GAINESVILLE — Just in case UCLA’s J. Michael Sturdivant wasn’t completely sold on Florida coach Billy Napier’s stellar track record with transfer receivers, a childhood neighbor sealed the deal.

Sturdivant spent some of his formative years in Overland Park, Kan., living across a creek from the home of former Gators quarterback Graham Mertz .

Two future football stars used to watch games in Mertz’s basement, eat snacks and shoot Airsoft guns. Other than playing catch in the street in the neighborhood kids, Sturvidant — 20 months Mertz’s junior — never teamed up with the top quarterback prospect in greater Kansas City , if not the entire Midwest, before the two went their separate ways.

When the Gators needed him to reconnect with Sturdivant, Mertz was on the mark, even as h

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