3 Florida Gators to blame for season-opening loss to Utah

Florida Gators to blame: Graham Mertz

It's easy to take one look at the stat line and assume Graham Mertz had a successful debut with the Florida Gators, but that wasn't necessarily the case. A bad turnover along with some basic accuracy issues put the Gators behind the eight ball early, especially against a solid defense like Utah.

Mertz has been hailed a Heisman candidate by some around Gainesville after an impressive spring and summer camp. As optimistic and downright delusional as that take may have been, Mertz is a former highly-rated recruit with Wisconsin, and has played in big games before.

After the loss, Mertz echoed Napier's comments about lack of execution. It's on Mertz as a leader to ensure these kinds of mistakes don't happen twice.

"Execution. That's the word; that's the theme. That's what I need to see from myself; I need to hold myself accountable to that, and I need to see that across the board. I am going to push the guys every day. We just have to execute," Mertz said.

Mertz was far from the only problem when Florida fell behind early. But, frankly, the Gators were outmanned against Utah, and if they were going to pull off an upset, Mertz would've needed to carry them on his back.

It wasn't meant to be.