earned second-string reps during preseason camp and may have an opportunity to compete elsewhere if a scholarship offer were to present itself. Engel, who served as quarterback Jack Miller III's back-up in the 30-3 loss to Oregon State, recently graduated from UF after four years in Gainesville.
Outside of the walk-ons, the Gators have just a pair of scholarship quarterbacks on the roster in Miller and freshman Max Brown, though Florida signed highly touted signal-caller Jaden Rashada on Wednesday and recently landed a commitment from DJ Lagway, ranked a five-star prospect and the No. 4 quarterback in the 247Sports Composite.
Mertz definitely not a Heisman Candidate but definitely more experienced than Miller & hopefully a better overall QB.
Plus, it looks like he will enroll at UF in January, in time for Spring Practice.
Rashada, hopefully an Early Entry in time for Spring Practice as well.
UF walk-on quarterback Jack Anders, who traveled with the Gators to Las Vegas, also announced his intention to enter the NCAA's transfer portal, while fellow walk-on Kyle Engel's future with the program is uncertain moving forward after Engel earned second-string reps during preseason camp and may have an opportunity to compete elsewhere if a scholarship offer were to present itself. Engel, who served as quarterback Jack Miller III's back-up in the 30-3 loss to Oregon State, recently graduated from UF after four years in Gainesville.
Outside of the walk-ons, the Gators have just a pair of scholarship quarterbacks on the roster in Miller and freshman Max Brown, though Florida signed highly touted signal-caller Jaden Rashada on Wednesday and recently landed a commitment from DJ Lagway, ranked a five-star prospect and the No. 4 quarterback in the 247Sports Composite.
JMO,but I think this is a dumb move on several levels.Rashada lives in Cali.and may be just getting out of bed.Who knows how he may react to this news?He'a an 18 year old and that alone makes it scary.What if he decides to not sign an LOI today?Maybe he will say he will wait until NSD in February to make his commitment.He is, ( as far as I can tell ) not obligated to sign anything today,and can still decide to go somewhere else. It's,again in my opinion a dumb unnecessary to do hours before ESD.
Who in the heck is Jack Anders? Never knew we had a QB with that name on the roster. I guess @instaGATOR will be happy that Brown did actually move ahead of one of the QBs on the roster this season. Just kidding with Insta but Brown has his opportunity to show what he has this spring with the QB situation we are in now.
Fever,
Sounds familiar, doesn't it ?
Started to go into details about our pathetic offense, but we have rehashed it enough.
Well, Napier has something to work on.
Hopefully "Mertz will see the opportunity" and Billy & his staff will "Learn from these experiences.”
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I think the scariest thing of all for the 2023 season would be if Miller beat out Mertz for the starting job. I think that would mean we have no non-freshman on the roster that can play QB at even the minimum level needed.
Some rumors with McClain supposedly not signing with Miami today that he may be switching to Bama or us. I doubt we get him but if we did I would love to see the look on Ruiz's face.
Not sure if they know what they are talking about but after the fact they are claiming we went after Pratt and he decided to stay put so we then went and got Mertz. I am starting to doubt we ever made a realistic offer to McCall NIL wise.
If he (Rashada)doesn’t think he beat Leary out then we probably don’t need him.
Some Thoughts on Mertz
https://hailfloridahail.com/2022/12/21/florida-football-graham-mertz-massive-whiff-billy-napier/
And while we also dismiss the Las Vegas Bowl as a game that doesn’t matter because Florida football was missing half its roster, the half of the roster that did play are the guys that will be playing in 2023 for the Gators.
That’s why landing a big-name QB out of the portal was going to be vital for Napier.
Yet Sam Hartman is probably going to the NFL,
Devin Leary is off to be the next actual Will Levis in Kentucky, and it turns out
Grayson McCall attends a school whose academics are worthless and has credits that won’t transfer to UF.
So, we are left with Graham Mertz. He did a great job padding his stats against Northwestern, Illinois State, and New Mexico State.
He also threw for under 100 yards against Ohio State, Maryland, and Nebraska.
He had the 17th most interceptions in the country,
his completion percentage wasn’t in the top 100,
he offers nothing in the running game, and
his QBR was 82nd in the country.
Jack Miller had a chance to be him. He wasn’t.
Graham Mertz is not him either.
Buckle up Gator fans, because if Jaden Rashada isn’t him (assuming he doesn’t flip to Oregon), it’s going to be a long season for Florida football.
https://hailfloridahail.com/2022/12/21/florida-football-graham-mertz-massive-whiff-billy-napier/
And while we also dismiss the Las Vegas Bowl as a game that doesn’t matter because Florida football was missing half its roster, the half of the roster that did play are the guys that will be playing in 2023 for the Gators.
