GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Kyle Trask understands the importance of staying level-headed in the face of adversity.
In the Gators shutout victory over Vanderbilt, Florida left a lot of points out on the field in the first half. The offense was moving the ball well, but a turnover on downs and two interceptions left them with only a fourteen-point lead at the half.
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Errors like those that keep points off the board can obviously be frustrating for a quarterback, but Trask never lets it show.
“I obviously get mad sometimes,” said Trask. “Being the quarterback of the team, you’re somebody that guys look to and you can’t get flustered. It might affect them negatively.”
Despite those offensive miscues in the first half, the redshirt junior had himself a day.
He threw for a career high 363 yards and three touchdowns. That brings his season total to 2,011 passing yards with a 66.9 percent completion rate.
Against the Commodores, he also seemed to be more comfortable running the ball, going for 25 yards and a touchdown on seven carries.
“It’s great to get back on track,” he said. “There’s still a lot to play for. At the end of the day, we have to control what we can control and that’s one day at a time.”
The Gators’ deep receiving corps has set Trask up for success this season.
“We have a lot of different guys touch the ball, and there's a benefit to that,” said Dan Mullen. “Allows the quarterback not to force things and just take what they give us, and it was working, so we just stuck with it.”
And it’s working well.
Six different players for the Gators have over 250 receiving yards on the season.
Florida’s offense is just clicking with Kyle Trask at the helm. When he was asked what went right in the win over Vandy to allow him to hit a new personal career high, he gave all of the credit to his teammates.
“The receivers did a great job getting open,” he said. “I think our O-line did a great job working really hard in practice and I think it showed today. And I think we could’ve put up a lot more but I’m really proud of the way our guys performed today.”
Trask has become a leader on the team this year when they really needed him most. He fits perfectly into Dan Mullen’s plan and has given the Gators an offensive identity.
“Trask is one of the hardest workers on the team,” said wide receiver Trevon Grimes. “He’s locked in every single day. 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.”
