GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A Texas-sized reunion and a return to his football roots await Florida quarterback Kyle Trask during next week’s Cotton Bowl.
Trask, a native of the Houston area, expects a caravan to make the trip toward Dallas for a bowl game his late grandfather Orville played in with Rice University following the 1953 season.
“Any time I have a game that is close to Texas or in Texas I usually have a lot of family come, which is cool,” Trask said Tuesday. “I don’t know an exact number, but I’m sure it’ll be probably over 20 people.”
The 22-year-old was fuzzier on the details of Orville Trask’s appearance in one of college football’s oldest bowls and the dream game of anyone growing up in the region during his era.
Rice won the 1954 matchup against Alabama, 28-6, but the game is best known for Crimson Tide fullback Tommy Lewis sprinting off the bench, helmetless, to tackle Rice running back Dicky Moegle running free for a touchdown.
Earlier, Orville’s Owls opened the season with a 20-16 win against Florida, a fact unknown to Kyle Trask. Trask found interesting the connections to Alabama — last week’s SEC title game foe — and the Gators, but now aims to make his own history.
Trask’s next chance with the No. 7 Gators (8-3), and likely his last, will arrive Wednesday against No. 6 Oklahoma (8-2) at 8 p.m. in Arlington’s AT&T Stadium. UF star tight end Kyle Pitts announced Sunday he will sit out the game, and coach Dan Mullen said he expects “one or two more but I’ll let those guys handle that, that’s on them.”
Trask said Tuesday he is on track to play in the Cotton Bowl, but he is not ready to say whether he might pursue a final season of eligibility at UF through an NCAA rule allowing one more year for all current athletes due to the pandemic.
“I’ll make that decision after the season’s over, but yeah I’m most likely 100 percent playing in the bowl game,” Trask said.
Trask hoped to be among the finalists announced Thursday night for the Heisman Trophy, the game’s top individual award.
“It would mean everything,” he said. “It’s such an honor. Just to have been in the conversation this whole season has been an honor.”
Once a front-runner for the Heisman, Trask’s selection as a finalist looks a lot less certain following back-to-back losses by the Gators.
On Tuesday, the Gators’ record-setting quarterback was named the All-SEC coaches second team, leading Mullen to question his peers’ rationale.
Trask has 11 more touchdowns and nearly 400 more yards than first-team choice Mac Jones of Alabama, whose top-ranked Crimson Tide edged Trask’s Gators 52-46 during Saturday’s SEC title game.
“I guess that’s what people think of him,” Mullen said of his SEC coaching peers. "But I think he’s well deserving.”
A snub by Heisman voters would make even less sense to Mullen.
“Hard to say anybody’s meant more to their team than Kyle Trask has to our team this year,” Mullen said. “So I don’t know. I don’t know what criteria people are looking for. If the Heisman Trophy is looking for somebody that is the best player that means the most to their team, most outstanding player in college football, I guess the guy that I think has a double-digit, I mean, double-digit lead in touchdown passes — double digit. And to do it all against SEC opponents.
“But I don’t know, I don’t have a vote for any of those awards.”
Trask set a school record with 43 touchdowns passes and 4,125 passing yards. Even in losses to LSU and Alabama, he passed for 882 yards, six touchdowns and ran for three scores.
The redshirt senior’s three first-half turnovers against LSU put the Gators in a hole, but three straight completions by Trask during the final seconds positioned UF for a 51-yard field goal that sailed left with a chance to send a 37-34 game to overtime.
“It was sad to see Kyle Trask get second team,” said sophomore cornerback Kaiir Elam, a first-team selection. “I don’t understand that.”
UF offensive coordinator Brian Johnson was a freshman backup to Alex Smith at Utah when he was a finalist for the 2004 Heisman. Johnson later coached Dak Prescott at Mississippi State when he was in the Heisman conversation in 2014
Johnson believes Trask has put together the best 2020 season of any college quarterback.
Those who think otherwise, Johnson said, “I would tell them that I have some oceanfront property in Idaho to sell.”
He continued, “What Kyle has done this season is absolutely remarkable. The amount of information that we put on him and his ability to play at a really consistent level throughout the course of a season has been exceptional. Obviously, we have nothing to do with how people vote or what kind of accolades you get, but from my perspective, he’s been nothing short of amazing all season long.”
Trask often carried a Gators’ offense averaging 41.2 points despite UF’s running game failing to generate even 100 yards during five games for the Gators.
When star tight end Kyle Pitts suffered a concussion and broken nose Nov. 7 against Georgia, UF’s offense was not as dynamic. Yet Trask threw five touchdowns to tight ends during Pitts’ two-game absence.
“I think that he’s the best quarterback in the nation, that’s just me, hands-downs since the first day I was throwing with him during the summer,” said UF receiver Justin Shorter, a Penn State transfer. “Just seeing that [All-SEC], I was kind of confused. It’s just crazy. I don’t know how that works.
“But I think he’s the best quarterback in all of college football.”
