admscout
- Position Quarterback
- Class Redshirt Senior
- Ht./Wt. 6-2 / 216
- Hometown Overland Park, Kan.
- Highschool Blue Valley North HS
COLLEGIATE HONORS
- Manning Award Star of the Week (Week 4, 2024)
- SEC Player of the Week (Week 7, 2023)
- Davey O’Brien Great 8 (Week 7, 2023)
- Maxwell player of the Week
- Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week
- Big Ten Freshman of the Week
ACADEMIC HONORS
- Earned his bachelor’s degree in Education Sciences (Spring 2024)
- Graduated with cum laude honors
- Chi Alpha Sigma National College Athlete Honor Society (Spring 2024)
- SEC Fall Academic Honor Roll (2023)
- Three-time Academic All-Big Ten (2019, 2021-22)
2024 SEASON: Started four games after missing Week 2 with a concussion… Has completed 61-of-79 for 666 yards (77.2%), five touchdown passes, one rushing score and two interceptions… Thrown a touchdown in 29 of his last 33 career starts and 14 of his 15 starts at UF… Owns 76 career touchdowns (63 passing & 13 rushing).
- vs. No. 19 Miami: Started at quarterback and finished 11-for-20 with 91 passing yards and an interception.
- vs. Texas A&M: Earned the start at quarterback while rotating and completed 12-for-15 with 195 passing yards, a touchdown to Elijhah Badger (first as a Gator) and an interception. Surpassed 3,000 career passing yards as a Gator in the game.
- at Mississippi State: Finished 19-for-21 (90.5%, third-highest mark in program history) with 201 passing yards, three touchdown passes and one touchdown rush and rushed for a career-high 24 yards. Teamed up with DJ Lagway to combine 26-of-28 (92.8%, a UF single-game record) for 277 yards, connecting to 10 different receivers. Recorded his fourth game as a Gator (eighth of career) with three passing TDs.
- vs. UCF: Completed 19-of-23 for 179 yards and a touchdown pass, which came on the opening drive of 15 plays covering 75 yards in 7:58. Carried the ball thee times and picked up 11 yards.
2023: Started the first 11 games this season before being sidelined for an injury holding him out in the season finale… Finished with career-highs in completions (261), passing yards (2,903), touchdown passes (20), completion percentage (72.9), passing yards per game (263.9) and efficiency (157.8) while only throwing three interceptions, marking a career-low and tied his career-best with four rushing scores… Set program records of consecutive passes without an interception (239), consecutive passes completed (19) and season-best completion percentage with 72.9% (261 of 358)… Tied second all-time in UF history with completion percentage in a game (83.3%) on two occasions… Notched sixth multi-touchdown performance with two touchdown passes finishing 14-for-21 with 183 passing yards, and his first interception in 240 passing attempts, setting the school record with 239 consecutive without one at No. 9 Missouri (Nov. 18)… Logged 26-for-38 with 311 passing yards, a passing and rushing touchdown at No. 18 LSU (Nov. 11)… Marked another multi-touchdown performance with three through the air and completed 26-for-42 for 282 passing yards against Arkansas (Nov. 4)… Recorded fourth-straight multi-touchdown passing game with two going 25-for-34 with 230 passing yards and a rushing score vs. No. 1 Georgia (Oct. 28)… Finished with a career-high 423 passing yards on 30 completions with three touchdown passes, including leading two late 75-yard touchdown drives in the 4th quarter and the game-winning drive with 2:43 remaining at South Carolina (Oct. 14)… Back-to-back multi-touchdown game with a season-high three touchdown passes behind 30-for-36 (85.3%) for 254 passing yards vs. Vanderbilt (Oct. 7)… Completed 25 passes for 244 yards, including completing 19 straight to end the game with two touchdown passes at Kentucky (Sept. 30)… Threw for a touchdown in his fourth straight game with a final line of 21-for-24 (87.5) against Charlotte (Sept. 23)… Finished 19-for-24 for 166 yards with a touchdown pass and rushing score in the win vs. No. 11 Tennessee (Sept. 16)… Completed 14-for-17 for 193 yards with a 50-yard touchdown pass and a rushing score in the home opener McNeese (Sept. 9)… In the season opener at No. 14 Utah (Aug. 31) and set career-highs in passing yards (333) and completions (33), threw a touchdown and started 7-for-9 with 109 yards in the opening drive with a long of 40 yards… Transferred and joined the Gators in the spring semester.
