No later Gator: Trask speaks up

UF quarterback has found his voice, and he wants his team to play this season

GAINESVILLE — UF quarterback Kyle Trask has never been a big talker, but he has increasingly found his voice as he approaches his final college season.

In early March, Trask predicted a College Football Playoff semifinal berth for Dan Mullen’s squad. With his sport threatened by a pandemic, Trask joined a chorus of high-profile players voicing their desire to suit up this fall.

On Wednesday, Trask tweeted a statement from the Gators’ leadership council, declaring, “WE WANT TO PLAY!” The #WeWantToPlay hashtag has become a movement on Twitter since speculation began the Big Ten planned to cancel the 2020 football season.

On Monday, Trask tweeted the hashtag, marking just his third tweet since early July and first in years not in response to another post.

The Big Ten and Pac-12 postponed the season a day later. The SEC, ACC and Big 12 — the other members of the Power 5 — plan to continue forward and try to play football.

On Wednesday, Trask, a leadership council member, shared a statement from the group on his Twitter account.

“We are in unprecedented time as a country and as student-athletes,” the statement read. “As such, we, the leadership committee of the University of Florida football team, want to make our voices heard… WE WANT TO PLAY!

“We feel the safest place for us is with our teammates in the structured environment of the football program. We are following the medical protocols that have been put in place based on the recommendations of the CDC and UF Health. In following these protocols, we currently have zero athletes in quarantine.”

The statement also requests the NCAA and universities continue to provide medical assistance after athletes leave campus. In addition to the myriad injuries suffered by football players and other athletes, the long-term impact of COVID-19 has yet to be determined. An athlete gets medical assistance while in college, but Trask and the Gators want the school to offer medical support to athletes for an unspecified period of time following their departure.

During the weekend, a source said no UF player tested positive for COVID-19 or was quarantined due to exposure to the virus since mandatory workouts began July 14.

The Gators are set to begin preseason practices Monday and open the season Sept. 26. The SEC delayed the start of the season three weeks and has yet to release a schedule.

Speaking on the Dan Patrick Show Tuesday, conference commissioner Greg Sankey said he is confident in the safety measure the league is following, but could not guarantee a football season will be played.

“We haven’t made a final decision, but we have set a start date,” Sankey said. “I would be encouraged by that.”

When the Gators return to the field, Trask’s emergence as a leader is an encouraging sign.

Since Trask arrived in 2016, no UF quarterback has consistently thrown a more catchable or more accurate pass. Yet Trask’s lack of starting experience and questionable leadership skills might have held him back as veteran quarterbacks Luke Del Rio and Austin Appleby

or bigger personalities like Feleipe Franks seized the reins.

But Trask quickly found his stride after Franks suffered a season-ending injury at Kentucky during the third game of the 2019 season. Trask returns in 2020 as the most accomplished passer in the SEC and the leader of a team ranked No. 8 the preseason top 25 coaches’ poll.

During the offseason, Trask shared his expectations for the Gators.

“We definitely feel pretty strongly that we have a good shot at it this year,” Trask told reporters March 9.

Asked to clarify, he responded, “The College Football Playoff.”

The statement was out of character for the understated Texas, even surprising his father, Michael.

“He is very quiet and doesn’t like to stir controversy,” the elder Trask told the Sentinel during the summer. “When he said that, I was like, ‘Damn, Kyle came out of his shell a little bit.’ For him to say that, I know he has a real sixth sense feeling maybe, that all the pieces are there. We were so close last year.

“Hopefully we have a season. I feel confident about their chances.”

Few want a season more or are as confident in the Gators as Kyle Trask.