Graham Mertz Sees Big Things Ahead for Himself, Wisconsin's Offense

MADISON, Wis. – As he went through his first season as a college starting quarterback, Graham Mertz admitted to being obsessed with the film room. He claimed to watch upwards of five, six hours a day of tape on himself, the opponent, the offense, or anything else that he thought could help him improve as a quarterback.

But when a mentally taxing season finally ended in late December, allowing Mertz to head back to his home in Kansas for some time off, he forced himself to relax and take inventory.

“I gave myself a couple days to reflect on the season, and from that point to see what would work best for me moving forward,” Mertz said. “What do I need to do, before I go and turn on the film from the season, how do I need to improve. Truly taking a holistic approach to it.”

Speaking to reporters for the first time since leading the Badgers to a victory over Wake Forest in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, Mertz said the improvement came first in the form of preparation. He spent a lot of time with a personal strength coach and a quarterback coach, breaking down every aspect of his on-field performance to identify areas of improvement, but going through the week-to-week grind as the starter for the first time required more than the knowledge of where to throw the football.

“During the game week, how am I going to take that time to focus on myself as a human being and just enjoy life?” Mertz said. “How can I be the best Graham during the season? Then I went back to watch the season.”

Assuming he went in order of the schedule, Mertz saw a lot of positives from tape one. He was named the conference’s co-offensive player and freshman of the week after his eye-opening performance against Illinois. The first freshman quarterback to start an opener at Wisconsin in 42 years, Mertz threw for 248 yards, five touchdowns, no interceptions and set a school record for completion percentage (20-for-21, 95.2 percent).

His other six starts failed to reach that lofty mark, throwing for a total of 990 yards (165.0 per contest), four touchdowns, five interceptions, and three fumbles. Granted, Mertz battled COVID, an injury to his throwing shoulder that required a weekly cortisone shot, and was without senior receivers Danny Davis and Kendric Pryor for most of the season, but he makes no excuses for his 57.0 percent completion percentage in the final six games.

“I’m not the one to sit here and make excuses for how I played,” Mertz said. “Having a little banged up shoulder doesn’t justify losing three games and playing like that.”

With 2019 starter Jack Coan having transferred to Notre Dame, Mertz enters his third spring but the first as the starter. Redshirt sophomore Chase Wolf, fifth-year senior Danny Vanden Boom and redshirt freshman Daniel Wright fill out the room, which will add one more this fall in freshman Deacon Hill.

Since returning from Kansas, Mertz and head coach Paul Chryst – who added quarterback coach to his job titles during the offseason - worked throughout winter conditioning on detailing the shortcomings of areas the offense struggled in during 2020.

That has led to improvements with his footwork in shotgun situations and with his drop step, playing with timing and better anticipation, and putting that to work on the field.

“To really bring that to life on the field, I feel like I’m playing some smooth and crisp ball right now,” Mertz said. “I’m loving it. It can only go up from there, which is fun.”

Onlookers add that there is a conviction to Mertz’s approach, natural in the progression of a quarterback who went from no starting experience to playing a full season. The growth started to peak out later in the season. After throwing three interceptions in a loss at Northwestern, as well as struggling against Indiana and Iowa, Mertz closed the season with no interceptions in his final two games and accounted for three touchdowns (including his first two career rushing touchdowns) against Wake Forest.

“Graham is incredibly physically gifted,” Vanden Boom said. “He came in and his feet were great. He throws the ball really well, he’s got a strong arm, he’s accurate. I think the biggest area where I’ve seen Graham take strides is mentally, both knowledge of football and mental toughness in general. He’s a tough guy.”

That internal improvement is one of the reasons Mertz is excited moving about the team’s direction. One of the first things the group did when returning to campus in January was dissect the previous season. One needed area of growth the group identified was improving the closeness of the roster, an opportunity that was taken away when the players went months without seeing each other due to COVID and protocols forcing summer conditioning to be limited to small groups.

“How can we get that sense of togetherness back that you didn’t have during the COVID year,” Mertz said.

With things now starting to look closer to normal, Mertz finds himself naturally gravitating to teammates in the locker room. He’ll reach out to players on both sides of the ball to talk about anything – from football to a story about their childhood.

“The way I try to carry myself as a leader and a quarterback on the team is how can I be as close with everybody on the team as I can,” Mertz said. “I’ve always tried to be like that. I never force it. It just kind of comes to me. It’s fun to do.”

It all gives credence to Mertz’s belief that last year’s up-and-down performances have given way to a steadier approach within the offense. And with games five months away, Mertz can start laying the groundwork for Wisconsin to bounce back in the fall.

“Having a spring ball to just grow and learn, and make some mistakes, learn from them and move on,” Mertz said. “For me, I think this spring is going to be big-time for me. Truly be able to focus on the things I messed up during the season and make sure it doesn’t happen again. It’s going to be great.”

“It’s clear as day now on what I need to do, and that’s the fun thing” he added. “This is the chunk of time where you really get to put that to work.”