The legend of Wisconsin quarterback Graham Mertz has been born, and I couldn’t be more excited.
RAPID REACTION: Wisconsin crushes Illinois 45-7, Graham Mertz throws five touchdowns and the Badgers look unstoppable. Welcome to Mertz Mania. pic.twitter.com/7REdr945pu
— David Hookstead (@dhookstead) October 24, 2020
Going into Friday night, I did my usual pregame routine. I had some drinks ready to go, fired up my playlist of great speeches from sports movies and did what I needed to do in order to get mentally prepared to play the Fighting Illini. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
Obviously, all the chatter was about Graham Mertz. That’s all anyone wanted to talk about. Finally, the most hyped recruit in program history was going to get his first career start.
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Folks, Mertz didn’t just show up and play well. He set the damn internet on fire as he torched Illinois for five touchdowns.
✅ First B1G TD of 2020
✅ First passing TD of Graham Mertz’s career@BadgerFootball jumps out to the early 7-0 lead. pic.twitter.com/nuqbFs0ifJ
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) October 24, 2020
After taking the night to sleep on it, I’m ready to declare the hype around Mertz 100% justified. That young man is on a different planet when it comes to playing football.
Imagine the kind of guts you need to have to throw five touchdowns in your first ever career start, and it’s against a B1G team!
???? Freshman QB Graham Mertz has 3 TDs in the 1st half
— PFF College (@PFF_College) October 24, 2020
I’d be terrified right now if I was a defensive coordinator who has to face Wisconsin. We used to just run the ball and throw off of play action.
Our offense last night looked like something I hadn’t seen since the days of Russell Wilson. Mertz was cooking!
Wisconsin QB Graham Mertz is going OFF in his first career start ????
14/14
190 yards
4 TDsAnd it’s only the first half..
(via @CFBONFOX)pic.twitter.com/MqavexFNCx— Bleacher Report CFB (@BR_CFB) October 24, 2020
Welcome to the Graham Mertz era in Madison, gentlemen. I hope you were all smart enough to listen when I told you this was coming.
Just pray for those we play. They need all the help they can get.