Florida’s senior quarterback Graham Mertz went down after firing a 13-yard TD pass to Arlis Boardingham in the third quarter against Tennessee. While nobody knew the severity of it, the broadcast shot of running back Cam Carroll comforting Mertz on the sideline said it all. Mertz had torn his ACL on a 15-yard scramble two plays before, but finished the drive with a touchdown pass to extend Florida’s lead to 10-0.
After six years of college football, 48 starts, and 1,225 career passes, Mertz’s collegiate playing career came to an end in week seven.
“This wasn’t really how I saw the end of my career here being,” Mertz said on Wednesday.