A lighter, improved Kyle Trask returned to campus for fall camp this season.
After spending quarantine back at home in Manvel, Texas, training with his high school teammate and current Miami quarterback D’Eriq King, losing 13 pounds and watching all of last season’s tape, Trask returned to Gainesville ready for whatever this season may hold.
“He’s done a tremendous job so far,” quarterback coach Brian Johnson said of Trask’s fall camp performance. “Just in terms of taking everything to the next level from a leadership standpoint, from a football standpoint.”
Despite attempts by the COVID-19 pandemic to derail the progress Trask made in the starting roll for the Gators last season, he’s determined to build off the momentum generated by the team’s 11-2 record in 2019, including their Orange Bowl win over the University of Virginia.
“In the quarterback position, experience is a huge thing, so just to have that, almost that whole season under my belt going into this 2020 season, I feel obviously a lot more confident about this year than I did last year. And that's in all faces of the game,” Trask said.
This new confidence bled its way off of the field and into other facets of Trask’s life as well. Although admittedly not very active on social media, there are two key issues he’s broken his Twitter silence to bring attention to: COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter.
“You discuss these kinds of things with your teammates, and it kind of hurts you inside just to hear their stories and the things they've had to go through,” Trask said. “So I felt it was my part as one of the leaders on the team to stand with them and just support anything that they're trying to do in terms of that."
Aside from Trask’s on- and off-the-field growth, newcomers and veterans, like wide receivers Xzavier Henderson and Jacob Copeland, have shown great promise during fall camp.
“He can definitely turn his wheel, that’s for sure,” Trask said about Henderson’s speed.
Tight end Kyle Pitts had glowing remarks for Florida’s receiving core as well. He said Henderson, redshirt freshman Trent Whittemore and Copeland have all shown promise over the last few weeks.
Overall, Pitts believes the Gators have seen improvement across the offensive line.
“They’ve made tremendous strides,” Pitts said. “They now have chemistry I would say, so things look a little more in sync from last year. I feel like we’re better up front.”
Quarterback Kyle Trask at last season's Homecoming game against Auburn. Trask is entering the 2020 campaign with a year of collegiate play under his belt and more confidence in his leadership position.
Payton is a sophomore journalism major from Jacksonville, Florida. She is The Alligator's Spring 2021 digital managing editor. Her previous roles include softball beat writer, football beat writer and online sports editor.
