Florida QB Trask named after Kyle Field
Gators’ senior grewup Aggies fan but will be all business Saturday
COLLEGE STATION — Kyle Trask figures to have plenty of Aggies in his face on Saturday. The former Manvel quarterback is used to it, especially on holidays.
“My whole family is full of Aggies,” said Trask, Florida’s rising-star senior quarterback who will enjoy a near-homecoming this weekend. “… My mom and dad are Aggies, so they named me after Kyle Field.”
Trask already was one of the sport’s best stories this season, and now his college football fairy tale has another unexpected chapter with the No. 4 Gators (2-0) visiting No. 21 Texas A&M (1-1) at11 a.m. Saturday during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Florida was not part of the Aggies’ original schedule but was added along with Tennessee when the SEC shifted to a10-game regular season, all within the league.
“More than 50 percent of my entire family probably went to college at Texas A&M,” said Trask, adding with a chuckle: “I was definitely raised to hate the Longhorns.”
Barring a postseason showdown, Trask will never play against the Aggies’ old rival, Texas, and he said he can’t get caught up in facing his old love, either, as the Gators’ starting quarterback.
“It will be cool, and we grew up watching the Aggies, but I’m also just going to be worried about us going to Kyle Field and getting a win,” Trask said.
Trask is especially motivated against A&M because then-Aggies coach Kevin Sumlin did not recruit him out of Manvel, but then, neither did any other major programat the time. At Manvel, Trask backedup former University of Houston quarterback D’Eriq King, now at the University of Miami, and primarily had Southland Conference schools pursuing him because of his potential.
But then-Manvel coach Kirk Martin gave an old friend, then-Florida offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier, a heads-up that his reserve quarterback was pretty special, too. The Gators offered Trask a scholarship after watching him throw at a camp, practically unheard of for a backup quarterback in high school. He then waited patiently in Gainesville, Fla., his first three years there.
“I wasn’t really highly recruited, (the Aggies) already had their quarterback for that class (Nick Starkel, who has since transferred), and I didn’t really have any contact with them or any bigtime schools for the most part,” Trask said. “There’s always a chip on my shoulder because … no one gave me a chance in recruiting.
“I came in with a chip on my shoulder to try and prove myself.”
Trask redshirted in 2016, did not play in 2017 because of a preseason injury and only played in four games in 2018 because of another injury. Early in the 2019 season he finally earned a chance to start because of yet another injury — this time to Feleipe Franks, whohas since transferred to Arkansas.
Trask, a 6-5 pro-style quarterback with a strong release and solid touch, started 10 games last year, leading the Gators to an 11-2 record and a No. 6 finish nationally. As a senior this season, Trask’s 10 touchdown passes are tied for second nationally, and he’s the third quarterback in SEC history to throw at least 10 touchdown passes in the first two games of a season, joining Kentucky’s Tim Couch and Florida’s Terry Dean.
“It’s a great success story, and the guy is a heck of a football player,” A&M coach Jimbo Fisher said. “That’s an amazing deal. You hear stories like that, for all the bigtime recruiting situations that happen, there are still stories out there about guys who work and grind and continue to get better in college.
“Then they get their opportunities, and they take advantage of them.”
The Aggies are coming off a 52-24 loss at No. 2 Alabama inwhich the defensive backs allowed touchdown passes of 87, 78 and 63 yards to Crimson Tide receivers. A&M’s secondary has emerged as its biggest concern two games into the season, and Trask completed passes to 11 different receivers in the Gators’ first game, a win at Mississippi, and to nine different receivers in a home victory over South Carolina last weekend.
“We’re not a team that’s just force-feeding the ball to one guy,” Florida coach Dan Mullen said. “We’re going to spread the ball around to a lot of different players. It makes it fun for them to know they have opportunities to have catches in every single game.”