San Antonio Express-News

Kyle connection

Named for Kyle Field, Florida’s senior QB still keeping his focus

- By Brent Zwerneman STAFF WRITER brent.zwerneman@chron.com Twitter: @Brentzwern­eman

» Florida QB Kyle Trask named after A&M’S stadium.

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 risingstar 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) at 11 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 a 10-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 program at the time. At Manvel, Trask backed up 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, thenflorid­a 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, who has 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 big-time 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 5224 loss at No. 2 Alabama in which 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.”

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