Gators QB Kyle Trask Earns Senior Bowl 'Senior of the Week' Honor
While he wasn't able to edge out Mississippi State quarterback K.J. Costello for the SEC's top offensive honor of the week thanks to a record-breaking performance from the newest Mike Leach disciple, Gators quarterback Kyle Trask has earned the top honor for the Reese's Senior Bowl this week, winning its "Senior of the Week" accolade.
Entering his redshirt senior season, Trask performed above and beyond the expectations set out for him after starting 10 games last season, playing in 12. In the team's 51-35 victory in its season-opener against Ole Miss on Saturday, Trask tied a record for the most touchdown passes thrown in an SEC conference-opener with six, while completing 30 of 42 passes for 416 yards on the day.
With his 416 passing yards, Trask helped Florida compile the most yards they've had against an SEC opponent with 642 yards. The previous high on offense was 640 against Mississippi State in 2001.
"Trask became the sixth Gator in school history to throw six touchdown passes in a game; he is the first to throw six since Chris Leak (Nov. 13, 2004 against South Carolina)," the school noted in its post-game notes on Saturday.
Today, Gators head coach Dan Mullen praised the young signal-caller, yet was still able to find a way to improve upon his historic day, somehow. That is a credit to, not only Trask, but the Gators' confidence in him as well.
“There’s a lot of things he can getter better at," said Mullen. "We went through them on the film, I don’t know, you know. If he likes the attention and he likes his name being on the ticker of ESPN. If he likes that stuff then keep doing what he’s doing. If he doesn’t, go out and throw three picks, they won’t talk about him anymore. I don’t know, that’s kind of my take on it.
"You know what, he’s a guy who’s worked really hard to put himself in this position. He’s been on the big stage - it’s not too big for him."
Today, Trask was asked whether or not Saturday's game was one of his best, statistically. Even though it was absolutely his best statistical performance of his career thus far, he didn't seem too phased by the praise and understands he has more room to grow.
"Statistically, I mean it was but there’s still a few things that I want to get cleaned up," he said. "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.”
It hasn't been too big for the redshirt senior, and now he gets to go home this Saturday and attempt to continue his impressive start to the season against South Carolina.
