Gators QB Kyle Trask Named Earl Campbell Award Player of the Week
Florida Gators quarterback Kyle Trask has been named the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award Player of the Week for his performance against the Ole Miss Rebels on Saturday.
Named to the organization's end-of-year award watch list earlier this season, Trask led the Gators to a fantastic 51-35 victory over Ole Miss by way of six passing touchdowns, tying an SEC record for the most touchdowns thrown in a conference-opener.
"The Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award, announced in 2012 by the Tyler Chamber and SPORTyler, recognizes the top offensive player in Division I football who also exhibits the enduring characteristics that define Earl Campbell: integrity, performance, teamwork, sportsmanship, drive, community, and tenacity; specifically, tenacity to persist and determination to overcome adversity and injury in pursuit of reaching goals," the organization states.
"In addition, the student-athlete must meet one or more of the following criteria: born in Texas and/or graduated from a Texas High School and/or played at a Texas-based junior college or four-year Division I Texas college."
A Texas-based award, Trask likely earned the Player of the Week nod over former high-school teammate D'Eriq King, among others, who connected on 29 out of 40 of his passes for 267 yards and two touchdowns, while rushing eight times for 65 yards on Saturday in the Miami Hurricanes victory over Florida State.
Trask's performance on Saturday underscores the importance of the connection between a quarterback and his best playmaker has on the outcome of a matchup. Four times on Saturday, Trask and tight end Kyle Pitts connected on touchdowns, mainly due to how close the two are in terms of chemistry.
On Monday, Pitts said it was their "preparation" as to why the two have such a close connection, almost as if they can reach each other's minds.
"I think our chemistry comes from preparation," Pitts said. "Times during the week where we start practicing running routes, maybe I drop the ball or he didn't like how it looks so we just run it again and in the offseason, did a lot of talking together, a lot of routes, a lot of work with the receiver corps and tight ends, the whole offense. I feel like our connection is good. It's grown. Each week we put more trust in what we do."
Having an offseason to gel with your quarterback, even during the quarantine, is huge. It showed up on Saturday, and both Pitts and Trask have seen the fruits of their labor come to life over the past week.
For Trask, he will continue to work to get better, knowing that while Saturday's performance was stellar, there is still more work to do, room to grow.
“Statistically, I mean it was (his best game) but there’s still a few things that I want to get cleaned up," he said on Monday. "There were a couple of throws I could have done something else with to move the ball and a couple of drives we could have made better decisions. Other than that I thought the whole team as a unit did a good job from start to finish and it was a great way to start a season.”
For now, Trask will be awarded a prestigious honor for the second time in two days. There are likely plenty more to come.
