Mertz looks like it’s about to be official
- Thread starter Dontworryboutit23
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You're exactly right. We don't have to look any farther than how Levis looked under Scangarello vs how he looked under Coen.
I Suspect more evaluating gets done than meets the eye.
Every pass Mertz threw at Wisconsin is available on YouTube. And UK has employees and graduate assistants that can burn midnight oil.
Same for all P5 QB’s. Maybe not so much for FCS and G5’s.
For 2022, he was 79th in passing yards, 46th in TDs, and 81st in QBR. 57% completion percentage this year. That’s not good. 38-26 TD/INT ratio isn’t good. Wisconsin was the 112th ranked passing offense this year. So yes, I’d say his numbers looked terrible.
ESPN had him listed as one of the best in the portal in an article a few days ago. Out of all the guys I saw when I got to him I thought, “He’s the one. He’s got the physical gifting and tools.” He needs a new scene.
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Could you break that down in more detail? A good arm seems to be the one thing everybody agrees on. Interested in pocket presence, mobility, decision making and leadership. Thanks
This probably has something to do with why Scangarello is gone now. We know straight out of Stoops' own mouth that Scangarello did not call plays with enough pace to suit Stoops' expectations. (Which, BTW, blows the board's popular criticism of Stoops demanding a slower offensive pace right out of the water. Those fans were 180 incorrect because they employed a criticism that applied in the Shannon Dawson era, almost a decade ago. Stoops fired Scangarello in part for calling plays too slowly. Said it himself at a press conference.) But your comment here is probably right. This ultimately goes back to being able to adapt to your players. The best coaches can understand and adapt to the aptitude and skills of their players on hand. Scangarello was used to coaching professionals. Levis is physically gifted QB, but I don't think Scangarello understood Levis' comprehensional and visualization limitations until it was too late. JMO.
Everyone is different. Few QBs will have Levis' physical arm talent. Most of us get that. But a QB with just a little less arm strength but a little bit better aptitude for presnap defensive reads might find his secondary receivers just a little quicker, get the ball out of his hand faster, and take fewer hits in the pocket.
Agree he needs a new scene.
Also will tell you having personally witnessed MANY of his games the past two years in particular he needs a coach who helps him mentally make much better decisions than he has been. If he can cut his bonehead decisions in half he'll be a MUCH better QB than he's displayed the last couple years. However, even at that, he's not going to be Will Levis-- not being negative, just being realistic.
Levis also had decision making issues but made up for it with a rocket arm and legit scramble abilities. Mertz have any of those pluses?
Levis decision making was one of his issues. Throwing into double coverages. Not seeing wide open receivers. Panicking in the pocket. Not throwing the ball away instead taking sacks. Not taking off running when he could get 5 or 10 yards. Handing the ball of up the middle with 8 or 9 in the box. So are you saying that Mertz is even worse at decision making? After this season, that part would be 1A for me when looking for a QB. Then 1B would be the arm and 1C would be the mobility.
Paul Cryst had a mixed background, mostly as a TE coach, but with a lot of OC experience. As a player at WI, he played both QB and TE. With the SD Chargers, he was the TE coach. He coached QBs at OR St and WI. His offenses were known for being fundamentally sound and conservative. Generally speaking, Cryst was not the kind of recruiter who would be able to put a lot of explosive skill position players around his QB, but WI has been known as a factory for physical future NFL RBs. So it is a ground based offense. Cryst got stale at WI and the school fired him this year. This is the environment in which Graham Mertz has been playing.
Fair or not, Mertz has a reputation as a "game manager", but his skills in the passing game have never really been challenged or fully developed. He is not a runner, and mobility is not his strong suit. But Mertz was a 4 star QB prospect who received scholarship offers from GA, AL, LSU, MI, and OH St in addition to WI. All these elite coaches were probably not wrong about him. He is 6'3" 215#. His arm strength is well above average and he can make all the throws. Reports on his throwing accuracy vary but, again, he has not been playing in an offense suited to developing a strong passing QB. Mertz looks like a guy who was a misfit at WI, but with more upside and talent. If Liam Coen made the call for Stoops to offer Mertz, you can see what Coen must have been thinking and it seems pretty clever IMO.
You seem to have a great understanding of the situation, appreciate the info. What do you know about the WKU kid?
Have a buddy who’s a Wisconsin guy. Said Mertz is a damn good QB.
Add in Coen now, things are looking up.
Add in Coen now, things are looking up.
I can't say I've seen a lot of Levis-- other than the Tennessee game this year where he was bad. I am saying the same things you described about Levis are the same terms I'd use to describe Mertz.
Not trying to be a dick, but of all people watching college football I know who have seen lots of Mertz as well as the many Wisconsin podcasts I've listened to when their coaching search was going on, your buddy is the first and ONLY person I've ever seen describe Mertz as "damn good". I'm sure in Iowa we can find at least one who would say that about Spencer Petras.
