Urban Meyer picks UF to make playoff, calls Kyle Trask a top-5 preseason QB
On Wednesday, Fox Sports analyst and ex-Florida coach Urban Meyer picked his former team to make the College Football Playoff this season.
And he listed Gators coach Dan Mullen, quarterback Kyle Trask and wide receivers Trevon Grimes as big reasons why.
During the Big Noon Kickoff Show, Meyer picked Grimes as his player who will become a household name by season's end. And then, unprompted, Meyer predicted UF to be one of the four playoff teams in 2021.
"Recognizable or household names correlate right with great teams," Meyer said Wednesday. "Because there's a lot of great players out there on bad teams you never hear about. They're not on TV, they're just not in the conversation. So I went with Trevon Grimes at Florida.
"I think Florida is gonna have a heck of a year. If they stay healthy, I'm picking them to be a playoff team. (Grimes) actually played for me at Ohio State. Big, tall, legitimate 10.3 100-meter guy with a returning quarterback, returning coaching staff."
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On the subject of college football's top five preseason quarterbacks, Meyer put Trask at No. 5 behind Kedon Slovis (USC), Sam Ehlinger (Texas), Justin Fields (Ohio State) and Trevor Lawrence (Clemson). Meyer expects Mullen, his quarterbacks coach at Florida, Utah and Bowling Green, to have even more success with Trask in 2020 after he led the Gators to an 11-2 record last season.
"Kyle Trask, I just believe in Dan Mullen," Meyer said. "I’ve seen what he can do with a returning quarterback. It’s well documented. I put him and Ryan Day as the two best I’ve ever been around. And I just think he's got good people around him (at UF), another year in the system and a very talented quarterback."
Last month Gators Territory documented Mullen's success with returning starters at QB, noting that every signal caller he has coached improved the team’s record after one season of starting experience and all but two (Tim Tebow and Nick Fitzgerald) increased their stats.
Meyer thinks the Gators have an advantage with Trask coming back because teams such as Alabama, Georgia, LSU and Oklahoma have new starters at quarterback and missed spring football.
"It’s often said in the NFL that the NFL is a quarterback league. And every time I hear that I kind of laugh because so is college, so is high school. It’s a quarterback sport, is what it is. And so those returning with experienced quarterbacks have a big-time advantage over everyone else," Meyer said.
"You’re talking about when you have Justin Fields, Trevor Lawrence, Trask at Florida, when you have people returning at that critical, critical position. That to me is the No. 1 advantage they’re going to have. If you’re trying to break in a new quarterback without spring football, I don’t want to say it’s impossible, but it’s impossible. That’s going to be very, very hard to do."
Fellow Fox Sports analysts and former USC quarterback Matt Leinart also picked Trask as a top five preseason QB, listing him at No. 4 ahead of UNC's Sam Howell and behind Ehlinger, Fields and Lawrence.
"You talk about Kyle Trask at Florida," Leinart said, "Dan Mullen is a quarterback coach. He’s a fantastic offensive mind. I think Florida’s got a chance to really compete in the SEC this year. And just to get thrust into action last year as a guy who’s been around the program and to play how he did, was phenomenal."
