Graham Mertz, Game Manager Appreciation Thread - (updated to 2024 season)

Husky? I doubt it. I might give you Autzen even with 65k since they practically have o UF steep North stand all the way around in a very concentrated venue. Don’t really know how loud they get in Athens.

 

He had plans to go down field on his sack. I’m thinking the plays are in the playbook, just need a fuzz better protection.

 

….are we in bizarro world?

Do we really now think 9th of 14 in QBR in the SEC is good? That is exactly where I’d said he’d be

Are we now celebrating CFB ranks of 52nd QBR and 82nd in EPA? If that is good then what would top 50 be? Can you even imagine a world with top 25?

 

Both guys had their man beat too. Another split second to see which way the safety was gonna break and that’s probably a td. The short stuff moved the ball down the field just fine though.

 

You wanted to extrapolate Utah as the definitive sample, IIRC. Let's extrapolate UT: he's now a Top 3 SEC QB in QBR. It was the most recent game against a top team.

Oh, small sample size. But not a small sample after Utah?

He was considered the worst QB in the SEC. If he's middle of the pack, then UF is already in better-than-expected shape, if the defense is in the top third.

How about this -- none of us should write his Heisman speech nor write his transfer announcement until after a couple more SEC games.

 

Mertz was 18-20 in the first half alone against Tennessee, a very high percentage of passing for a half, and the offense was very efficient! I don’t think you can simply cherry pick one game to show offensive trends. Napier is not afraid to attack a defense through the air when it’s called for.

 

As I recall, there was a lot of noise when SOS hung half-a-hundred on the dwags in Athens. Of course, it was mostly Gator fans yelling like crazy and dwags booing their butts off until they all fell silent or just left. The Gator fans took control of the game noise, just like the Gators took over the game and the stadium.

 

I added your suggestion to the title @62gator . . . since so many "experts" wrote so much so critical of Mertz and he has done exactly what Coach has asked of him. You could see how much he is liked and respected by what the team did when UcheaT took their cheap shot at the end of the game. Is he perfect? Nope. Who among us are? I already appreciate his work ethic and his dedication to making Florida better!

 

It's difficult to use trends with AR anyway because he was so inconsistent. Trends don't show how many times a drive was killed because of a missed gimme or how many times we lost momentum or a failed opportunity because of said inconsistencies. Of course he made plays out of nothing from time to time but he missed on so many more.

The mental gymnastics used to twist any constructive criticism of ARs erratic play as "hate" while dismissing Mertz's consistency at every turn is impressive. If AR had a shred of the consistency in the short to mid range that Mertz has he would have been unstoppable. Mertz can't make some plays AR could but he is doing what he is being asked to do right now and he's done it well but yeah.....metrics....

 

Mertz has more passing yards (692 / 629) AND rushing TD's (2 / 1) than KJ Jefferson from Arkansas and NOBODY is calling him a game manager. Smh. I know this because they are both my QB's on my fantasy team.

 

Nick DelaTorre retweets stats that show UF offense leads the SEC thru 3 weeks on 1st Down Rate. Seems like a good indicator that the QB is doing a good job, but what do I know. Are first downs good?

And most teams have had a game vs. good talent and a couple of cupcakes. we've had 2 tougher-than-most opponents, IMHAWIO.

 

Those stats aren’t advanced enough. When you’ve managed billions, you’ll understand.

 

Bobby Axelrod agrees with this.

 

So typical.

 

But we are still undefeated in conference play and just beat the 11th ranked Tenn who was considered the 2nd best team in the east.... which you said we wouldn't do soooo..

 

It’s staticicslly illogical captain.

 

Graham Mertz is performing much better than i anticipated. Seeing him in action, it seems like CBN picked the perfect leader for our situation. His attitude, leadership, and passing seem to be outstanding. It seems he will be the perfect guy to work with Lagway next year.

Our reality is we are in a massive long term rebuild. Our UT performance has made me much more optimistic moving forward. I'm very encouraged of how CBN handled our pathetic D of last year. CBN showed he will act and get things fixed. CBN's move of getting Billy G in here also let me know that he isn't married to his old cronies as our previous fearless leader was.

IMO, this nit-picking of parts of our O, route trees, blah blah blah is a bunch of bull sh*t aimed at distracting us from the big picture. What is now is not what will be. None of us know how this year in particular will end up for us, however we can be a little more hopeful that it may be better than expected. Whatever happens, I am hopeful and I think CBN is dynamic and he will make adjustments in the off season and try to keep upgrading his staff and processes. The recruiting seems to be very solid.
From the beginning of his tenure, I've always thought that after year 2 we will have a better idea of how this rebuild is working out.

 

IMO, Dilfer 2.0 was Blake Bortles, 2017 version. He thought he was Roethlisberger 2.0 but was instead a better runner than Chad Henne. During the regular season, he was good in places and really bad in others. Where he "morphed" was during the playoffs. He was "asked" to just...run the play that was given to him and nothing else. The main difference between that Jags team and Dilfer's Ravens team was the quality of the defense. The Ravens were the last truly elite defense to win the Superbowl. The Jags' was really good but it needed someone to make a damn good play or two. And so, they lost against the Pats.

 

Best line of all time..."What's the point of having F-You money if you never say F-You"