Gators' Dan Mullen Talks QB Kyle Trask, 'Graduate Level' Progression

As the Gators head into their final season with quarterback Kyle Trask leading the way, the expectations for his play has clearly risen.

The Gators will be entering the final season with redshirt senior quarterback Kyle Trask at the helm, and with that will come a natural progression of expectations and wanted results.

Now, after a year under his belt of being the team's starting quarterback, Trask has risen the expectations in his own right, with Gators head coach Dan Mullen saying what he's been teaching Trask, and where the quarterback is in his development is at "graduate level," something fans and the team would hope for as their quarterback will have an opportunity to take his team to the College Football Playoffs.

Last season, Trask shocked the world with an impressive showing, completing 237 out of 354 of his passes for 25 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. It would be his connection with not only his receivers but particularly with tight end Kyle Pitts that would propel the team to multiple victories on the season, including a New Years Six Bowl game victory in the Orange Bowl.

Now, it appears that Trask is ready to continue his development, but learning the subtle intricacies to being a collegiate-level passer.

“You know one of the great things is that we’re on kind of graduate-level stuff with Kyle (Trask) right now," Mullen told reporters on Thursday via Zoom video conference. "I mean he understands the offense and the reads and all of that. It’s how fast he’s getting to everything, the ability to check and change plays. The ability to extend the game plan where he has automatics that he can get us to, ‘Hey, we like this play against this look’.

"I don’t love to get into three-way or four-way, or automatic checks and all of that stuff, it’s real graduate-level stuff in playing the position and now he’s managing and leading everybody on the field. That’s a lot of the stuff we’re working on right now with him because I think with him understanding the offense, he knows where we want to go with the ball, what we’re trying to do on each play, and why we’re trying to do it."

Creating an atmosphere in which the team knows they can rely on the guy at quarterback will allow the Gators to play with much more confidence. Having a player in which you know will be able to lead the offense will simply make other players better, and that starts with Trask.

Mullen, when asked about Trask's mechanics, an issue that has been brought up by observers that need to be corrected, said frankly he's "good," mentioning his accuracy as a key performance indicator of where he is as a quarterback.

"Now we’re just trying to put it all together and let him be that field general out there and let him go.”