As the Twitterverse marveled at Graham Mertz’s throws, UW players were simply seeing what they always have.

The Decatur Herald & Review's Joey Wagner shares his perspective from the other side of the action after the Badgers routed Illinois 45-7 in Madison on Friday night.

In the Badgers’ dominant, 45-7 win against visiting Illinois, Mertz tied a program record with five touchdown passes and lived up to all the hype that’s built around him since he committed to UW in 2017.

Years from now, hundreds of thousands of UW football fans will say they were there for the debut of quarterback Graham Mertz. They'll all be lying.

The junior bounced back from his mistake with two key plays on the ensuing series before going on to finish his productive night with seven catches for 72 yards and three touchdowns. 

Tom Oates grades the No. 14 Wisconsin Badgers' performance in their 45-7 victory over the Illinois Fighting Illini in their season opener Friday night at Camp Randall Stadium.

A quick look at the 14th-ranked Wisconsin Badgers' 45-7 victory over the Illinois Fighting Illini Friday night in the season opener at an empty Camp Randall Stadium.

Graham Mertz has tested positive for COVID-19, sources told the State Journal on Sunday. As with all positive tests that occur using the daily rapid antigen tests, Mertz will be taking a PCR nasal swab test in order to confirm his diagnosis.

The AP Top 25 is embracing diversity: Nine of the 10 FBS conferences have a ranked team this week, including all the leagues currently playing games, and there also is an independent.

Mertz was 20 of 21 passing, setting a program record for completion percentage (.952), and tied program records with five touchdown passes and 17 consecutive completions. 

The Badgers will kick off their next home game against Purdue at 2:30 p.m. Nov. 7 at Camp Randall Stadium.

As Badgers fans wait with bated breath on news regarding redshirt freshman Graham Mertz’s status after an initial positive COVID-19 test, UW football coach Paul Chryst said he won’t comment on the situation.

If both Chase Wolf and Graham Mertz are unavailable, the Badgers are slim on options at quarterback heading into their game at Nebraska.

Big Ten protocols state that a team cannot practice or play if its seven-day rolling average of virus positivity rate surpasses 5% among players and 7.5% among the team population, which includes coaches, staff members and others closely interacting with the team.

Big Ten protocols state Paul Chryst and any other infected UW coaches must isolate for 10 days before returning to in-person coaching.

“The seven-day pause is important for us,” coach Paul Chryst said Wednesday. “We’ve got to do that well. That’s got to go kind of serve its proper purpose and then we can kind of address the other parts of it."

Watch as UW athletic director Barry Alvarez and head football coach Paul Chryst speak to the media about the program's COVID-19 coronavirus cases and the cancellation of the Badgers' upcoming game against the Cornhuskers in a virtual news conference Wednesday afternoon.

The 22 active cases is up six from the numbers released by the program on Thursday, with two more staff members and five more players testing positive.