A KC QB committed to Wisconsin. It didn’t stop Alabama, Clemson, others from calling
The most important decision Blue Valley North quarterback Graham Mertz has ever made came on a fall evening in 2017.
He sat down with his family, analyzed the pros and cons of a handful of Division I football programs and mapped out his future. This had always been the dream, he says, impressing college football coaches enough to have them bid on his services. A day later, he made it a reality, committing to Wisconsin with a post on Twitter.
“I thought that would be the end of it,” he said. “And I was just completely wrong.”
Within a week, the messages started pouring in. Texts on his iPhone. Direct messages on Twitter. Letters through the mail.
Nick Saban called. Dabo Swinney did, too. So did Urban Meyer. One evening, as Mertz completed his homework, he received a text that simply said, “Hey, Graham, give me a call, please. It’s Coach O.”
LSU.
“He’d wake up in the morning and have 200 text messages,” said Amy Mertz, Graham’s mom.” It was insane. I mean, it was just insane.”
On Wednesday, as part of the early signing period, Mertz officially stuck with his decision to attend Wisconsin, signing a national letter of intent to be a Badger. He turned down the likes of Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Missouri and several others.
Mertz (6-4, 205) is the second-ranked pro-style quarterback recruit in the country, per Rivals. He’s the top senior in Kansas. Earlier this week, he was named the recipient of the Simone Award, reserved for the best football player in the Kansas City metro. He broke a state record with 51 touchdown passes.
There’s a lot to like.
And to a certain degree, this was the attention Mertz had once craved. He didn’t start a high school football game until his junior season, sitting behind all-state talent at Bishop Miege before transferring to Blue Valley North. He got an offer from Kansas before starting his first game.
So once the attention finally hit full throttle, he felt a sense of responsibility to embrace it. To further appreciate the time commitment that required, you should know this about Graham Mertz: He considers it rude to not respond to a text message or a phone call.
For months and months, he answered every last one of them.
“It was flattering for a kid who worked his whole life to get that attention,” said Ron Mertz, Graham’s dad. “When (Alabama coach) Nick Saban calls, you pick up the phone. But at the same time, it’s just overwhelming.”
Ron and Amy sent two daughters to Division I basketball programs. They thought they had an idea of how the recruitment process would work. But when their daughters committed to schools, the recruitment stopped.
With Mertz, it had only begun.
“It almost turned into fuel for everyone else,” said Ron, who played football at Minnesota. “It was validation to them that when one school offered, they needed to be recruiting him, too.”
The parents used the situation for a teaching tool. Be transparent, they told him. Each time Mertz received an offer, the first phone calls he made were to his future coaches at Wisconsin. “Hey, Alabama offered me, but don’t worry, I’m still coming to Wisconsin,” he’d say.
At some point in June, it all had become too much. His senior season at Blue Valley North was nearing. He wanted to focus on preparing to defend the school’s first football state title he’d won one year earlier. That was almost impossible with his head buried in his phone, replying to hundreds of coaches every day, often a half-dozen from the same school.
So Mertz and his family sat down once more. Mertz considered his original decision final. The result of this meeting was a different message. He contacted every school who had offered him — nearly 20 of them — and told them his recruitment was effectively over, even if NCAA guidelines allowed further contact.
“It was all just a crazy experience and definitely not what I was expecting,” Mertz said. “It was definitely stressful at times but also could be flattering. But it just got to the point where I had all this unnecessary stress in my life, and I knew I wanted to go to Wisconsin.”
On Tuesday night, a day before he officially signed his national letter of intent, Mertz was cleaning out his basement when he discovered a poster he had crafted in the first grade. “All of my favorite teams,” he had typed.
The logos of 17 college football teams are glued on the poster. All but two offered Mertz a scholarship.
Front and center on the poster?
The Wisconsin Badger.
“Look at that,” he said. “I guess I knew all along.”