More confident Kyle Trask 'firing on all cylinders' with weight loss
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Heading into this season, Florida quarterback Kyle Trask identified several things about his game he wanted to improve.
His accuracy, footwork and read progressions are all areas he worked on. The other?
Weight loss.
“I felt a little heavy towards the end of last year,” Trask said. “I just tried to take initiative to improve my health in all aspects of my life.”
Trask said he followed a strict diet, exercised a lot and drank tons of water. When he met the media Wednesday, a reporter told him he looked slimmer.
“Oh, thanks for noticing,” Trask said with a smile. “Yeah, I lost about, around 13 pounds. ... I definitely feel a lot more quicker on my feet, and things like that that have helped my game.”
UF quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson has noticed a difference in practice with his starting QB. Johnson said Trask has always been a willing runner, but now he understands when to take off and has dropped the extra weight from his season-ending 2018 injury.
“He’s down 12 pounds, he’s looking lean,” Johnson said of Trask. “I think the obvious is just his suddenness in the pocket, his escapability, being able to evade rushers and things of that nature. But I think he feels a lot more comfortable being able to get energy on the ball and feeling strong and lean.
“When we first got here, he was probably around the weight that he is now. But once he broke the foot he gained 10 or 12 pounds after that. And now he's kind of back down to his original weight from that first spring when we were here, and you can really see just the foot quickness and the body quickness improvements.”
In addition to dropping weight, Trask has taken his game and leadership to the “next level” according to Johnson. He praised his play in last Friday’s scrimmage and how he has matured as a fifth-year senior.
“I was really pleased with how he came out of the scrimmage. He was kind of firing on all cylinders and played really efficiently,” Johnson said of Trask. “He’s had a bunch of experiences that have shaped him to this point. And I think he’s in a position now where he feels extremely confident and comfortable with who he is and what he stands for. Like I told him, I’m really, really proud of him to see his continued development.
“We talk about things other than football in our room. He’s someone that has a really good head on his shoulders. He’s not afraid to speak his mind. He’s inquisitive and asks questions and he’s a thinker. He’s somebody that everybody can look up to and he sets an extremely high standard for himself through his actions and now through his words. So it’s been good to see.”
Trask was named to his sixth preseason watch list Wednesday and faces high expectations after leading the Gators to an 11-2 record in 2019. That experience gives him more confidence this year, even with a COVID-shortened offseason.
“It was really huge in the leadership role for me to really step up,” Trask said. “Obviously, there wasn’t a lot of time for us to be around coaches through the whole quarantine and that whole process. So I had to do my best along with the other leaders on the team to try to keep our timing down and make sure we're continuing to improve our game.
“I definitely feel a lot more confident. At the quarterback position, experience is a huge thing. So just to have that, almost that whole season under my belt going into this 2020 season, I feel obviously a lot more confident about this year than I did last year, and that’s in all phases of the game.”
