The Quarterback Showdown for Everything: Mac Jones vs Kyle Trask
The concept is simple, yet has vast consequences.
“Greatness in quarterbacks is taking what you've got, whether it's a great team, a good team, or a struggling team and make them better.” - Fran Tarkenton.
That quote by the legendary Minnesota Vikings quarterback could not be more applicable to this year's SEC Championship Game (Saturday, 7 p.m. CT, CBS). It features the teams we see most often in Atlanta, only this time there's a clear shootout aspect to it that could decide both playoff spots and the Heisman Trophy in addition to the league crown.
Alabama and Florida both have top-tier offenses led by a key player that makes their great teams even better: Their quarterbacks.
For the Crimson Tide, it's redshirt-junior Mac Jones, who some compare to having a Joe Burrow like ascension.
After taking the reins from Tua Tagovailoa last season, Jones has quickly become one of the best quarterbacks in college football. He's been he spark to a raging fire of an offense — arguably the best in the Nick Saban era — that has been nearly unmatched or unparalleled, even in Tuscaloosa.
Alabama Athletics
“He's a guy that has had a great year,” Florida coach Dan Mullen said, while referring to him as a game-managing quarterback and not meaning it as a negative. “Very similar to Kyle [Trask]. Does a great job managing their offense, distributing the ball to all the different play-makers, getting them in the right plays at the right time, taking what the defense gives him.
“He's had a great season.”
For the Gators, their king is fueled by a similar story to Jones in his rise to prowess. When Feleipe Franks suffered a season-ending leg injury in 2019, Trask took over and never relinquished the job, leading to his predecessor transferring to Arkansas.
Combined with standout tight end Kyle Pitts, the Florida offense has had a year worthy of remembrance.
Florida Athletics
“I know he’s had a tough road coming up, just like the kind Mac has,” Saban said about Trask, a redshirt senior. “I have a lot of respect for guys that stick with it, persevere, come through a lot of adversity, go through growing pains.
“When they get an opportunity, they take advantage of it, do it extremely well. Kyle certainly has done that. Had had as fine a season as any quarterback in the country. I can’t say enough positive things about him.”
Both quarterbacks came onto the scene with good teams, and both quarterbacks made them better.
Both Jones and Trask have been consistent contenders in the Heisman Trophy race. Both have provided stellar effort on the gridiron. Both have shown exceptional leadership on and off the field.
Only one can win at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, though.
No one can keep up with Jones
The Crimson Tide's quarterback has been nothing short of superb in 2020. Through 10 games, all against SEC opponents, he's thrown for 3,321 yards with 27 passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns.
| Competions | Attempts | Interceptions | Passing Yards | Passing Touchdowns | Long | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Totals | 217 | 284 | 3 | 3,321 | 27 | 90 |
At the halfway point of the season at Tennessee on Oct. 24, Jones arguable lost his most valuable receiver in Jaylen Waddle on the opening kickoff. The season-ending injury caused many to doubt if the Crimson Tide’s offense could continue to perform at such a high level.
However, Jones proved otherwise.
Prior to facing the Volunteers, Jones had 12 touchdowns in five games. Since Waddle’s injury, Jones has had 15 more.
While Waddle’s loss was great, Jones’ ability to adapt and overcome the situation proved his championship-caliber skills under center. Combined with wide receiver DeVonta Smith — who is also a strong Heisman contender — Alabama's passing game has remained nearly unstoppable.
Adapt and overcome. These are two of the key ingredients in making a good team better.
The 'Trask' at hand
One word adequately sums up the season that Trask has had with Florida: outstanding. He leads the NCAA in completions with 259, total offensive yards with 3,767 and passing touchdowns with 40.
| Completions | Attempts | Interceptions | Passing Yards | Passing Touchdowns | Long | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Totals | 259 | 369 | 5 | 3,717 | 40 | 71 |
Trask has only had three games in which he niched fewer than four passing touchdowns: three at Vanderbilt, three at Kentucky and two against LSU at home.
While Pitts caught all three of Trask’s touchdown passes at Kentucky, his games at Vanderbilt and against LSU were the two games that Pitts missed due to an injury.
This is the first strike against Trask when making the Heisman comparison. Trask's impressive numbers have been more dependent on the dynamic play of his top receiver, Pitts, a mismatched tight end to opposing defenses.
That being said, go back to Tarkenton’s quote and there's no doubt that Trask does elevate his team.
However, Florida has taken two losses. With last week's stunning setback to LSU in the fog, the Gators are 8-2. Pitts didn't play against the Tigers, and was limited to five receptions for 47 yards and a touchdown in the 41-38 defeat at Texas A&M.
Jones has led Alabama to a perfect 10-0 record. The Crimson Tide has faced two teams currently ranked in the top 10 in Texas A&M and Georgia. Neither game at Bryant-Denny Stadium was especially close, either.
Mirror images in some ways
When talking about leadership and respect for the game, both Jones and Trask have both qualities in droves. Throughout their time at their respective schools, the quarterbacks have handled adversity with dignity and grace that comes along with successful college athletes.
Alabama Athletics
For example, both spoke very highly of one another during the SEC’s player media availability this week.
“I definitely have a lot of respect for Kyle, for how he's handled his situation, too,” Jones said about his counterpart. “I think all that's just a personal decision to stay, develop personally. That's kind of how I looked at it. Eventually we both got our chance to help out our teams.
“Obviously Kyle has done a great job all year long. In the past year and a half, he's played great football, has been a great player. I definitely look up to him as a person that's one of the best quarterbacks in the nation.”
