Trask proving he belongs at UF with strong spring camp performance
Houston Baptist - that is the FCS school that freshman quarterback Kyle Trask would probably be attending in 2016 if head coach Jim McElwain hadn't offered him his first FBS scholarship after UF's annual Friday Night Lights camp last summer.
Trask was just an unheralded two-star quarterback in the 2016 class from Manvel (Texas) High - and he wasn’t even the starter at his own high school.
So, why did the Gators offer a high school backup? McElwain says it goes back to Trask's camp performances.
“We saw those things when he kept coming back to camp and putting him in situations," McElwain said. "That’s the beauty of getting guys to camp because you’re able to kind of see how they react in different environments. He’s a guy that answered all the questions.”
D’Eriq King was the guy starting in front of Trask at Manvel High. King’s offers were from schools like Clemson and Michigan, but he decided to take his talents to Houston to play for the Cougars. At Manvel, the coaching staff ran a spread offense that incorporated plenty of read-option plays, something that suited King's strengths but not Trask's.
However, in Florida’s eye it saw something more than just a backup in the 6-foot-4, 227-pound Trask.
So far this spring, Trask has looked like a strong pickup for the Gators. Although he still has plenty of room to grow, Trask has often out-performed the likes of fellow early enrollee Feleipe Franks and sometimes even graduate transfer Austin Appleby at many practices.
“There’s a reason we took him,” UF tight ends coach/special teams coordinator Greg Nord said. “We had the advantage of seeing more than just him being a backup in high school. A lot of times, when you’re coaching a team that a guy who was at his high school, he ran an offense that maybe wasn’t as conducive to him playing quarterback.”
Tight end DeAndre Goolsby also complemented the freshman signal-caller and his strong arm. When asked about Trask on Monday, cornerback Jalen Tabor perhaps delivered the most glowing praise that the freshman quarterback has seen from a teammate this spring.
"I love Trask," Tabor said. "Pretty ball, he has the prettiest ball. I feel like if he can take the next step and become a leader. It's different when you get under the live bullets in the SEC. Guys like Dante Fowler, Jarvis Jones coming after you. Can you still step up in the pocket and deliver a ball to help your team win?
"That's the only question I have for him, but as far as his like just the eye test, the kid is big and he can throw. I tried to bait him into one play in the scrimmage and he baited me. He threw it right over my head. I’m like, ‘Oh, I thought I had it,’ but he put it right on a dime. He can definitely drop dimes.”
Although Luke Del Rio currently looks like the favorite in the quarterback battle to eventually win the starting job, Trask has made it a pretty competitive race so far between he, Appleby and Franks. While Appleby's experience playing at the collegiate level makes him right now the likeliest pick to possibly back up Del Rio, were he not to win the starting job, the argument can be made that Trask has been the sharpest of that trio up to this point this spring.
Both McElwain and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Doug Nussmeier have been around some special quarterbacks at the college ranks. They know what tools to look out for when searching for prospects.
Clearly, something clicked when looking at Trask.
“I say this about that guy – every time you tried to say, ‘Well, I’m not sure,’ he did something that said you are sure," Nussmeier said. "If you look at his production when he played, if you just turned on the film when he played in the games and looked at his production, it’s pretty darn good now.”
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