Happy Holidays. I appreciate your kind comment but I am not an insider. There is a tremendous amount of objective information available free of charge for those willing and able to dig. I grew up in the Commonwealth, was introduced as a kid to UK sports by my family, and graduated from UK. I live in Georgetown now with my family but work in Lexington. All my life, I have been fascinated with UK football, baseball, and basketball. Over the years, I have known several players.
Austin Reed was a so so, unranked QB prospect out of St. Augustine who signed with S IL and transferred to W FL. He put up big numbers at W FL, a D2 school at the time. Then he transferred to WKU and thrived in their air raid style offense. He is known as a gunslinger. He has decent size and good arm strength. He has leadership qualities but tends to make mistakes of aggression such as preventable turnovers. Prone to overconfidence. Threw too many picks at WKU, but also threw plenty of TD passes there. Something to keep in mind, WKU's offense is very QB friendly, and the competition generally is not very good. WKU scored 13 points against N TX and 20 points against UAB, so their offense was not quite up to more sound competition. But they scored a lot of points against a weak schedule. Last thing I saw on the subject said UCLA and UL want him. He has one season of eligibility left, so he must find a program where he can start immediately and take over the offense. He has no experience playing against anything resembling a Power 5 defense, so a team taking him will have to be very careful with the projection and fit. He looks interesting, but with those caveats.
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Not trying to be a dick, but of all people watching college football I know who have seen lots of Mertz as well as the many Wisconsin podcasts I've listened to when their coaching search was going on, your buddy is the first and ONLY person I've ever seen describe Mertz as "damn good". I'm sure in Iowa we can find at least one who would say that about Spencer Petras.
Guess time will tell. Sometimes a change of scenery, a second chance, new coaches, new system changes things.
I’ve learned to be more optimistic.
He held his own vs Auburn, looked fairly mobile. Yes I see the gunslinger in him which makes him less of a good fit here. I think there might be better options than Mertz out there but the question becomes who can we get.
Like you lifelong UK sports fan, considered getting into coaching football out of college and was offered a couple of jobs at high schools. I ended up going a different direction but never lost the love of the game.
Was just getting read to ask this question. Do you or anyone else believe Coen had a hand in bring Mertz too UK ?
Some people must be either young or stupid to not realize the lack of talent on Stoops roster the first few years . His record should be looked at when he the majority of the players were his , not Jokers
Yeah...posters who say this should just not even bother including the first 2-3 years for complete rebuilds like UK had. Do the record since, whip in the average recruiting ranking, and it's not hard to be over-the-moon impressed.
Well, Stoops jumped at the chance to have him back. Seems it’s not just anonymous coaches. But, I am sure Coen is taking notes from this thread and it will do him good.
Before he talks to BBN and the media, I hope he talks to some portal QBs.
What is your take on MacNamara?Not trying to be a dick, but of all people watching college football I know who have seen lots of Mertz as well as the many Wisconsin podcasts I've listened to when their coaching search was going on, your buddy is the first and ONLY person I've ever seen describe Mertz as "damn good". I'm sure in Iowa we can find at least one who would say that about Spencer Petras.
^^This - AND, if you snooze, you lose. Any qualified school in the country can recruit players from the portal. A lot of the transferring players want to enroll at their new school in January, and those are usually the guys you want (so they can participate in spring practice). So it is time sensitive. You evaluate and offer as quickly as possible, or else the players you want end up somewhere else.
On Dec2 I was told that Coen was coming back and he wants the Mertz kid from Wisconsin. I replied “ he’s not even in the portal “ he said “ he will be” and added “ we’re getting an olineman from Alabama and a runn back from Vandy too”. A couple of days later Mertz and Ray Davis entered the portal. Sounds like the guy knows what he is talking about.
Not really . I know a couple of ex UK players that played with and are friends with a current position coach at UK . I don’t see them that much anymore though .
Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I just know a couple of guys that played with a position coach currently at UK . I did not play college football. My skills were more suited to high school, lol .
Big-time upgrade at QB considering we were as bad as any QB in college 5 Power football the past three years.
That was a nice scoop. Interesting how much was in place—at least tentatively—that early.
Ffs. I was replying to someone who was trying to use career stats to judge Mertz. The point was, it just as stupid to judge Stoops on career record as it is to judge aqb on career td ints. I don't care Stoops first 3 years and I don't care Mertz freshman year stats.
Time will tell. But my guess would be that Stoops has known for days if not a couple of weeks that Coen was his top choice and would like to move back to Lexington. In that scenario, if true, there is no way Stoops would offer a scholarship to a QB without Coen's strong blessing if not outright top recommendation.
For those worrying about which QB we are getting, I'll say one thing after this week:
Just give Coen 48 hours and he'll put together the game winning drive with whomever we bring in; unsportsmanlike penalty and all.
And with the Austin Reed talk, it reminds me of how many QBs WKU has in the pros right now and how many we have. Just saying despite the talent level difference at WKU,
Just give Coen 48 hours and he'll put together the game winning drive with whomever we bring in; unsportsmanlike penalty and all.
And with the Austin Reed talk, it reminds me of how many QBs WKU has in the pros right now and how many we have. Just saying despite the talent level difference at WKU,