That’s why landing a big-name QB out of the portal was going to be vital for Napier.
Yet Sam Hartman is probably going to the NFL,
Devin Leary is off to be the next actual Will Levis in Kentucky, and it turns out
Grayson McCall attends a school whose academics are worthless and has credits that won’t transfer to UF.
So, we are left with Graham Mertz. He did a great job padding his stats against Northwestern, Illinois State, and New Mexico State.
He also threw for under 100 yards against Ohio State, Maryland, and Nebraska.
He had the 17th most interceptions in the country,
his completion percentage wasn’t in the top 100,
he offers nothing in the running game, and
his QBR was 82nd in the country.
Jack Miller had a chance to be him. He wasn’t.
Graham Mertz is not him either.
Buckle up Gator fans, because if Jaden Rashada isn’t him (assuming he doesn’t flip to Oregon), it’s going to be a long season for Florida football.
Mertz is pretty “meh” but I do think he is likely better than Miller. Leary is a better QB than Mertz but Leary is injury prone and can’t even throw a football right now and likely may not even be ready for spring football. His injury was pretty severe for a QB so he’s high risk.
Miller and Mertz are just gap fillers until Rashada is ready.
Miller and Mertz are just gap fillers until Rashada is ready.
Paco,
Agree !
But this way Rashada gets to beat out two upperclassmen QBs in Spring Practice - good for his Morale !
You serious about Rashada possibly flipping to Oregon? I figured the noise was Ruiz maybe pulling some mess in the background to try and screw UF. Hopefully he signs today.
No telling what happens with McClain as there are Bama. Colorado and Florida rumors now. Would love to see him screw Ruiz over though.
Rashada isn’t flipping. McClain isnt coming to Florida and is just trying to stir up more attention for himself. He may flip to Bama though.
Cooper was supposedly the best of them all but had a back problem I believe. Had to quit the game.
Yes. He did not receive an LOI from us.
Agree - We're limping to the finish line with no surprise reinforcements likely headed our way.Lol…Napier‘s army is having a rough week…
Surprised he didnt end up at a lower power 5 school somewhere or in the Sunbelt conference. He has size and crazy top end speed but just didn't have the moves to be a top RB in college. I can see him getting some long TD runs in that conference though.
It’s a good to very good recruiting class. Tons of blue chippers and in-state kids. Average rating per player is very high.
It is not an elite class. Not in the SEC anyways. If we were in just about any other conference you could maybe say it was “elite”.
It is not an elite class. Not in the SEC anyways. If we were in just about any other conference you could maybe say it was “elite”.
247Sports is showing WR Andy Jean signed with Florida this morning. That's good news because recent reports had him possibly flipping to FSU. Some concern that Dijon Johnson's LOI hasn't been received, as he was supposed to sign at 7:30 am.
Dijon Johnson’s LOI is in
Yep its not bad but you need a little portal help with proven players to be able to get to 10 wins in the new + OK and TX SEC with classes like this probably and that is in addition to being pretty good in your evaluations and developing the players.
With NIL and portal we are driving to a future where signing day classes don't matter as half the kids will bolt after a year or two...with their pockets full of cash.
I still think high school signing classes are still the lifeblood of a program. Portal isn’t sustainable over a long period of time. It is good for filling in gaps and rebuilding but the top programs in the country are not heavily reliant on the portal.
It does create a situation where you better pay those kids that over achieve early or they will bolt on you and you also have to keep the top recruits that did pan out taken care of through year 3.
Agree completely....not yet anyway. Still need the top class, but this thing is rapidly changing sadly.
Country,
Not so sure of that.
Our CPA (LG89) has mentioned that most NIL contracts are "back Loaded."
They receive less money in the first years; more in the last years to (hopefully) keep players from bolting.
So they WILL receive money, but not as much as they think in the 1st 2 years.
Of course, not all NIL deals will be written that way & some exceptions will obviously be made for "exceptional" players.
Wonder how Texas structured Arch Manning's NIL deal ?
Phil Knight must have opened the checkbook as Oregon is moving up the charts fast taking other teams recruits.
Regarding transfers, I’d be interested to see how many kids leave for better NIL deals vs. how many leave because they think they have a better opportunity to play. Seems like the transfer kids are largely backups or kids from smaller programs. A lot of them are probably the kids who, pre-portal, would get “processed” out of the big time programs.
There are some pretty good ones out there. Michigan seems to be using them as a strategy this season. Not sure if USC plans another big hit there like this past season but my guess is they will get quite a few seeing that there recruiting class isn't old USC standards. I am hoping we will finally grab a few good proven ones to help us this season since we are so young. Not counting ones that followed Napier Pearsall was about our only decent portal guy last season.
Another thread reporting that he's coming to UF as a preferred walk-on.
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