Trask gave a similar answer when talking about Jones.
“I know he's a very talented player,” Trask said. “He gets the job done for them pretty well. It's going to be fun to get to play against another top QB, not only in this conference but in the country.
“I know he's a great quarterback on and off the field. We've had to overcome some obstacles throughout our careers. We both came to big-time football schools. Now we're having the opportunity to play against each other, which is really cool.”
Florida Athletics
One area where the quarterbacks differ, though, is on how their offenses rely on them. Heading into the SEC Championship Game, Trask sits at 369 passing attempts — 17 shy of Brady White of Memphis at 386 for the NCAA lead. Overall, he's 259-of-369.
Jones, on the other hand, has fewer completions at 217. However, he also has significantly fewer attempts at 284 through 10 games.
It works out to roughly 70.2-percent completion percentage for Trask, and 76.4 percent by Jones.
While that might not look like a huge difference, it is when considering the number of opportunities. Trask has 85 more passing attempts than Jones. If Jones had that many more throws it would roughly translate to 65 more completions to his tally, bringing it to 282 — 23 more than Trask.
To dive even further into the sports-statistics realm, if we used Jones’ NCAA-leading passing yards per attempt (11.7) and multiply that by the 65 potential completions, he would have an additional 760 passing yards, pushing him over the 4,000-yard mark and well past Trask.
A big reason for the contrast is due to playing time.
As Saban has been known to do throughout his tenure at Alabama, when the Crimson Tide is up big in games he withdraws the starters to give second- and third-string players the chance at some experience. While this dramatically reduces the risk of injuries for starters, it also keeps them from being able to pad their numbers.
This has hampered the Heisman chances of numerous Crimson Tide players throughout the years, including Tagovailoa when he finished second for the Heisman in 2018.
The same can not be said when comparing Mullen’s use of Trask to Saban’s use of Jones. For the vast majority of this season, Trask has been under center from the first to the final snap of Florida's games. For Jones, he's often been on the sideline in lieu of second-string quarterback Bryce Young during the fourth quarter.
Of course, he often did the same for running backs Derrick Henry and Mark Ingram II.
Which brings us to the final statistical factor that has to be taken into account regarding the quarterbacks, their teams' running game.
T.G. Paschal/BamaCentral
For Alabama, senior running back Najee Harris leads the NCAA in rushing touchdowns with 22 and is seventh in the nation in rushing yards with 1,084. Combine Harris with a strong stable composed of players like senior Brian Robinson Jr. and freshman Jase McClellan, and the Crimson Tide rushing attack is just as much a determining factor in the offensive success as its passing game.
Mullen even noted hat one of Alabama’s biggest threats is the diversity of its well-balanced offense, masterminded by offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian.
“Offensively one of the big things you want to be able to do is utilize your personnel, make sure you're putting guys in position to make plays, utilize your play-makers to take advantage of opportunities, opportunities to get them one-on-one,” Mullen said. “I think [Sarkisian] does a great job with that, of utilizing all the different personnel, whether it's their wideouts, and just getting the ball.
“Like I said, getting the ball underneath or deep down the field, mixing the tight ends in to make sure you respect them. Obviously utilizing the great offensive line, their backs in the running game. I think he does a really good job of utilizing his personnel.”
Florida, on the other hand, doesn't have comparable success on the ground. The Gators only have 1,271 rushing yards as a team, and eight rushing touchdowns.
That doesn't mean that the running game isn't a concern for the Crimson Tide, though.
“This team is as explosive as anyone in the country on offense,” Saban said. “They have really good skill players, really good quarterback. Good balance on offense. Dan does a great job in terms of calling plays, formations, adjustments. A lot of similarities to LSU's style of play last year in terms of the kind of mismatch players that they have.
“They've done a good job of utilizing all their talent in a very positive way.”
Florida Athletics
So how does the rushing game affect Trask?
Alabama hasn’t needed Jones as badly as Florida has needed Trask to move the offense. Certainly Jones has contributed highly to its success, but he hasn’t had to throw on first downs. He hasn’t needed to throw on third and short. He hasn’t had to throw on half of his team’s plays.
Let’s pull out our calculators one final time. Trask has thrown on 369 of his team’s 690 plays from offense this season — roughly 53.5 percent of its plays. Jones, on the other hand, has thrown 281 times out of Alabama’s 681 offensive plays this season — 41.7 percent.
That 12-percent difference makes a huge impact.
A lackluster rushing effort from the Gators has meant that Trask has had to throw much more than Jones. It feeds the the large gap of passing attempts between the two quarterbacks and the inflated stats for Trask. Combined with the extended playing time and the numbers add up.
While Trask’s stats have indeed been impressive, one has to conclude that had Jones been given more playing time, on a less-successful team, and without such a powerful running game, the numbers would still swing in Jones’ favor.
Alabama Athletics
Regardless, both quarterbacks have performed to the best of their ability this season. Both have given their all and have contributed highly to the success of their respective programs.
That's why some still claim that Trask can still win the Heisman if he can lead Florida to a win in this head-to-head matchup.
If Trask is able to distribute the ball well and overcome the Crimson Tide's pass-rush and secondary, he could very well still take home the trophy.
However, if Jones is able to maintain his poise and pinpoint accuracy, find Smith in the end zone and rake in another successful Alabama victory, the Crimson Tide is in excellent position to have its first quarterback win college football's greatest individual prize.
After all, as Tarkenton noted, making a team better is the ultimate measure of success for a quarterback, and no one will have done that more than Jones this season.