Prior to Florida
2022 at Wisconsin: Started every regular season game (12) for third straight season… Completed 164-of-286 (57.3) passes for 2,136 yards and 19 touchdowns, all career-bests… Compiled a 135.0 passer rating, his best in any season as a starter… Finished his career at UW with a 19-13 record as a starter, ranking T-6th in program history in starts and 8th in wins by a quarterback… Reached the 5,000-yard passing mark at Iowa in the 1st quarter on a completion to Skyler Bell (Nov. 12) to become the 8th Badger QB to reach the milestone… Threw for 13 touchdowns in conference action, the most for a Badger QB since Alex Hornibrook in 2017… Owned a 173.2 passer rating in Wisconsin victories, the 3rd highest mark in the Big Ten… Recorded a passer rating of 170.0 or better in four games after doing so on only three occasions before 2022… moved his career total to 12 200-yard passing performances, the most for a UW QB since Joel Stave from 2012-2015… picked apart Northwestern (Oct. 8), throwing for 299 yards on 20-of-29 passing and five, becoming the first Badger to record two separate five-TD single-game performances… Against New Mexico State (Sept. 17), Threw for 251 yards and three touchdowns, recording a 273.2 passer rating, his career best and the third-highest in program history… Completed 13 passes in a row in the season opener vs. Illinois State (Sept. 3), recording the seventh-longest single-game completion streak in school history.
2021 at Wisconsin: Started all 13 games… Completed 169-of-284 passes (.595) for 1,958 yards and 10 touchdowns… Threw nine TD passes against just five interceptions over the final 10 games of the season… Completed 73-of-110 passes (.664) and threw 7 TD passes over the final five games… Went 11-of-16 for 240 yards and three touchdowns in win at Rutgers (Nov. 6)… His 244.1 pass efficiency in that game was third highest by a Big Ten quarterback in a conference game last season… Went 18-for-23 for 216 yards and two TDs against Northwestern (Nov. 13) the following week… Completed 11-of-15 passes for 137 yards a score in the Las Vegas Bowl victory over Arizona State (Dec. 30).
2020 at Wisconsin: Started all seven games… Completed 118-of-194 passes (.608) for 1,220 yards and nine touchdowns… Became the first Wisconsin freshman to start a season opener at quarterback since 1978, going 20-for-21 for 248 yards and five touchdowns against Illinois (Oct. 23)… His five TD passes tied the highest single-game total in UW history… He set the Wisconsin completion percentage record with a mark of .952, going 20-for-21 overall… Finished with a pass efficiency rating of 277.1, the third-highest mark in Badger history… Completed his first 17 passes, matching the Badgers’ single-game school record for consecutive completions (third-longest streak in a conference game in Big Ten history)… Threw for 248 yards, the third-highest single-game total by a Wisconsin freshman … also threw for two TDs in win at Michigan (Nov. 14)… Capped the season a passing TD and two rushing TDs in UW’s Duke’s Mayo Bowl victory over Wake Forest (Dec. 30)
2019 at Wisconsin: Appeared in two games and redshirted… Completed 9-of-10 passes for 73 yards… Went 4-for-5 for 35 yards in collegiate debut vs. Central Michigan (Sept. 7)… Was 5-for-5 for 38 yards and recorded a 10-yard run vs. Kent State (Oct. 5).
High School
Four-star recruit by 247 Sports, ESPN and Rivals… Elite 11 quarterback… Selected for The Opening Finals … 2018 Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year… All-America Bowl selection as a senior… 2018 Thomas A. Simone Award winner as top Kansas City-area player… All-state as a junior and senior… First-team All-Eastern Kansas League as a junior and senior… Led Blue Valley North to Class 6A state championship as junior and runner-up finish as a senior… Completed 61.1% of his passes for 3,886 yards and a state-record 51 touchdowns as a senior, also rushing for 267 yards and 4 TDs… Completed 62.0% of his passes for 3,684 yards and 45 TDs as a junior, adding 455 yards and 5 touchdowns rushing… Finished career with 96 touchdown passes and 16 interceptions… Four-year honor roll student… Played for coach Andy Sims… Parents are Ron and Amy Mertz… Father played football at Minnesota from 1989-92… Sisters Lauren played basketball at Kansas State and sister Mya played basketball at Drake.
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