Danny Wuerffel congratulates Kyle Trask on TD record
Somewhere lost in the fog and disappointment of a 37-34 loss was history.
Saturday night Kyle Trask stamped his name in the Florida history books, continuing a season and story that would be rejected by any Hollywood producer for being too unbelievable.
Trask’s season is less believable than Roy Hobbs hitting a home run into the outfield lights at the end of The Natural. A Hollywood producer would look at the script, a two-star high school prospect who almost earns a degree from his college before starting a single game producing the kind of season that Trask is and laugh you out of the room.
Real-life is often stranger than fiction, and Kyle Trask is putting together one of the best seasons in Florida Gator history.
In the locker room Saturday night, in the middle of a slew of emotions and still in his sweat-drenched uniform, Kyle Trask was handed a cellphone from a UF staffer. The face on the other end was familiar, Trask walks by a statue in his likeness every day.
It was Danny Wuerffel, Florida’s first son — maybe second if you believe Steve Spurrier is, and we won’t argue that point.
Trask’s second touchdown pass — a 9-yard screen to Kadairus Toney in the third quarter— was his 40th of the season, breaking Wuerffel’s single-season touchdown record set in 1996.
"It was pretty unreal,” Trask said of the moment he shared with Florida’s first National Champion quarterback. “I mean, you hear about this guy and see him all over just Gator Nation in general. And so you know to get to talk to him is really special and really cool that you know he's, he has my back and you know shows support for me.”
Trask has thrown for 40 touchdowns and 3,717 yards in 2020. With 180 passing yards against Alabama in the SEC Championship game he will pass Rex Grossman for the most passing yards in a single season.
While Trask wasn’t really in the mood to celebrate his personal accomplishment, he shared a story that Wuerffel told him.
“He was basically just telling me about how he lost his last game of the season— the regular season — when he was playing,” Trask recalled of his conversation. “They went back and they beat Alabama the following week so you know it's just one foot in front of the other, you know and that's what we plan on doing next week.”
Wuerffel was referencing Florida’s 24-21 loss to Florida State in 1996. The Gators came into the game 10-0 and ranked No. 1. The next week Florida bounced back to beat Alabama 45-30 in the SEC Championship and Wuerffel was the MVP. After a few dominos fell the right way, the Gators got a rematch against FSU in the Sugar Bowl for a National Championship.
It’ll take a whole heap of dominoes to fall the right way for the Gators to get into the playoff, but, on this night, in a sad locker room, Wuerffel gave Trask hope.