Kyle Trask has been a career backup. He backed up D’Eriq King at Manvel High School. He backed up Luke Del Rio, Austin Appleby, Malik Zaire and Feleipe Franks at Florida.
Nobody told Kyle Trask he was a backup or maybe they did and he just didn’t listen.
On Saturday Florida’s former backup quarterback threw for more yards in a single game (363) than any quarterback Florida has started since Tim Tebow’s final game in the 2010 Sugar Bowl. Vanderbilt was playing its third-string quarterback and, well, Deuce Wallace looked like a third-string quarterback.
What Kyle Trask has been able to do this season is nothing short of amazing. He came into the season with 22 pass attempts, 41 less than Skyler Mornhinweg had as an emergency backup in 2013. When Feleipe Franks went down Florida’s season could have gone right down with it. Instead, Trask — because of his attitude, maturity and preparation, stepped right in and has kept the offense moving.
Sure the offense has changed. Trask isn’t the same kind of athlete that Feleipe Franks is and Florida’s running game hasn’t been what it was in 2018 or even what it was at times with Franks in 2019. The passing game has been better.
“Kyle Trask is one of the hardest workers on the team. He’s the first out to walk-throughs, practice, he’s locked in every single day,” receiver Trevon Grimes said. “I feel like that’s one of the biggest things that comes because he knows where we’re gonna be at and we know the reads he’s going to make in different coverages, so I feel like his smartness helps us out a lot.”
Off the field, Trask has a laid back, almost ho-hum kind of attitude. He’s easy go lucky and doesn’t let much get to him. On the field, he’s a fiery competitor. On Saturday he added some rushing yards and some tenacity that he hadn’t shown in that regard before.
“They did cover us up pretty good couple of plays and I looked down the check down and they’re taking that away sometimes too and then I saw a crease and I just try to hit it full speed and get the first down,” Trask said of the new dimension Saturday. I just did a better job of, it’s not there, looking for a check-down or run and try to get four or five yards instead of just trying to work and trying to find a receiver that’s a broken play or something like that.”
Trask has already graduated with his undergraduate degree and is currently working on a Masters degree in sports management. He’s going to come back to school in 2020. Right now he’s earning the right to start each and every game, what will happen in the offseason when Feleipe Franks comes back and Emory Jones is still waiting his turn? That’s a question for Dan Mullen and part of the reason he gets paid $6 million dollars a year. For the rest of us, just marvel at the former backup from Manvel because what Kyle Trask is doing this season is truly something special.
Soo thankful for Kyle Trask’s leadership and class! Good article!